Halx

Has anyone ever gone into elective surgery? Eye surgery, plastic surgery, experimental? Tell us your story.

I'm about to get laser eye surgery, and I'm pretty excited. I'm not nervous or scared, but I do realize that there are risks and inconveniences. Its all coming out of my pocket, so I had to wait for my year end bonus. I'm just remaining positive overall. I can't let worrying about being that unfortunate 1% of people who end up worse off totally derail this. I know I have a long life ahead of me, but I have been wanting this for a decade.

I'm not eligible for that surgery where you wake up the next day and see perfectly; I have to do the one that is less invasive, but takes longer to recover. A co-worker who has had it tells me she loves it... so I am optimistic. I just have to wait longer for my results.

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Derwood

i have not had elective surgery. i have some thoughts about it (relating to insurance), but I don't want to derail the thread

KellyC

I did it. I've been waiting ever since high school to do it.

I hated wearing glasses. I couldn't play contact sport like basketball without worrying some guy will accidentally brush my face and knock my glasses off, or swim, or eat noodles without fogging the glasses and many other practical reasons. Contacts are a real pain because I couldn't get used to the stuffy feeling in my eyes. And partly because I'm vain.

I originally planned it to be a birthday present for myself. I first consulted two doctors, one told me she'd do it, the other told me to come back in one year due to my borderline-thin cornea I decided to listen to the latter's advice. Well I couldn't wait so I consulted another doctor five months later. This guy seems very reputable so I decided to go with him. In retrospect, it was a pretty big mistake to rush things through because I felt like I didn't do enough research or consult with enough doctors to put my eyes on the line.

The surgery went well. I didn't see things clearly right away but there's definite immediate improvement. The doctor says it takes up six months for my eyes to fully recover but I don't detect any difference after one month.

It's been almost a year and a half now and my eyes are fine. No complications whatsoever and I'm very glad I did it.

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Willravel

I've only had the life threatened kind of surgery, but if I had eye issues I probably would get them laser beamed. Just be careful, one of the side effects is laser vision!

Halx

One can only hope for that, Will.

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thingstodo

My wife had her eyes done several years ago. Fortunately, it was the type where you can see better immediately. She was happy as hell. Previously she had to grab her glasses just to get up in the morning. Not any more!!

Her advice would be to use any drops they give you just the way they tell you to. That is the key thing to make eye surgery a success after the surgeon is done.

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Jinn

Laforge was blind, his visor was for seeing.

I think perhaps you're thinking of X-Men's cyclops?

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Willravel

... ...
Um, yeah, that's the joke.

Thanks!

ironman

I had laser eye surgery 3 years ago as my wife's Christmas gift and I think is the best gift I've EVER received. It took like 3 days 'till I stopped seeing blurry and 3 months for my vision to become perfect, during that time I experienced blurry episodes once or twice a day for a few seconds, but after that, 20/20 baby!!!

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highthief

Had the Laser-eye thing done - nothing to it, but it's not like I got carved open or anything, nor was sedation involved.

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Shaindra

Lasik...best thing I ever did. The other procedure has a longer recovery time, but I'm told people are just as happy with the results.

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clavus

Not to be a killjoy here, but my mom had the laser eye surgery and she loves it BUT it fucked up her night vision. Driving at night is not a good idea for her. headlights look like they have halos around them - she describes it as looking through a wet windshield.

If she were a professional pilot, it would have ended her career.

Ever since my "footgina" staph infection, I have been frightened of all surgery. The potential for ugly consequences is always there.

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Milnoc

I'd rather avoid laser eye surgery altogether because only one of my eyes works properly. The other eye has no central vision; just peripheral vision. So if something were to go horribly wrong in the good eye, I'd become legally blind!

I'll stick with glasses, thank you very much.

Tophat665

I've had one friend go from pretty thick glasses to 20/20 with Lasik.

Mrs. Hat had her bosoms reinflated and her tummy tightened after nursing two kids and losing 200 lbs to magically MILFlicious effect. She says she's going for the facelift in a couple of years as she's starting to get some wattles (again, from losing so much weight - they bother her - I don't mind enough to suggest surgery, but if she's gung ho on it I am right behind her).

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