Hey four-eyes!... Your experience with LASIK/PRK

me too, sunglasses and the outdoors go hand and hand for sure. i forgot to add that.

 

In the interest of full disclosure, I am 51, had Wavefront, paid for custom Lasik, and did have halos for about 3 weeks. I did rigorously follow the drop regimen, I don't know if it made a difference in the halos or not, but I haven't had them after that time.
--- merged: Feb 7, 2012 1:18 AM ---

Sorry, edited out double posting that occurred due to user impatience...

 

I thought I would post a follow-up:

I had custom Wavefront LASIK on May 4th, 2012 with LasikMD in Winnipeg. I was at the clinic for 4-5 hours, with a second round of pre-operative testing, payment, and a discussion on post-operative care (none of the above with the surgeon). Anesthetic drops were put in approximately 45 minutes before my surgery. My first contact with the surgeon himself was 2 minutes before he began the procedure (questions and risks having been handled by his preoperative team).

Surgery was quick, and I doubt I was under the (laser) knife for more than 10 minutes. I generally have nerves of steel for this kind of thing, so I didn't really have any issues. I do believe that my left I was under-frozen, and I feel the steel and initial cut of the microkeratome; however, this was not traumatic and much less painful than many dental procedures.

My vision was markedly improved over my uncorrected vision immediately; but was still significantly blurry. I could not focus on any type or close up object initially. My eyes did not feel irritated for the next 1.5 hours, due to the residual effect of the anesthetic. When that wore off, I found the pain to feel like small specks of dirt in your eye, or a mild irritation from onion. Certainly bearable, and six hours after my surgery I felt much more comfortable. By the time I went to bed (11 hours post surgery) I was able to focus on type. I had gone out in the evening for shopping (with my protective goggles on... do people stare or what?) and found that I was seeing minor starbursts and double vision on lights. This was definitely disconcerting.

Next morning I noticed my left I was lagging in acuity, with difficulty reading type. My post-op went well. By lunch my left eye had caught up, and seemed to be on par with the right. The optician had indicated I have dry eyes, so should lubricate them more regularly, which has seemed to help with the acuity. However, at no point were my eyes uncomfortably dry. Starbursts and double vision persisted into the evening, but again were minor and appear to be diminishing. If they stay at their current level, I would consider that an acceptable result. A more positive observation: I am not significantly more light sensitive, either indoors or outdoors.

Overall, I found the surgery and the results to be comfortable and well within the risks and results I was willing to accept. I would withhold my recommendation for until my eyes have completely healed, but if the results are the same or better 3/6 months down the road, I would wholeheartedly recommend this to someone who had similar reservations, uncorrected acuity, and risk tolerance that I did.