The biggest problem for me was that one of the temporary protective contact lenses that they give you after the surgery came out after a couple of days.
It was the most painful experiences of my life, absolutely execrutiating. A friend rushed me back to the clinic where they replaced it, and put me on some painkillers that pretty much knocked me out for a couple of days.
Other than that, no regrets, my quality of life is much better since I had it done.
It was pretty nightmarish, but I'm still very thankful I received it. 40 minutes of awfulness in exchange for years of not needing glasses/contact lenses was worth it for me.
Also, I'm guessing this issue isn't too uncommon, because during my consultation a week or so before the procedure, they mentioned that they could give a small dose of a benzodiazepine (I think Valium) beforehand to reduce anxiety. When it was time for the procedure, I think they mentioned it again before it started but they said it didn't seem like I needed it, since I don't think I was showing outward signs of anxiety at that point, and I didn't express (or have) any conscious fears. I think there's a good chance that if I had taken it, all of the trouble could've been avoided.
So, if you make those concerns known and request one, I think you'll likely have a much better experience than I did.
I had it, everything went fine. Very unpleasant though. If I were doing that again, I'd take 1 or 2 months between eyes in case something go wrong. All in all, I'm very happy with the surgery.
Well, the first one is they really recommend you don't open your eyes as much as possible for 3-4 days. Coupled with a dark living space and darkest glasses you can as well. It made it so i needed someone helping me do even basic things for those days, and listening to music and podcast kinda gets pretty boring after the first day.
The rest of the days were just blurry vision and general "pain". If you've ever wore contacts for too long, it's the burning sensation you get after you take them off, multiplied.
After those were mostly gone, then I was pretty sensitive to light, and for the later weeks, I had the problem of my vision being way too sharp, so I had trouble focusing.
ah bummer. yeah i had noticable dryness after mine, which went away only after a few months.
contacts are really dangerous, and i feel like this is not emphasized nearly enough. i didn't even realize that as a contacts-wearer until i started to research lasik (i learned that wearing contacts was more likely to end up causing me vision problems than lasik, which is what convinced me to get it).
Had it done 4-5 years ago. Quick and painless, made me wonder why I hadn't done it earlier.
My main concern was developing myopia again after the surgery. Sure enough my eyesight today is poorer than it was immediately after the surgery and I expect it'll continue to get worse over time.
Here's how I found my surgeon: I asked the various doctors I interviewed who'd done their eye surgery. Surprisingly many of them had used the same person - he was generally regarded as the best by the other surgeons. Once I found that out I was willing to pay more and go with the best.
Overall I had an excellent experience, my only regret is not doing it sooner.
That's great to hear, so there still is a chance it might go away. I had more trouble with eye dryness with contacts actually and never really noticed such a problem after the surgery.
I've had laser surgery and it did NOT end up how I expected. I happen to be a special case -- I had only one eye done at a time. After the first eye was done, I had bad vision and it was really bad at night. I remember looking at a turn signal on a traffic light and seeing three copies of the image. My eye doctor told me I had 20/20 vision. Hah. I could easily see that the eye I didn't have surgery with had significantly better vision and more immediate focus with a contact lens that the surgery eye did.
I went back to contact lenses and have never been happier.
I have to take them out and put them in, but I'm way happier with them. (barring that the one eye will never be as good as the eye without surgery)
Look, they're your eyes. Lucky I have some redundancy.
I think many people forget the risks of using contact lenses. The risks of being blind after LASIK are extremly low, the risks of blindness due to an eye infection with lenses is higher (had a source for that, can't find it at the moment, on mobile). Even if you're very careful, you can never avoid to get bacteria on the inside of your lense, with potentially horrible effects.
From personal experience:
My girlfriend had LASIK a few months ago. We went for a slightly more expensive clinic, for the ease of mind. They tested extensively to make sure everything's alright before the surgery. The surgery itself was good. One eye was perfect after 1-2 days, the other one had problems that slowly disappeared. She had 20/20 or better immediately, but one eye stayed a bit blurry for 4-6 weeks, probably as she reacted bad to the steroids after surgery. Turns out she's allergic to steroids which she didn't know before. Luckily the doctors detected high eye pressure very soon, switched to other drops and lowered it. The right eye is still somewhat more sensitive than the left, although that's something she only feels after long days in front of the screen. Driving at night is also harder (but possible), although she'd always had problems with that.
Overall a great experience, for her not thinking about lenses or glasses outweighs any inconveniences she has now. Waking up and being able to see, diving without the fear of saltwater in the eyes, coming home late and not remembering to get lenses out are all amazing benefits for her.
It's still surgery, all surgeries have risks and need healing. Some people can leave the clinic after LASIK and see perfectly, for others healing takes a bit (my gf had to wait nearly a week before she could use a computer for several hours). But if you get it done in your late 20s you have a high chance of not needing glasses for several decades, sth very valuable.
I've had 2 cornea replacements. In 5-10 years I'll need them replaced again, (and repeat until I die or go blind).
I was freaking out for 6 months about the entire operation. The more research that I did, didn't help. Even support groups that had gone through it didn't help. I was terrified.
The first eye:
I took Xanax before the procedure, and they gave me something to calm me down. I was partially aware of life for 10 minutes after I was almost home.
The second eye:
I didn't take Xanax, and partway through the procedure I woke up enough to be able to feel them working in my eye. I was calm and not bothered by it. It felt more like a tugging and pulling (like how your foot associates your shoe-laces being tied); but I was calm. The doctor told me to stop moving my eye. They must have given me something more, because I don't remember anything else.
It's an out-patient procedure.
If you are in a similar position and have ANY questions, I'll talk to you about it.
There will be a hundred people who say: "If I can do it, anybody can!" I don't want to be dismissive about your feelings. I was in horrible shape before the procedure.
But I will be honest with you and talk about it if you want.
Am I one of the lucky ones? I see quite a few negative comments about dry eyes, halos, etc., but for me that really only lasted about a week or two. It healed so quickly that I actually don't even remember now how long it took, exactly. With that said, I made sure to go to a surgeon with a lot of experience, using the latest proven tech. I spent $4500 on it and I feel it was worth every penny.
Absolutely life changing. I have so many bad memories from growing up with the burden of glasses. One of the worst is when my school took us to the beach for a couple of days and I lost my glasses in the sea. For the rest of the trip (3 days) I wasn't able to be active, just sat at the beach, and worst of all I was a burden on my friends. They had to walk me everywhere.
I'm so glad I got it done -- I did PRK -- but in recent years my vision started deteriorating a little bit. It's not too bad though -- I passed the DMV test. I hope it doesn't get worse than that. However, my understanding is that I can do it again if I had too. Anyone here had to do it multiple times?
I used to be the same - 10+ years of waring contacts, I could pop them in and out of an eye without thinking about it in seconds.
But then when I got older I started getting more eye infections and each time you can’t really use contacts as it irritates the eye, so back to glasses.
And then I started reading a bit more about how you can get resistant bacteria infections from contacts (basically guaranteed blindness) I realized I was risking my eyes each and every day anyway, better to bite the bullet and go for a surgery. Risk once and be done with it.
I think the feeling of freedom and one less thing to worry about that I got after the successful LASIK was akin to when I first switched from glasses to contacts. I think its totally worth it.
Do you think it was the fault of antiquated machinery, the doctor, or your eyes that caused the discomfort? How long ago did you do it? I have been doing some research on it after posting my query and it seems like they have improved the process behind it. ymmv though.
I did mine 9 years ago. Best decision of my life. Long term effects:
- I suffered from the night halo effect for two years afterwards, but it went away. Even then, I was happy having done the surgery.
- I am more light-sensitive now than I was. I'm uncomfortable without sunglasses in a bright summer day, something that didn't happen before. From what I can tell I'm still in the normal light sensitivity band.
- My eyes are drier now than before surgery. Again, not something that affects day to day life. I notice it mostly when the eye gets irritated somehow (after swimming in salty water or chlorinated water, after being in smoky environments or being exposed to dust).
Doctors routinely downplay both the halo effect and the reduced tear production. The halo effect is more common in high correction surgeries (my correction was 3 dioptries myopic correction and 4(left) and 6(right) asthigmatic correction, which is rather high).
If you have already reduced tear production, I'd advise against the surgery. From people I know who did LASIK, that's the only relevant downside people talk about. Having permanently dry eyes and permanent need for drops is worse than wearing glasses.
It isn't painful, but I was uncomfortable for a couple weeks. For the first couple of days it seemed I had a grain of sand in the eye (and I had to resist the urge to scratch it out). On the plus side, recovery is very quick. I was out and about on the day after, and working in front of a computer screen three days after.
Ditto, today I'm 1 year to the day after my PRK surgery. The only side effect I had was dry-eye, and man is it a pain. I can't ride my bike without some form of eye protection (sunglasses, or clear goggles). 2-3 times per week I wake up with severely, painfully dry eyes.
All that said, it was worth it and I wouldn't go back. Being able to see without glasses/contacts is a huge improvement on quality of life.
It was the most painful experiences of my life, absolutely execrutiating. A friend rushed me back to the clinic where they replaced it, and put me on some painkillers that pretty much knocked me out for a couple of days.
Other than that, no regrets, my quality of life is much better since I had it done.
reply