Anybody got LASIK?
 

I'm almost 28 and I've decided to get LASIK. My consultation is in a couple of weeks. The greatest concern is the flap that can dislocate easily even years after surgery. I play volleyball, so there is a risk the ball can smash my face and impact my eyes.

However, I'm tired of wearing contacts and glasses because it hinders my depth perception and field of view. Plus, my contacts dry easily so everything gets "cloudy" when I look up and prepare for a spike. :mad:

[nervous]

I have never done it persoanlly, but one of my better friends had it done (about 6 months ago) and has had zero regrets / complaints.

had it done about 5 yrs ago. Well worth it. My wife had it done too. No more lens's,yeah!!!!

Have you looked into getting PRK instead? It depends on your personal issues with your eyes which one is better. I am planning on getting laser surgery myself cause I am tired of wearing Glasses and contacts are too much of a hassle to me to even bother with...

I just wish the AF would cover it so I don't have to out of pocket. It ain't cheap :ugh2:

Had it done last year and haven't looked back since. Well worth the expense :tup:

I would love to be able to do this but its not in the funds right now, however I have heard of one horror story where they had to redo the guys eyes twice and they can only do the surgery like 3 or 4 times total before they start damaging the eye instead of fixing it which is kind of scary, but I am sure it is a rogue case and not the norm.

Yeah I'm pretty sure that there is a 99.5% successful improovement rate I believe?

The doctor I get my contacts from said something about to get LASIK, your eyes can't change for a year. Any truth to that?

You shouldnt get the surgery before your 18-21 because your eyes are still continuing to grow. They don't reccomend people getting it because if you get it, and your eyes keep growing, it may cause a tear in the muscle of your eye, or it will still need external remedies...

I had it done back in 2002.....havent seen an eye doctor since and havent had any issues. I was told as time goes by I will eventually need adjustments and reading glasses but no prescription glasses. Hopefully thats true.

I turned 21 in April :( I guess I'll have to stick with contacts alil while longer.

Yeah they told me that eventually your vision will naturally deteriorate just like if you'd never had it done. But I don't mind reading glasses with a small perscription if I'm reading. But if I'm that old I won't care at that point lol.


If your doctor feels your good to go thats all you need. Its when you have like Teenagers who don't wanna wear glasses in their prom pics and so on you gotta worry about it...

Got it done in '98, Lasik specifically. No regrets. I remember they say you got to be careful with the flap issue. You can't swim (open your eyes underwater) or anything that requires that your eyeballs get some 'extreme' exposure. After about 1 year your flap should heal or "glue" itself back on.

I'm real happy with it, but wish it'd last for the rest of my life. They said in your 40's and older, it'll deteriorate gradually...That's life. But I haven't experienced any worsening thus far. :happydance:

Oh yeah, there is an age frame of when you can get this operation done I hope you know?

I had it done a year and a half ago.

Life without lenses has been amazing. I do wear sunglasses, goggles or clear lens glasses when doing activities that call for it (riding motorcyles, atv's, etc).

i'm 21 and i wear contacts. i've been thinking about doing this but i still need a lot of info. about it. whats the age frame you need to be in to get this operation done?

Thats why I was saying look into PRK. Photo-Refractive Karectomy I think it is... But don't quote me. It doesn't have the issues involved with the after LASIK treatment.

I just wanna be able to buy a pair of oakleys, and not have to pay 2-3x as much for perscription lenses, or have to fumble back and forth between glasses/sunglasses.

I believe it's in your early 20's, perfect for you. You should hit up a Lasik website and read FAQ. After a certain age they don't recommend it.

Thanks for the responses!

I wish I had mine done a bit sooner since my vision hasn't changed in the last 10 years or so. Vision deteriorating as I get in the later years is to be expected even with standard single vision glasses.

The biggest concern is the flaps since I play volleyball, and there is a greater chance something will happen if the ball hits me in the face! I have lots of vision issues playing volleyball, which is one of the reasons why I decided to get vision corrective surgery. With glasses, my FOV is limited. With contacts, my eyes were constantly drying and turning red. So with volleyball, my vision gets cloudy when I get ready to spike the ball... and miss.

So for those who had LASIK, did you guys have trouble with your eyes if you rub your eyes from itchiness, accidentally got smacked in the face (i.e., playing ball), etc.?

I have to admit, I was paranoid about rubbing my eyes for months afterwards, but I trained myself not to do it.
You sleep with goggles on for the first night and have to apply loads of eye drops for a few weeks afterwards.

I haven't been hit in the eye with a ball or anything, so I can't comment on the flap being fragile, but you'll be suprised how much more proctective of them you become.

I'm supposed to wear glasses but don't. I was prescribed glasses back in 99, but I wore them for a week and stopped because I looked like Bill Gates. Been without them ever since. But now I'm thinking about getting Lasik... I have a hard time putting anything in my eyes. Never done contacts because I can't even get eye drops in my eyes.... I squint while swimming. LOL So the idea of LASIK using a blade to slice my eyes really isn't appealing.

But what I want to know is how people's night vision is after Lasik. Any halos? I'm near sided... How's your vision while driving?

Does it hurt at all during the Lasik surgery?

They don't use a blade anymore, the flap is also cut with a laser, I was told that this means they get a much more precise cut and also eliminates the chances of getting 'halos' when driving at night - I can vouch for that and say I did initially get them for maybe a month after the surgery, but they cleared up and my night driving is fine now.

A friend of mine got this done about 4 months ago. Everything went great and he was back to work a day later and fully able to see in a week.

Also just a side note he is a post man.

They use drops to numb your eyes, also they gave me a valium to relax me during the surgery. I couldn't feel anything on the front of my eyes, but, they use a kind of suction thing to stop your eye moving when they cut the flap, and I will say, that was an uncomfortable feeling, kind of like someone pushing their thumb into your eye. It was all done in 20 seconds (per eye). The laser that does the correction was totally painless.

LoL Yeah I guess that wouldn't be cool for a Porn Engineer... :tup:

I just have contacts and wear oakleys.:tup:

Yeah, Contacts are too much of a hassle for me =( I'm waiting till my Tax Return, or re-enlistment bonus and then I'm getting it done. I'll probably be getting PRK.

I remember when I had mine done, the cut on your eyeball is so quick, at worse, it felt like when you pull your hangnail off instantly. It stings, but it's not excruciating.

And the whole process takes about a minute once they map your eye...

:iagree: I still remember my times.....right eye = 1 minute 20 seconds left eye = 52 seconds

I do remember having "halos" for awhile afterwards. Actually, right after it was over they asked me to look at the clock in the office (which of course was strategically placed so you didn't have to lift your head) and I could actually tell the time. Fuzzy, yes....but I could! And I had astigmetism (spelling?) so that wasn't a factor, either. :tup:

Digitonium,

Im an optometrist, and ure dilemma's a pretty common one these days - I get a couple of patients every day enquiring about it.

XwChrisxW mentioned PRK - if sports are ure main concern its a good alternative as there is no corneal flap created during surgery. Downsides however is that post-op comfort is quite worse than LASIK in the first 24 hours and recovery time is also longer. It also doesnt mean you can have volleyballs smashing into your eyes every weekend, as you can still get complications due to the thinner cornea. FOV should be quite good postop but u may still get the intermittant cloudy vision during ure games as dry eyes is a very common complication.

As for vision we do expect the majority of people to get glare/flare, and as I said dry eye issues postop as the corneal stromal nerves are cut during the creation of the flap in LASIK or lasered off in PRK. If you have big pupils ure going to find night vision driving has a lot of glare after surgery, so thats another consideration esp with the bright xenons our Z's have.

Another thing is as we hit 40-45 you'll need reading specs, which the LASIK doesnt address. Not a big issue but some people are unaware and believe LASIK means no specs for life - alas we're not there yet.

That being said LASIK has improved dramatically over the last 4-5 years, and with the wavefront technology and intralase (cutting flap with laser) most people are very happy with surgery and postop complications are much rarer now. So although the old horror stories of dislocating corneal flaps still can happen these days its much less likely - I havent seen any in the last 2-3 years, my colleague saw one recently but thats because the patient was an idiot and rubbed his eyes like crazy on the first week postop :mad:

Good luck with your research

Ha you beat me to my post... ninja edit.

Holy moly times have changed! I thought it was 5-15min. per eye. No wonder people ended up getting both eyes done.

My biggest concern is rubbing of the eye and playing sports. I guess there's this huge risk of someone spiking the ball into my face and dislocating the flap on my eyes... big time paranoia. Ah so rubbing of the eyes definitely needs to be avoided like common sense. I definitely have dry eye issues with contacts, so I am a bit worried if it gets worse for life after the surgery.

If I remember right, they gave me two different drops that I had to use twice (or maybe three) times a day for five days. After that, my eye doctor saw me once a month for about 6 months straight. And that was all she wrote......been doing well ever since.

Awesome... I can only imagine what HD and gaming in HD is like without glasses and contacts (sans glare, reflection, and dryness lawl). ;-)

Looking into LASIK myself, though I'm quite scared of the LOOOOONG time consequences.

^such as?

I'm 30 and had the PRK surgery done earlier this year, although I had incredibly rare complications, I am very pleased with the results and would recommend it assuming you have a high pain tolerance.


I would suggest PRK if you are concerned with impact occuring to your eye.
I considered Lasik but when I told my surgeon that I fight amateur MMA he said Lasik wasn't a feasable option due to the repeated impact so I should opt for PRK, there is zero chance of complications due to impact because there is no flap created when PRK is performed.

The downside is the surgery recovery time with PRK is about a week as opposed to 48 hours with Lasik and the recovery is incredibly painful as opposed to virtually painless with Lasik.

As mentioned previously I had complications but that is due to human negligence. When you get PRK done, there are contact lenses placed in your eye which act as a shield to protect the eye and allow healing to occur underneath. After a week they are removed, sadly my doctors assistant is an incompetent retard and after numbing my eyes ripped both contact lenses out and didn't notice the significant eye tissue was attached to each lens because she didn't bother to lubricate my eyes.

When I went home and the numbing wore off 3 hours later I felt like I had been stabbed in each eyeball and of course the clinic was now closed. It was one of the longest most painful nights of my life and when I went to the clinic the next morning the receptionist had me in with the doctor within 60seconds of seeing how pissed off I was.

The doctor apologized numerous times about his assistant but realistically they have you sign a stack of legal sheets so unless your vision is actually damaged you have to get over it. A week later my eyes finally healed properly and have been perfect ever since.

wife had hers done 5-6 years ago. loves it no issues. both eyes.

Well LASIK's still relatively a new technology. I'm just not too confident on LASIK's long term effect after 30-40+ years post operation.