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United States4990 Posts
About a month ago, I asked people about their opinions of doing lasik and any negative experiences they had doing it. Well, I went ahead and had lasik this past wednesday (the day before christmas eve, for those keeping track), and I figured I'd post about my experience of it.
As part of the leadup process, I had my first eligibility consultation (free--basically they just check that at a first glance I seem to be a candidate for lasik, meaning my vision is within the right range (they correct from some number I don't remember to -10, apparently--my perscription was roughly -4.5 I believe), astigmatism within certain range, no weird problems, large enough cornea, etc. I didn't expect any problems with that, and All my stuff checked out within the right range, with good eye health and really minor astigmatism. This appointment was back at the end of last month.
On tuesday, the day before surgery, I had a pre-op appointment. The appointment consisted of detailed checking of my corneal shape, eye health, perscription, etc. I had my eyes dilated and some focus paralyzing thing given; I actually had my mom give me a ride to work afterwards, since I didn't feel like sitting around until I could see properly to drive  . The doctor also answered any specific questions about the surgery and described what would happen. Most of my questions were to do with the after-care, since it seemed important to me not to have the surgery go fine and then a week later be blind! I also had to fill out some forms giving consent, acknowledging that it's a voluntary and non-medically-necessitated surgery (I actually had to literally copy with a pen the statements saying this, not just sign it... lol)
On the day of the surgery itself, I showed up at 2 PM (which was the appointment time) and was prepared for it. Basically this involved them giving me some various eye drops to apply for after the surgery (I got some in advance from the pharmacy, but some they just give on the day of surgery instead), and a mild sedative (you're awake and totally conscious for the surgery, but they use a mild sedative for whatever reason). They also put some anaesthetic drops in my eyes.
After that, they took me into the first operating room. Lasik consists of two phases: cutting a flap in the eye to reach the cornea, and then doing the actual operation on the cornea to improve vision. I paid for top of the line lasik all around, so my lasik was bladeless. It's supposed to reduce chances of complications, and frankly seems a lot less icky to me than some dude cutting my eye with a blade :S. In a mere matter of seconds, he put some doohicky on my eye (obviously I could not see this very well given my position, so I don't really know what it looked like), which ended up blocking out my vision, and then he cut the flap in the eye. This was pretty damn psychedelic, because whatever the doohicky was, it blocked off blood flow or some such, and the eye started making up weird colors to see after the initial blackness (or something like this--I'm not a doctor...). Anyway, I saw a whole bunch of crazy colors and stuff, reminding me of old bad music videos and the like.
After he did this, I stood up (throughout all this they were kind of worried I'd topple over or something due to the sedative, but it wasn't too bad, perhaps because I'm a pretty big guy, so I just walked around on my own power) and walked to the next room, where they did the 'actual' lasik (the vision correction part).
I lay down, and then he flipped back the flap created in the previous part. Now, this totally fucks up vision, such that I couldn't really see anything. There were 3 lights above me, with 2 red lights on the outside, and a green light on the inside. Obviously since I'm conscious and my eye can move, they need my eye in a certain place to do the surgery itself, rather than wandering all over the place. The green light was what I was supposed to focus on, although the machine itself tracks the eye such that if I look away a bit, which apparently actually happens involuntarily when we stare at things anyway, it does no harm. My vision was like -20 or something, because these precise little lights basically looked totally blurred and filled my vision as if I couldn't see mere inches from my face. Each eye took just a few seconds to do. He then said the surgery was done, and I was good to go. They gave me some sunglasses (which I am supposed to wear whenever I'm outside, and all day, including inside, the first day), final preparatory-to-go stuff, and I walked out of there.
Clearly, I did not drive myself, since not only could I not see too well (although still much better than my previous vision without glasses), but it would be illegal due to having had a sedative.
The first day (the day of surgery) was pretty boring, since I was supposed to just nap, rest my eyes, etc. I listened to part of an audiobook (one of the Indiana Jones ones) and slept, as well as ate a bit.
The next day, and days after that, have been basically normal days from the point of what I could do. The only real restrictions are that when I go outside I've had to have sunglasses on, every couple hours I have to put eye drops in my eyes (there are a couple different types), and obviously I'm not supposed to get stuff in them (hands, water when showering, etc.) For the first week or so, I have to wear these horrifically annoying eye shields while I sleep (basically, they prevent my eyes from being hit while sleeping, and I can understand the need, but they're annoying to sleep with, since I don't sleep on my back ever)
My vision is 20/20 (actually a bit better) now, which is really awesome. I easily re-took the driver's license vision test yesterday, and thus I no longer need corrective lenses while driving.
I totally recommend the surgery to anyone who has the moey and a desire to not need corrective lenses.
Hopefully there aren't too many errors in this post, since I didn't proofread it at all :D
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nice job man! how much did it cost all up? did he say how long it lasts for?
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omg i was considering getting lasik (slightly nearsighted) but all those details about cutting up your eye while fully conscious have totally turned me off lol.
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On December 28 2009 14:08 lazz wrote:
omg i was considering getting lasik (slightly nearsighted) but all those details about cutting up your eye while fully conscious have totally turned me off lol.
im pretty sure LASEK doesn't use a blade. what's your grade?
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Glad you had a good experience, I noticed you mentioned you got top of the line surgery and assumingly not some 1000$/eye clinic ghettoness. How much was your treatment per eye if you don't mind me asking?
Can't wait to get my lasik :D
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United States4990 Posts
On December 28 2009 14:06 JohnColtrane wrote:
nice job man! how much did it cost all up? did he say how long it lasts for?
I'll need reading glasses when I'm ~40. Short of my vision getting worse again for some reason (my vision hasn't really changed for several years), I shouldn't need glasses until then.
It cost $4000.
On December 28 2009 14:08 lazz wrote:
omg i was considering getting lasik (slightly nearsighted) but all those details about cutting up your eye while fully conscious have totally turned me off lol.
It's a matter of seconds, and it doesn't hurt at all. If you didn't know they were using a laser to cut your eye (it's not some guy with a scalpel), you couldn't at all tell that's what they're doing. The only real sensation is some pressure on your eye.
On December 28 2009 14:23 PanoRaMa wrote:
Glad you had a good experience, I noticed you mentioned you got top of the line surgery and assumingly not some 1000$/eye clinic ghettoness. How much was your treatment per eye if you don't mind me asking?
Can't wait to get my lasik :D
$2100 per eye, minus $100 per eye since they give $100 per eye discount due to where I work. If you only get one eye, I think it's roughly $2500 according to how much some other dude was paying for only one eye at the same time I was having mine done.
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Too bad it didn't end FBH's slump...
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well alot of 40 year olds need glasses for reading despite having perfect eyes for distance, so thats fine :D
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United States4990 Posts
On December 28 2009 14:27 JohnColtrane wrote:
well alot of 40 year olds need glasses for reading despite having perfect eyes for distance, so thats fine :D
Yeah. Perhaps I didn't communicate it clearly, but the glasses thing is just standard, unrelated to the fact that I had lasik  . Basically it should function as if my vision was never bad in the first place.
I provided 40 as a number because that's roughly the age people start using them, from what I've heard (I'm 23).
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ewww scary. I have a soft stomach, i'll get one in about 7 years though because my vision is -8.2 and getting worse. Gotta wait till my mid twenties.
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United States4990 Posts
On December 28 2009 14:31 decafchicken wrote:
haha now you're cut too
Yeah, but I don't have to abstain for months like you
On December 28 2009 14:43 StorrZerg wrote:how much moey does it cost? + Show Spoiler +just a small typo great read btw
I'm assuming moey = money (not sure why you edited in the spoiler rather than just fixing it ;O)
2k per eye is how much I paid. You can go cheaper by forgoing some of the various technologies, and I have no idea how much it costs in other countries. Other surgeons may be cheaper, dunno. The doctor I had it with came highly recommended to me by other people who had the procedure done in the past.
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that sounds so terribly scary! omfg maybe i'm just a bitch, but i had to stop reading when you were writing about cutting a flap into your eye.. i totally want to get this, but maybe i'm just too much of a bitch? =\
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Sounds scary though if you're getting blades in your eyes and shit and you can actually see it.
This was pretty damn psychedelic, because whatever the doohicky was, it blocked off blood flow or some such, and the eye started making up weird colors to see after the initial blackness (or something like this--I'm not a doctor...).
It's actually your brain, your cerebellum if I'm not mistaken, that makes up the colors to make up for the lack of sight. Your eye just relays information.
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Tell us in a few month if there are any complications. Did the doc tell you possible problems afterwards? I've heard anecdotal evidence of 1) vision getting worse after awhile and 2) chronic dry eyes.
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United States4990 Posts
On December 28 2009 14:57 lac29 wrote:
Tell us in a few month if there are any complications. Did the doc tell you possible problems afterwards? I've heard anecdotal evidence of 1) vision getting worse after awhile and 2) chronic dry eyes.
Well, vision in general gets worse as you age, such as needing reading glasses I'm not aware of it supposed to get worse after lasik at an accelerated rate if everything is done correctly. With regards to chronic dry eyes: for 3-6 months or so I have to apply drops to my eyes to help alleviate this. Additionally, I had to change my diet to include a ton of flax oil, which helps with the generation of tears.
e: by "a ton" I mean 8000 mg per day. They actually recommend 4000 mg of fish oil and 4000 mg of flax oil, but since I'm a vegetarian they said doubling the flax instead is ok.
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United States10821 Posts
Ugh, I hate those eye shield things. They seriously are so annoying when trying to sleep. I also had problems trying to get into a comfortable sleeping position with them on. -_-
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and it can fix people people with -10? that's really bad eyesight haha
i havent had a check for a year but my eyes are pretty good. -0.25 in the left and about -1.25 to -1.5 in the right, so i dont need glasses for much except maybe really small font in a lecture theatre.
if it gets much worse im considering just getting my right eye lasered. although its minor, it still affects vision to the point id have to wear aids
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Are you experiencing any side effects? Like dry eyes, cannot look into bright lights, etc.?
Also what are the long term effects of lasik? Will there be any adverse effects later on in life? (Assuming you asked these questions before and know the answers)
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WCS
