OK, its official. I’m sick of wearing glasses and seeing like my goggles are full of water. I want lasik surgery. So, acknowledging that slowtwitchers are the final word in all matters, here are my inquires:
What if they screw it up? What is the risk of complications?
What about this problem at high altitude. Michigan climber Lou Kaschike had to abandon his attempt on Everest when he encountered a problem with his vision and had to go down. I’ve already done on 7000 meter mountain (Aconcagua) and want to do others, but I don;t want to risk vision problems at altitude.
Will my eyes continue to get bad or degenerate just becasue of age (I’m 42) even though I had the lasik? Or, does the lasik arrest that process?
The surgery runs from as little as $750 an eye to over $4000. What’s the difference?
Another question to ask at your age is will you have to wear reading glasses. You may be able to get rid of your distance glasses, but you may have to cart reading glasses everywhere, which can be a bigger pain .
Tom, I had it five years ago and it was worth every penny. No complications, and I went from about 20/140 to 20/15 almost overnight. The military now does both types of laser surgery for free (and guys are eating it up) so it has to be good for high altitude and a rough and tumble life. I continued to surf/ski/mountain bike right after my LASIK with no problems. A good LASIK clinic will give you lots of info about the risks/complications and even how to “correct” for loss of close-up focus which you will soon experience (hit me around age 47). My wife even got it after seeing my surgery, despite it being pretty gross for the non-medical type (it wasn’t the sight of it, just the smell of burning eyeball
Get it and you won’t regret it. Won’t be swimming off course anymore and of course the chicks will dig the new intense focus of your baby blues…
They can really mess your vision up if they screw up. Very, very low chance of it happening, but it’s a possibility. Your eyes get really dry too for a while and you get a wierd mask to sleep in. You might have to cur back on your workouts for a little while, but I’m not sure about that.
Your eyes will continue to degenerate, and it will not affect when and if you need reading glasses. You may need to start wearing glass for near sightedness in a few years, but you will be getting worse from being 20 - 20 again instead of getting worse from where you are now.
Everyone that I know that has had it has talked continually about how great it is for a while. The only person that I know that has had it and has lost vision in an eye lost that vision for completely unrelated reasons.
I’ve heard some bad things about LASIK, mainly stuff you talked about.
Here’s my experience:
I had PRK done as part of the trial study that the Army did (my surgery was July 01). PRK is somewhat old technology now (my understanding?) in that they basically scrape off the top layer of cells covering the lens of your eye, use the laser to reshape it, and then let it all heal. It took me about 4 days to be back to seeing normally and off the pain meds. Not an altogether pleasant experience, but I went from 20/200 in both eyes to 20/15 in both eyes. I also haven’t had a single problem since. I did see halos around lights at night (one of the side effects) for a while but they went away. I was told the entire healing process can take up to a year, and it did.
At the time I did it the Army was not letting any Special Ops people get LASIK done, only PRK. The rational was that the ‘flap’ of skin could come loose (in LASIK they made a flap and did the surgery under the flap, PRK the ‘flap’ comes off). Apparently there was concern that if you racked your mellon hard enough, like on a bad jump, you could knock the ‘flap’ loose and screw up your sight.
Anyway…I could not be happier with the surgery. As to the vision degenerating question, I was told that I have what I have for now. If my vision gets worse from the normal effects of aging (less flexibility in the eye) the surgery won’t prevent that, nor will it make it worse. I guess the worse complication would be over-correction. If they do too much you’d go from near-sighted to far-sighted and you’d still be stuck with glasses. A more common problem is under-correction. They don’t do enough, and when you heal they have to do it again.
Sorry to ramble on. My advice is to do as much research as you can into which type you want to have, and DO IT! You won’t regret it. I can’t imagine going back to contacts, glasses, etc.
Tom - considering myself quite handy ( I just installed a new kitchen fawcet) I’d consider doing it myself. So here’s my answers to your question.
I’ve never had a failure at this, not to worry.
I’d be more concerned about halo jumps. Especially if your goggles get fogged up.
Yes you will continue to age with your eyes, but, we can try again in 8 years.
For $4,000 you get a nice Ande’s chocolate on your pillow at night.
Here’s my only serious note. One of my adventure racing partners had it done and his twilight vision is no longer worth a shit. Other than that, he does fairly well.
Tom, I wholeheartedly recommend it for somebody who lives the life of an athlete. However, I would also suggest you don’t go into this thinking you are doing away with your glasses. Well, your current pair you’ll get rid of, but I would encourage you to get a new prescription within a month or two of having the surgery. I realize you don’t hear that advice often, I never have. The great thing about glasses and lasik surgery is that you are effectively becoming a “SuperTom”. PED’s gone safe AND legal, for your eyes! The result is that your brain can now access finer levels of sensory input from the world around you. Blah blah blah, I know. The point is that glasses will always be superior from the vision standpoint, and you’ll be glad you have them when you are appreciating artistic expressions around you. By getting the surgery though, you can do away with them when your absolute best vision is not beneficial, and I’ve found this is the typical situation I’m in. …oh yeah the numbered questions.
I was ready to become a serious musician if I went blind. It’s a low-risk procedure.
No knowledge about this.
Your eyes will continue to degenerate, the lens or cornea (help me out here optho’s) gradually loses elasticity over time and the muscles that pull on it to adjust focus lose their ability to do their job effectively.
I don’t know the difference, I had both of mine done by the same doctor! I paid $3000 about 5 years ago.
Tom, the only issue I see worth your time in investigating is the altitude issue. As far as all other concerns, don’t bother. It is truly life altering if you’re used to wearing glasses or contacts. I had it done over two years ago and its the best thing I’ve ever taken the time to do. If you’re a regular glasses/contacts wearer, you don’t realize how much effort they take until you don’t have to do it anymore.
I can’t say it enough…get some good, experienced opinions on the altitude issue. I know that the military is doing pilots now, so I reckon that many of the horror rumors might be just that. I doubt its going to be a problem, but I’m just an observer.
The issue with eyes degenerating when you’re older is unrelated to the lasik correction. My doctor said that I may find that I need reading glasses later in life, but that is NOT due to or correctable for with surgery. Its simply the aging of the eyeballs. You don’t “accomodate” like you used to. But your far vision will remain good. Roughly, that means you won’t need bifocals, as you will now when your eyes go south. Just reading glasses.
Interesting anecdote about the twilight vision. I’ve found just the opposite with mine. Its better than ever these days. And I don’t have to worry about branches and crap knocking my glasses or contacts askew during twilight infantry raids.
Tom I had the surgery done about 3 weeks ago,and I couldnt be happier. My vision is now 20-15 ,and so far I have had no problems whatsoever. Like any type of surgery there is some risk of complication but from what I understand its very low. As Brian286 said,just make sure you research doctors in your area. You wont be able to swim or workout for about a week so just make sure you dont have the surgery done too close to a race.
I had Lasik 1.5 yrs ago and couldn’t be happier with the results. Eye doctor called me the “poster child for why people have the procedure done.” Barely evidence of the flap even looking through their whiz-bang eye zoomer gizmos.
Detailed answers to most of your questions are available at your eye doctor. Next step would be an appointment to see if you’d be a good candidate. You would leave there with more data than you ever wanted and ample opportunity to ask any & all questions you can muster.
Keep in mind this is an off-season kind of thing that puts a halt to swimming and other efforts that cause one to sweat (i.e., running & biking).
I got my done with The Laser Center (http://www.tlcvision.com/). They have offices all over the country. It was a bit more than some other places, but they have a very good reputation. When messing with my eyes, I decided to pay more in order to give myself the highest possible chance of a positive surgery. Give them a call in order to have your questions answered.
I have truly awful vision and am waiting for the permamnet contact lens surgery to become more mainstream. In the meantime I get along just fine with disposable contact lenses and swedish goggles. Why are your goggles full of water anyways? I though you loved those Seal masks??
I had it done in 99. I was -12 diopters, and went to 20/30. It was an amazing transformation. It took a year to stop grabbing for my glasses when the alarm went off. I paid $3,800 to have doc do it who had taught it around the world. I had one eye undercorrected to delay the reading glasses until late 50’s. The chance for a bad outcome is there, but minimal, and you’ll see it outlined in the surgery conscent. I’d recommend as many eval’s as it takes to know that you made the right decision. Just FYI, this year I’ve had 4 retinal detachments which the surgeon says there’s no known correlation between Lasik and detachments but its too soon to tell.
i had it done almost 2 years ago and was initially quite wary, but study convinced me that it was right for me. i looked around for a doctor i trusted with my eyes for a while. you can look online to find info about candidates. there are some professional organizations for doctors that perform the procedure. i was really glad that i studied up on docs before having it done; the doc i had was excellent. (see more in #4)
they don’t screw up often. if they do, your eyes can be really messed up, but the risk is very low. i guess you have to determine if it’s worth the risk, which it was for me, especially because of my doc’s track record.
i’m in school in the mountains in utah right now and i don’t have any problems. granted, the highest peaks in the rockies aren’t everest, but even at the highest altitudes i can get to around here i haven’t noticed a thing.
this procedure changes the shape of the lens, but does nothing to its elasticity or to the muscles that pull the lens into place. **JoeMWiley **'s answer above is good.
there are some lasik factories out there that do it for even less than $750. i’ve talked to some people who have done it with them and, though they didn’t have big problems, they haven’t been taken care of as well as i have. e.g., if i had any problems with my vision within a year of the surgery they would perform any procedures to fix it for free, free check-ups for that year, etc. i could stop in any time i wanted and they’d talk to me about any questions. even when their office was closed they checked messages on the machine regularly and the doc even called me from home on a sunday evening once when i had a question (my eyes were feeling . the equipment they used was state-of-the-art and they talked me through every step of the process, answering the many questions i had (i’m not only cautious, but also really curious). so, i don’t know about differences in equipment, but the time they spent with me and the way i was treated put my mind at ease.
i’ve been extremely pleased. my vision was terrible before and i could barely sight buoys in open water swims. for the first little while, as is common, my eyes were pretty dry, occasionally to the point of irritation. that has gone away and everything has been pretty perfect since then. my vision is very good and i feel liberated from my bad vision.
don’t rush into it. make sure you feel comfortable with it. find out about the doctors in your area and find one who will take good care of you and who has an excellent track record. good luck.
I am a amateur triathlete and critical care physician who wears and hates corrective lenses. I have followed refractive eye surgery for many years. I just sent you by e-mail a review of this type surgery in the New England Journal of Medicine from 6 weeks ago. The bottom line is that if you are the right candidate (ie- proper corneal thickness, degree of nearsightedness), Lasik surgery works quite well. Unfortunately I was told that my corneas are too thin likely from many years of wearing contacts. This procedure however falls clearly into the category of you “get what you pay for.” Most often those centers where you pay less than $1000.00 per eye (I imagine drive-up windows that you stick your head into!) are using more antiquated equipment. As a physician I even had trouble finding out who did the best job. What I ultimately did is called a ophthalmologist who did not do this surgery and asked who he would go to. Another option would be to ask a local optometrist yet I’d verify they aren’t getting some type of “kick back” for the referral. Friends of mine who’ve had it done, are delighted. Good Luck.
Lots of good, accurate information on this thread. I had my surgery back in June and still can’t believe the difference. Based on my experience, cost of the procedure seems to be related to three things: customer service (including free/discounted adjustments), reputation of the doctor(s), and level of technology. Try to talk to others who went to the same doctor. My procedure was “bladeless”, meaning a laser was used for both the flap and the corneal correction. (Of course I had to ask how the machines work, and even got a printout of the cornea topography map. Dork.) The only part of the surgery I didn’t care for was having someone touching my eyes. The whole procedure lasted less than 15 minutes. Oh, almost forgot about the vaporized flesh smell.
I had it 5 years ago, and have never regretted it. It did knock me into almost needing reading glasses, but, I was able to hold off on that until this past year…after all, I am 46, and Presbyopia was just a matter of time. I went to a couple of Doctors until I found one that asked what I expected to achieve, and that told me what he thought he could do to help me achieve my goal. The other rejected Doctors simply told me what I “needed” and how much it would cost. Big difference in attitude. I keep being tested at 20/10…that’s right, I can see at 20 feet what the “normal” person sees at 10 feet. I had to prove it over and over to the disbelievers by reading signs/book titles/etc. from across the room, and they’d have to go about 1/2 way across the room before they could read the same thing. It’s really great when it works this well. If you’re really hesitant, have them do one eye, wait a while for results, then do the other. BTW, I couldn’t wear any contacts I tried…or, I probably would have not had the surgery. Plus, there are “permanent” contacts being put in now that might do what you want…don’t know the risks involved with these.
