Lasik

[Perry]

This may or may not be construed as OT. I am asking this same question on several different forums and discussion groups that I participate in. My lifestyle (being outside, and active as much as possible), hobbies (cycling, camping, hiking, spending time with my dogs outside), occupation (upholstery and carpentry) are all impacted by the fact that I wear glasses. It is South Louisiana and glasses are a real pain. Sweat, foggy, slipping on the nose, the whole nine yards. Up until my early 40's I could wear contacts and didn't need close vision correction. Well, the bifocal thing caught up with me and contacts don't provide the visual accuity that I need to maintain a high standard of detail in my upholstery. Lasik has come such a long way, and we have an excellent doctor here who is the area front runner, not the "guy who is the cheapest". I have an appointment this afternoon for consultation. My best friend had it done, and he says WOWZA! OTOH, I have a friend who works at a clinic and does angiograms on eyes and says that Lasik failures are a small percentage of the doctor's numbers, but if *you* are that failure, then your percentage is

100%. That's scary. I do know that close vision will still have to be corrected with "readers" but that's do-able. If anyone is offended by the off topic, I apologize, but I am asking here for anyone in a similar situations, etc. who may have input, pros and cons. Perry

[Doug Miller]

Ask somebody who wears reading glasses if he finds it a nuisance to put them on, take them off, put them on, take them off, look around to try to find them, wonder what room he left them in... SWMBO is *always* forgetting to bring hers along when we go somewhere.

I'm both nearsighted and astigmatic to the extent that my vision cannot be corrected with RK surgery. So when LASIK came along, I checked in to that -- until I realized that I'd need reading glasses anyway. Figured after wearing glasses for 30+ years already, I'd rather keep doing so than to have to wonder where I left the reading glasses.

Before having the LASIK procedure, talk to an optician about making your glasses more comfortable. Silicone nose pads help the slipping-down-your-nose problem quite a bit, and adjustments can be made to the earpieces as well.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

For a copy of my TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter, send email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com

[Bernie Hunt]

Perry,

I did it two years ago this June. I was great! My vision wasn't that bad, but I still couldn't drive without glasses. Contacts worked for me for many years, but I always had to have spare lenses and solution around. In the glove box of all the cars, my wife had a spare lens in her purse, one in my brief case, etc. I took a train to NYC and had the operation done. It took less than 1 hour in the doctor's office. I had a car service drive me home so I wouldn't have to strain my eyes, plus the drugs wouldn't have made it a good idea. I can home and went to bed. I got up the next morning and could see! I drove myself into the city for the follow up exam.

If you want to talk about the risks, then you need to consider how many people die in car crashes ever day, I assume you are taking a car to the doctor's office. Have you considered how many accidents happen in the wood shop? How about the risk of heart desease?

I'm making fun of your fear for a purpose. Yes it's real, yes I was afraid, and yes the outcome was worth the risk! Think about how great it will be the next morning when you get out of bed and can see!

A couple of antidotes to finish up. Make sure you have closed eye friendly food around. I got mine done in the morning. I slept until about 8PM, but got up hungry. My wife offered to make me some pasta. Yea right, I can twirl pasta with my eyes closed, hahahaha. Then there's the issue of stabing myself with the fork, hahaha. I opted for the ham standwich. Not real painful if you miss your mouth.

The other story is I had to wear googles to bed to keep from handling my eyes while I sleep. No big deal to me, but it freaked the cat out! Normally the cat is my buddy, but apparently the round bug eye protects really ment something in cat speak, hahahaha.

Get it done! You'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner!

Bernie

[TexasFireGuy]

I am about to undergo the procedure myself (in 2 months) and am all for it. In my profession (firefighting) glasses and contacts are a HUGE problem. You can't wear glasses with an SCBA on unless you buy an expensive, damn near useless pair of glasses that actually mount inside the mask. And contacts are a very bad idea as well because there is a possibility, although pretty darn slim, of having them blown back around your eyeball where you can't get to them and they'll cause major problems and discomfort.

Several of the guys I work with had PRK done several years ago. Some had good results and some not so good....they're still wearing glasses, just not so thick. But a lot more of them, as well as friends from off the job, have had Lasik done in the last few years and, as far as my recent pre-op polling has determined, there has been a 100% success rate around here.

My ophthalmologist, who is not associated with the surgury and has been in practice for a LONG time, was the one who initially recommended I do it.

[TexasFireGuy]

Incidentally, I live on the Gulf Coast just a few miles from Louisianna, so I know what you mean about the heat and humidity.

[Perry]

slipping-down-your-nose

[Perry]

[Doug Miller]

For me, reading glasses would be the greater nuisance. YMMV.

Just use caution: if you decide not to have the surgery now, you can always change your mind in a year. Doesn't work the other way around.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)

For a copy of my TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter, send email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com

[Joe Gorman]

I just had my eyes checked and asked the same questions of the eye Dr. Not sure exactly whether he was an ,Optometrist or opthamologist, a military Dr, but he wears glasses and had looked into it also. He said once you have the surgery ALL short range vision goes. I wear bifocals now, and shift to my old simgle vision ones for most general wearing, soon to be two different pairs of bifocals, and he said I would lose even the very close up vision that I now remove my glasses to see, about 12" to 4" or so. I'd have to carry reading glasses and a jewelers loop, or a magnifying visor. So, I'll wait to see if it gets any better. I'm used to glasses, even the fairly recent two pair solution. Joe

[TexasFireGuy]

I don't really know much about it yet, but there's a new procedure that apparently uses air pressure to reshape your cornea. You might want to ask about it. It may be a solution to your problem. And it seems that this way you're not actually cutting the cornea in any way. As I said, I don't know much about it, but it can't hurt to ask.

[Joe Gorman]

Yes, every year as it gets close to setting up the Medical Savings accounts for such things I look at the newest procedures. If you check my email addy you'l see I can do some close up research. Joe

[Fletis Humplebacker]

"Perry"

I almost had it done. I heard many good things, a few problems and a few horror stories, but being -7.5 in each eye I decided to go for it. I had the preop done and surgery scheduled for about a week later. I decided it was my last chance to do some heavy research on the procedure and the eyeball itself, as it is irreversable.

I decided against it for a few reasons the clinic was not upfront about. The corneal flap never really heals. Sometimes the flap can be lifted years later. That's why any signs of Glaucoma ( too much pressure in the eye ) rules out a candidate. The internal structure of the cornea is sort of like a series of crisscrossed transparent rubber bands. Once the flap is cut and lifted they hog out this material to adjust for focus. Yes, it's really precise and they can tweak it to make it a bit stronger, once and maybe twice. Because the eye trys to heal itself the vision bounces back a bit, that's why they overcorrect. It's usually very minor and if you are a -6 or better they can use a flying spot laser that adjusts for your vision that moment, as your eye varies a bit during the day.

Your eyes also change as you age. So your perscription needs will change. Lasik, nor anything else, doesn't halt that process so you will need eyeglass correction for distance as well as readers when you age. True, you'll need less correction than without the surgery, but that took some of the enthusiasm out for me.

Also, for me, readers with the eye surgery, would only correct to the point my glasses correct now. I have to remove my glasses for very detailed work but I can see very well close. I would lose that after the surgery and would need another set of specialized lenses for extreme close up vision. I had to really dig to find that out and it really let some wind out of my sails.

The other problem introduced by surgery is chromatic aberation. If you think of the lense it brings in light like a camera lense. It's designed to focus all the colors to one plane. That's why many people after the surgery see starbursts at night. My friend sees two moons, years later. The pupil dialates and catches light from the edges of the altered shape. They admit, when pressed, that some people do lose some contrast ability. As an artist and photographer that was too much for me. I'm into photography and the thought of altering the shape of a thoudand dollar lense is unthinkable. I once aced a color test by putting about thirty colors in a row ranging from pink to lavender under bad lighting. It surprised the tester, as it was just an indoor expo and not their usual testing procedure. I would lose some of that ability so I'll stick with spectacles for now. There's promising, reversable procedures on the horizon and I can wait.

Many people are very pleased with Lasik but you should know all the facts before instead of afterwards.

[Doug Winterburn]

I had RK done in '94 before lasik was available. Had the left eye done for distance and the right eye for reading - I think it's called mono-vision?

I do need reading glasses in low light situations or for very small print, but I would't go back.

[xrongor]

my advice: do one eye at at time. if the first one goes blind, well..... dont do the other.

randy

[Joe Willmann]

"Perry" wrote in news:y741c.20252$ [e-mail]:

I know two dozen people, no exageration here, that have had lasik. Without fail, every one of them still have to wear glasses. Most of them had their near sightedness fixed. So now they can see great at a distance. But the HAVE to wear reading glasses to see close up. Because of this they have to have glasses with them all the time anyway. Most of them end up wearing glasses all the time now because it is the only way to make sure that they have their glasses with them.

One other thing. If you have worn glasses all your life then you are probaly used to relying on your glasses for safety. So you have not trained yourself to pick up safety glasses all the time. Be carefull.

My eyes fully correct to 20/15. I have worn glasses since I was 14. I wouldn't let anyone cus/lazer on my eyes for anything.

Lets say the risk of it going wrong is 1/1000. That is probably a bigger risk than getting killed by clibing out the window of a moving car at 60 MPH and climbing on the hood. Would you do that?

I am sorry, vanity just isn't worth it.

[mp]

Yes, but the surgery won't do anything to correct for the age-related loss of close-focus ability.

[John Dykes]

"I am sorry, vanity just isn't worth it."

Dunno - I'm not a sharp looking guy (glasses or not). So vanity doesn't come into it for me.. Playing ice hockey, dirtbiking, etc, etc, etc. Glasses and contacts are a PITA.

When I get money, I'll do it!

-jbd

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Yes it will, one time from what the eye doctor told me. He says I'm a good candidate for it but I'm not going to have it done. OTOH, my DIL did and she thinks it was great. Ed

[Tom Watson]

The reason that I don't go for surgery or contacts is that I know myself too well.

My glasses have saved my eyes from various projectiles on a number of occasions and I know that I would not wear safety glasses, at all of the appropriate times, if my vision were corrected.

The fact that I can't see very well without my glasses has almost certainly kept me from not being able to see at all.

Thomas J. Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.) (Real Email is tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet)

[TexasFireGuy]

I have a pair of safety glasses hanging on every stationary tool and one hanging in front of my power tool storage. I've seen too many people with eye and facial injuries that could have been prevented by the use of safety glasses.