Lasik

[Fletis Humplebacker]

"Joe Willmann"

That's something I forgot to mention. They said there was a good chance my eyes wouldn't be corrected to my current corrected vision and if so, couldn't be, even with glasses.

[Perry]

[mp]

I like your doctor better. Mine said otherwise, and that's why I didn't opt for the surgery. Maybe I should go for a second opinion.

[Joe Willmann]

"mp" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Be careful there. I little while ago, 2 years, there was a 60 Minutes show about a woman whose face was ruined in cosmetic surgery. She went to one surgon that told here she wasn't a good candidate becuse of her skin type. She didn't like what he said so she went for a second, then a third and then a forth. She finally found one that said it would be great. She had the surgery and was horribly disfigured. Gues what? she sued the surgon and used the previous 4 doctors statement to get her money.

The moral is, be careful looking for the opinion you want. You might get it and then end up in really bad shape.

[mp]

Point taken, but it's not so much shopping for one opinion as it is getting more than one opinion.

[Neil Williams]

The way they correct for that with Lasik is mono-vision; they adjust one eye for distance vision and the other for close-up. Sounds pretty weird, but apparently you get used to it. There's currently no medical way to address the root cause, which is the eye loosing flexibility as it gets older. Everybody needs reading glasses eventually, typically once you get over 40.

--Neil

[Neil Williams]

I had Lasik a few years ago. I was a -5, and now have slightly better than 20/20 vision - about in the range of 20/15 or so. At the time the leading edge was the flying spot LIDAR laser, now I think there's something called wavefront technology that's even better.

I did suffer some loss of near vision. Before, as my optometrist put it, my eyes "could focus like crazy" for really close stuff. I can still read just fine, but now I need to use drugstore reading glasses when prying splinters out of my fingers. I'm 36 years old, and like everyone else will probably need those glasses for reading sometime in my 40's - Lasik can't help that unless you go for monovision. Although there's some interesting research in the area of helping the eye maintain flexibility as you age, so the inevitable reading glasses may one day not be quite so inevitable.

Anyway, I also have a bit of a loss of night vision, or in very high- contrast situations. For example auto headlights at night have a bit of a halo around them. Your surgeon should be able to tell you prior to the surgery how likely this effect is for you - they measure your dilated pupils and do some calculations on the amount of correction required to get an idea. But it's not exact, since my doc said they don't know for sure until they lift the flap.

One other side-effect is that my eyes got extremely dry at night. If I have to get up in the middle of the night (courtesy of my

7 year old), my eyes were seriously gummy to the point of having blurry vision for 10-15 minutes unless I used eye drops. It was rough for the first couple years following the surgery, but has gotten a lot better in the past year.

Do a lot of research before you decide. There are certainly some horror stories out there. However, I believe most of these potential issues will be detected in advance by a good doctor. Also, the success rate is significantly higher for doctors who've performed over 1000 surgeries or so - I forget the exact number. So absolutely look for the best guy around.

Best of luck to you and let us know what you decide.

--Neil

[nospambob]

[Mark]

[TexasFireGuy]

You've got it, brother. I live in Nederland and work in Port Arthur, which sometimes means I'm in Sabine Pass. If the afore mentioned aspects of local don't get you, the skeeters certainly will.

[Eddie Munster]

Does having lasik rule out cataract surgery later in life, should it be needed?

John

Perry wrote:

[JohnT.]

I've had it done. They always warn you that you may need reading glasses in a few years, but its not a big deal to me.

One thing I recommend, is don't go for the macrovision. Thats where they do one eye normally, and the other eye for close vision. I had that done, and I regret it..thats my shooting eye!

I'm going to see if I can have that eye redone someday.

John

[Fletis Humplebacker]

"Eddie Munster"

No. Cataracts are the fogging over of the lens, which is inside the eye behind the pupil. The issue I would be concerned about is developing glaucoma later. What happens then?

[brian roth]

Not trying to scare you but take a look at:

There are complications that happen, and they are usually serious.

Chroinically dry eyes, double or triple vision, starbursts at night, loss of contrast sensitivity, etc. All of which can still read the

20/20 line on the eye chart, and are deemed a success.

[Brian Henderson]

That's funny, my wife had it done about 5 years ago and hasn't had a pair of glasses on since. Her eyes are now above 20/20 with zero problems and zero complications.

[brian roth]

30 is on the low side anymore. It's not uncommon for a doctor to pound out 60 or more in a day.

[Doug Miller]

How old is your wife? Just guessing here, I'd imagine she's under 40, and all of Joe's friends who have had LASIK are over 40. It makes a difference. By and by, almost everyone needs glasses to read. She just hasn't reached that point yet. But she will.

-- 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

[Doug Miller]

Exactly why I urged caution. You can decide not to have the surgery now, and change your mind a year later, but it 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

[Doug Miller]

Assembly-line surgery. What a concept. Hard to see how that's good for anyone except the surgeon and his accountant.

-- 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

[TexasFireGuy]

I'm lucky in that my insurance covers Lasik. I hear that's a rare thing.