Any one here have that Laser Eye surgery yet? I'd like to try it. My dad's insurance company is thinking about including that into their policy. It used to be considered "cosmetic" and they wouldn't cover it. Now, my eyes are bad. I don't now what legally blind is, but I can barely focus on words in a book anywhere. When they do focus, the book is about 6" from my nose. I can't see if you don't get the picture yet. I was wondering what kind of success people had, and if you had bad eyes like mine, did you completely stop wearing glasses?

 

I only know one person who had it done, and he thought it was great. I asked my optomerist about it (I'm extremely near-sighted, borderline legally blind without glasses), and he said there's one big drawback. He says that most people that have it done lose all close-up vision. If you have to hold the book about 6 inches away NOW, you'll have to hold it out much further after the surgery. Distance vision is great, but forget reading anything. It took me a while to find this optomerist, he was the only one that could properly fit me with contacts, so I think he knows what he's talking about.

 

Check out the doctor very carefully. My sister-in-law had the surgery done and her Dr. screwed it up. Now her vision is worse than it ever was and no chance to correct it, to much scar tissue now. Apparently this particular Dr. has messed up on a few of these as there is currently a class action suit against him. It is probably an isolated incedent but still be aware.

 

A coworker had it done, he thinks it's great. But I have heard of things going wrong. As suggested above, I'd check out the doctor's record and technological age of the equipment.

This is NOT a low bidder issue. Good luck.

 

Before you think about having someone operate on your eyes, check out this website:

http://www.surgicaleyes.org/

It is a support group website for people dealing with the after-effects of eye surgery.

If your vision can be corrected with glasses, contacts, or a combination of both, consider not operating on otherwise-healthy eyes.

 

My wife had this done a little more than a year ago, our insurance did not cover this. We talked with everyone and anyone that had information on this. I did a lot of research on the web also. We live in a relatively small town and there is no place that is setup for this procedure on a permanent basis. A coworker’s wife had it done about 300 miles away, kind of a hassle for follow up appointments. Another option for us was local, the equipment would be brought in about every two months and local doctors would use the equipment. The first thing that you want to do is find a doctor with good references, as said earlier this is not a low bid deal, even if it cost $1000 over low bid, prorate this over a lifetime and it works out to next to nothing. One of the choices that you have to make is what kind of correction you want done. One method is to have both eyes corrected for distance, if you are younger you would probably not need reading glasses after this is done but may need them later in life. The other corrects one eye for distance and the other for close up (reading), I believe that procedure is called monovision. A friend and his wife had the procedure done locally, he had his done for distance and has to wear reading glasses, he is over 50. His wife had the monovision procedure. They both like the results very much, he says that his wife tends to walk in circles though LOL. My wife had the monovision thing done and she has said it takes some getting used too, the brain needs to adjust to the different focus for each eye and process the image depending on what is being looked at. She reads, drives and can drive at night but does not like to, but she never has. All in all she is very happy with the results but I think she would have rather had both eyes corrected for distance and wear reading glasses. This procedure does correct most astigmatism (irregular shape of the eye’s lens). If you are younger than a certain age they recommend waiting until your eyes settle in to the state that they will be in for most of your adult life. One story my wife heard was of a woman that had this done and the wrong correction numbers were dialed in to the machine and got a real botch job, no one in the US would do a procedure to try and fix this, probably little to be done, measure twice cut once kind of thing. This lady ended up going to Mexico where they are allowed to do a procedure to try and fix the damage, I am not sure how this turned out, probably not as good as glasses. There is risk, make sure you do your own research and if you decide to do this get a doc that has done a lot of these and has good references, talk to people that have had this done by the doctor that you might have work on you. I think this is a great procedure when done correctly and can be life changing. I know that this is a little long but there is a lot to consider.

 

I had the Lasik procedure done in 1998...38 years old. Number wise I was considered legally blind...a minus 13 for those in the know. Luckily I was able to wear contacts so that my vision was almost 20/20. Anyway..after much investigation I opted to try the surgery. I had major astigmatism...and couldn't see the big E on the wall unless my nose was actually touching the wall..you get the picture. My cost was 4500.00..all out of pocket...but I'm hear to type to ya that it was the best money I have ever spent. They did both eyes...Laser roughly 100 seconds per eye..I could actually see the TV the next morning when I woke up. My vision continued to improve as my eyes healed...which..no matter what anyone sez, really takes a good 6 months. I don't wear glasses or contacts at all now..not for driving, reading, watching TV..nothing. I'm 42 now..and it's assumed that I'll need normal reading glasses eventually as that's just part of the aging process..nothing related to the surgery. I would say that I didn't get 20/20..I could see better with my contacts..but..I would say I'm 20/40 or so now...it's SO great to not have to wear contacts 16-17 hours a day as I was before..and to not have to hunt for the monster glasses upon wake up. Go for it...but..as already stated..make sure you go to a reputable surgeon..and cheapest isn't a good place to start. Keep us posted.
Lisa

 

At 39 (two years ago) I had the Lasik procedure done. Before the surgery my eyesight was 20/400...basically I could only tell if it was daytime or nighttime...okay, maybe not that bad, but there was very little I could effectively do without my glasses. Then this Lasik operation moves to town and as an introductory offer, offers the procedure to the first 1000 people for $1,000 (one thousand).
Now since we are dealing with the eyes and spare/replacement parts are hard to come by, I was really skeptical. While I was doing my research, no less than 25 people I actually know all stepped up and had it done. Every one was a complete success and the only regret those 25 folks had was that they couldn’t have had it done sooner.
In my research, I did uncover some cases with less than desirable results, but almost all those were done in the early pioneering years of the process, and those including the more recent cases were almost all performed using the "manual, non-automated, freehand" (for lack of better terms) type equipment. The new equipment is computer controlled, and has special fixture that "holds" your eyeball and the "cutting equipment” in perfect, precision unison (yes, just the thought still makes my eyes hurt but you get over it). Also some of the cases with less than desirable results were performed on people who were less than ideal candidates for the process...there is now a strict protocol to determine if Lasik is right for you. They won't perform the process on everybody...if I remember correctly I think they said they turned away about 25 out of every 100 folks.
So, with 25 no-kidding success cases I could talk too, I made the phone call to the Lasik folks. I was caller 992.
Had the procedure done at 0900 on a Friday. I won’t go into the gory details (unless somebody wants me too), but there was some initial discomfort when they locked your eyeball in place and the unsettling process of “watching” (you’re wide awake for this process…they’ll give you some valium if you think you might freak) them do their thing. Afterwards, my eyes felt a little gritty but did not really hurt, but they were very sensitive to sunlight. They gave me some really funky sunglasses tinted to about the same darkness as a welders shield. Also, for the record, I noticed immediate improvement in my vision...they said it would only get better. For the rest of day I pretty much laid around with my eyes closed.
The next morning was absolutely awesome. At the foot of our bed we have a dresser. On top of the dresser is a TV, on top of the TV is a VCR. Of course in the front of the VCR is a digital clock with numbers about ¾ inch tall. While still in bed, a good 10 feet away…I could easily tell what time it was. Prior to the surgery without my glasses I had to grab the digital clock from the nightstand and bring it within a few inches of my face to clearly see the 2 inch numbers. Totally awesome.
For the next month my eyes were still a little sensitive to the sun, but no where near as bad that first day. They also still felt a little dry and gritty, but it got a little better every day till about 3-4 weeks later I was back to normal.
Now the Lasik folks won’t guarantee you 20/20 vision…they call it a success if they get you 20/40 or better. Actually I’m 20/30 to 20/35 but compared to the 20/400 I was, well, what else can I say!
Okay, this is long enough, but in my opinion that $1000 was the best money I ever spent. No regrets whatsoever.
But, I’m hearing the procedure called RPK is actually the preferred method these days so if you’re looking into having it done, you owe it to yourself to look into that option. I don’t know much about that method.
If somebody would like more details let me know.

Here’s look'n atcha!
REX

 

I had lasik surgery done when it was still in the FDA trials in 1993. My vision was 20/400 on a good day. It will be TEN years in June! Best thing I ever did. I wore glasses every day since the third grade I had a contact prescription for one eye that I used for about 6 months after surgery. My vision is nearly perfect and my close-up vision is still great. I do agree...CHECK OUT THE DOCTOR. I would really suggest this surgery anybody.

 

Jeff has his appt to go in to get it done. The only way they cover half of the cost is if he goes somewhere that uses one of their lasers for the procedure (Alcon). Everyone he works with that had it done has had great sucess. He can't see the big E on the eye chart either, and has a stigmatism but they said it should be totally corrected when its done. I guess we'll see here soon.

 

20/400 here. I use contacts (hard) and so far I am very reluctant to have my eyes messed with since 20/20 vision is not a given. Every year they improve the procedure. I can wait a couple more for them to fine tune their technique. I can see 20/20 with my contacts and I am not ready to risk being able to see.

My brother is almost as bad as me and he checked into it a year ago. They said the lens in his eye was too thin due to stigmatism.

Another 5 years and I think the whole thing will be about like getting your ears pierced. But for now I'll wait.