Lasik/Laser Eye Surgery?

Sarasjourney

I had LASIK done last summer and frankly it ruined my night vision. I get halos of light, starbursts, and double vision in my left eye whenever I'm in low light or looking at something dark like a movie. Apparently lots of people get this problem post-surgery but doctors write them off, and mine's done the same he claims my eyes are dry and I need to constantly put drops in my eyes. I may have 20/20 vision but I can't drive at night and I can't sit in a movie theater without constantly blinking the whole film because I can't see. It also gets worse if I'm tired or haven't had enough sleep or have been reading for too long.

3dogsrunning

I like my glasses/lenses too much to consider it. I can rock the geek look!

Lucky you. A lot of people can rock glasses, I can't. They just don't suit me. I had worn my contacts so long/so frequently that I was not allowed to wear them anymore.

Plus, I needed my vision for my job so that sealed the deal.

mackau

Best $2000 I ever spent.

Get "Surface Laser" Lasek (sometimes known as PRK or ASL).

Avoid Lasik. It's the older technique which leaves the flap in the eye that can come loose.

Lasek has a longer post-surgery recovery time, you'll spend 2-4 days feeling gritty and sore in your eyes, as well as a longer overall healing time, but the flap risk with Lasik was far too great for me to even consider that.

I ended up with better than 20/20 vision. No side effects, no night driving problems, no starbursts or halos or anything, mine went perfectly. I wrote a long write-up on another forum, here are the crib notes (I had this done 3 years ago in July 2011):

Friday: Did the surgery. After a few final checks by the doctors in charge, the procedure went eye scrubbed, kept open with a tool, then lasered, smell of ozone, crackling laser, it's something of a weird experience since you don't know what's gonna happen, but the second was fine. The eyes getting flushed with ice cold saline was more of a shock than the actual surgery.

There are a variety of drugs to help get through it (digesic, xanax, valium).

Saturday: Had valium to help sleep and dull the pain, it was extremely hard to read or write or do anything, my eyes felt like sandpaper.

Sunday: The grit feeling was gone, one eye was healing better than the other, no side effects at all. Pain was pretty much gone, the valium resulted in an extremely weird dream involving a tv actress.

Monday was fine, Tuesday I went to get the post-op contact taken out. A few days later I accidentally scratched my eye and was in a lot of pain but it eventually cleared up.

6 weeks later after going through the post-op eye drops and so on, I was happy with my vision, but it got even better over the months later.

PikaKnight

Best $2000 I ever spent.

Get Lasek (sometimes known as PRK or ASL).

Avoid Lasik. It's the older technique which leaves the flap in the eye that can come loose.

PRK is the predecessor to Lasik.

Birder155

I had LASIK done last summer and frankly it ruined my night vision. I get halos of light, starbursts, and double vision in my left eye whenever I'm in low light or looking at something dark like a movie. Apparently lots of people get this problem post-surgery but doctors write them off, and mine's done the same he claims my eyes are dry and I need to constantly put drops in my eyes. I may have 20/20 vision but I can't drive at night and I can't sit in a movie theater without constantly blinking the whole film because I can't see. It also gets worse if I'm tired or haven't had enough sleep or have been reading for too long.

I have these same issues.
I can no longer read without glasses.
My vision is such that I'll be needing glasses again, albeit a much weaker prescription than before.

I wouldn't do it again.

AllOutof_Bubblegum

My eyes were too bad for LASIK, but I was a candidate for ILCs (Implantable Collamer Lenses), which I got last spring. Basically in a nutshell they made a small incision in my cornea under twilight sedation, implanted lenses under my corneas, and sent me home. I went home, went to bed, woke up four hours later and had perfect vision. While the actual procedure was scary, it all went fine and I had nothing to worry about, it was all in my head. I've loved it ever since and have had no problems.

The upside to ICLs is that they are removable (in case of glaucoma or cataracts or other eye problems later in life) whereas lasering is permanent. With ICLs there's no eye dryness or itchiness, and no irritation.

I did have mild halos around lights at night, but it never caused more than mild annoyance, and it went away after a few months. It's totally gone, now.

ICLs are quite a bit more expensive, it was about 3k per eye (because it's a full procedure, with anesthesia and sedation and all that). I used last year's tax return to pay it all up front so I didn't have to finance it. My husband and I figured if the cost of ICLs was going to keep us from having to buy new contacts and glasses for the rest of my life, it'd be worth it. And it has, 100% been worth every penny and more.

mackau

Best $2000 I ever spent.

Get Lasek (sometimes known as PRK or ASL).

Avoid Lasik. It's the older technique which leaves the flap in the eye that can come loose.

PRK is the predecessor to Lasik.

I know. But some places call their Lasek "PRK".

caffeinated_frog

I had Lasik done 15 years ago. My eyesight was bad enough that if I put my glasses down, I needed glasses to find them again. I'm very glad I had it done. I had no astigmatism and thick corneas, so my risks later in life should still be acceptable. I have 20/20 vision, no problem with needing reading glasses, and while I had really dry eyes for a few years it has gotten better. I only need eye drops first thing in the morning, but that is also because I conditioned myself to never, ever rub my eyes. Allergy season makes the eyes itchy, and made it so that contacts were never an option for me. Lasik really helped. I don't regret it at all.

PikaKnight

Best $2000 I ever spent.

Get Lasek (sometimes known as PRK or ASL).

Avoid Lasik. It's the older technique which leaves the flap in the eye that can come loose.

PRK is the predecessor to Lasik.

I know. But some places call their Lasek "PRK".

Sorry, my comprehension was off. I focused on you saying Lasik was older than PRK.

But even so, PRK and Lasek are similar, but not the same thing. Lasek is the hybrid version (basically) of Lasik and PRK. If some place is calling Lasek PRK, then you might want to recheck that.

Birder155

My eyes were too bad for LASIK, but I was a candidate for ILCs (Implantable Collamer Lenses), which I got last spring. Basically in a nutshell they made a small incision in my cornea under twilight sedation, implanted lenses under my corneas, and sent me home. I went home, went to bed, woke up four hours later and had perfect vision. While the actual procedure was scary, it all went fine and I had nothing to worry about, it was all in my head. I've loved it ever since and have had no problems.

I did have mild halos around lights at night, but it never caused more than mild annoyance, and it went away after a few months. It's totally gone, now.

ICLs are quite a bit more expensive, it was about 3k per eye (because it's a full procedure, with anesthesia and sedation and all that). I used last year's tax return to pay it all up front so I didn't have to finance it. My husband and I figured if the cost of ICLs was going to keep us from having to buy new contacts and glasses for the rest of my life, it'd be worth it. And it has, 100% been worth every penny and more.

My 80ish year old Mom had this done and has never had any problems. At her age, she does need reading glasses but can get away with it if she holds the reading material out far enough. She's never regretted having had this done.

danasings

Had it done in 2001. Totally worth it.

vanillacoffee

I've always wanted to do this, but was too scared. This is making me re-think it in a positive way!

Sarasjourney

I had LASIK done last summer and frankly it ruined my night vision. I get halos of light, starbursts, and double vision in my left eye whenever I'm in low light or looking at something dark like a movie. Apparently lots of people get this problem post-surgery but doctors write them off, and mine's done the same he claims my eyes are dry and I need to constantly put drops in my eyes. I may have 20/20 vision but I can't drive at night and I can't sit in a movie theater without constantly blinking the whole film because I can't see. It also gets worse if I'm tired or haven't had enough sleep or have been reading for too long.

I have these same issues.
I can no longer read without glasses.
My vision is such that I'll be needing glasses again, albeit a much weaker prescription than before.

I wouldn't do it again.

Unfortunately I had little choice in the matter. It was either have the LASIK or go the rest of my life buying new glasses every 6 months because of my astigmatism. I also had the ICL surgery before the LASIK to correct the astigmatism, I had to wait like 6 months between surgeries so my eyes could heal.

AglaeaC

I just want to add that with my expensive as hell toric contacts I have extremely sharp vision. Even my opticians are amazed. If you ask doctors who do these procedures how safe they are, few will talk about the downsides in an honest way. There was a blog article by an ophtalmologist who discussed the glaucoma situation, but I can't find it anymore. Maybe I didn't dig deep enough, but it is the kind of info that people will pay for to bury deep down somewhere where consumers can't find it. His message worries me.