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After reading this thread, I'm not so sure I'm an ideal candidate for the lasik eye surgery, as I'm very nearsighted and wear "coke bottle" glasses. Besides, as everyone else said, my vision is too precious to take a chance that the surgery would produce satisfactory results--not to mention no promises are made for perfect 20-20 vision. I've worn glasses for so long (since 4th grade and I'm in my mid-40s now), I don't even think about the inconveniences of wearing them, i.e., slipping down the nose, getting scratched, getting them wet in the rain, etc. I take really good care of my glasses!
So, I've just resigned myself to the very real possibility that I'll be an eyeglass wearer for the rest of my life, and that's OK.
Ehh... you're pretty much borderline for suitability for the procedure. They could probably correct your myopia no problem, I've seen plenty of patients with stronger Rxs than you come out of LASIK with more or less 20/20 vision. You could probably find a surgeon who would perform the surgery, because your corneal thickness is borderline (500 µm is more or less the cut-off), it's just whether you'd like to risk it. It's highly doubtful that anything would go wrong with the surgery, but the risk is increased for those with thinner corneas.
If you don't want to try the LASIK, there are certainly other procedures you could look into. PRK (photorefractive keratectomy) was the leading corrective surgery prior to the arrival of LASIK. It doesn't involve any cutting into the cornea like LASIK does, and it simply reshapes the cornea (it'll make it flatter in your case, raise it in the case of those with hyperopia). It can typically only give a person with a -7.00 Rx 20/20 vision, so you would probably come out of the surgery with somewhere between a -1.50 and -3.00 Rx... hardly 20/20, but you'll be able to see a lot more without glasses or contacts than you previously could.
Hmm, well you won't like my story. I was about -7.5 in both eyes with thin corneas. I was told I was just at the edge of being eligible. Maybe they stop at -8.0?
Now, I don't know if anything here is linked, but two months after my Lasik I had a clot in my retinal vein ("CRVO") following my first ocular migraine and/or transient blindness in my right eye. [I hope that makes sense, transient monocular blindness itself is either a migraine or cardiac emboli, but in my case we think it was a migraine].
They then discovered that I had this condition called "pigment dispersion syndrome" that is rare, but common to people with severe myopia. I guess that when you are myopic, your eye is stretched in a way that the back pigment can rub off and block the chambers in the back of the eye, blocking drainage. This is a precursor to pigmentary glaucoma.
And on the other side, I'm racked with migraines. I have to confess that I had two migraines before my Lasik surgery - the first of my life a year before and the second of my life six months before. But now it's chronic. I'm wondering if Lasik changes something about the amount of light that ... I don't know.
Now, I haven't talked to a single doctor, even a doctor who might love to sell out the Lasik surgeons, who thinks that Lasik can result in CRVO or retinal hemorrhage. Lasik does temporarily elevate eye pressure - during the procedure - so if something is going to happen it will happen then. Lasik also then gives a false low reading of eye pressure, but doctors can use a formula to adjust for this. For me the formula adds 7 in each eye to whatever reading they take.
I recently asked my opthalmologist my prognosis and she said in the long run - 30 to 35 years - it is "delicate" due to my thin corneas. I don't know if I woiuld have a better prognosis without the Lasik eye surgery. I ask a lot of questions, but always forget some good ones, and what's the point in me asking that one?
My right eye was a -10 and left was -11. It was a life changing experience getting my vision corrected--it was GREAT. One eye is 20/20--the other is 20/40 but I don't care--still better than I was. I feel safe knowing that I will never lose my glasses in the night again!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had my first LASIK consultation and was turned down. They say my correction is too high (about -10) and my cornea too thin (I believe it was measured at 500). Has anyone had success w/ LASIK when it seemed that you were a borderline candidate. I want to at least get a 2nd opinion. It's just depressing thinking that everyone else can get it done, but I can't But I won't hastily risk my vision. I want a Dr. to be confident that it's safe for me.
Here's your second opinion; thank those people at that laser site for saving your quality of life! If you keep shopping around, you will eventually find a doc that is evil-er-maverick-er-crazy-er-desparate-er-gutsy enough to treat you. You will sign your rights away and will be very displease and DEPRESSED with your results and you will be in constant pain and be very sorry that you wasted your money and will waste more money in eye drops, pain and suffering, and mentally, you will be angry and embarassed! This is my opinion, actually, but I'd rather you err on the side of caution. After all, it's your eyes and money and physiological well being. Blind people have something that injured "Elective Surgery (see Michael Jackson)" patients don't have; God-given gift of compensation. They have overcome their lack of sense and have been given some other gift that we cannot see. Now you take your current vision and make it worse, throw in some pain, suffering, and humiliation, and you'll think you'd be better off blind!
I just don't know about this surgery, even if you are the perfect candidate! Some of your best candidates seem to be high myopes. I've never heard of such a high myope with such thin corneas! That seems unnatural. In any case, don't be depressed. Watch these people who have had Lasik really closely. Watch them long term. Ask them if they are 100% correction free and ask them just how much those eye drops cost. Ask them how night driving is going for them. Check back with them in 5 years. Who knows what the surgery is like after 5 or 10 years.
Bottom line, I knew a doc that bragged about being the first to provide a patient with a Corneal Transplant! That's as far as I'm going with that comment!
GOD has come down and blessed you! GOD said, "MY CHILD, DO NOT GET LASIK!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
If the doctor and the clinical staff has come to and said, don't get it, then don't get it. If you're truely a -10 myope and your corneal thickness is 500 µm, then forget about gouging what little bit of stroma you have. I'm not sure what the "Bladeless Lasik" does to remove or displace the epithelium and Bowman's layer; but back in the day of Microkeritome or Hansatome, you're talking about 160 µm right there. When it's all said and done, they want to leave you with AT LEAST 250 µm right there. So that leaves them with 90 µm of actual ablation. So they MIGHT be able to treat you if you were about a -2.50 to -3.50. You're 4 times that!
They could possibly ablate that 90 µm and leave you severely undercorrected! But this leaves you prone to a weakened cornea, possible halos, starbursts, higher-order abberations, dry eye, eye disease, etc., etc., plus your wallet has a $2400.00 hole in it and you still need your pop-bottle glasses to see, but you won't to be able to see as good as you did before!
If the eye surgery is questionable at this point I'd just wait a while. With technology improving by leaps and bounds who knows what breakthroughs we'll see in just a few years.
After reading this thread, I'm not so sure I'm an ideal candidate for the lasik eye surgery, as I'm very nearsighted and wear "coke bottle" glasses. Besides, as everyone else said, my vision is too precious to take a chance that the surgery would produce satisfactory results--not to mention no promises are made for perfect 20-20 vision. I've worn glasses for so long (since 4th grade and I'm in my mid-40s now), I don't even think about the inconveniences of wearing them, i.e., slipping down the nose, getting scratched, getting them wet in the rain, etc. I take really good care of my glasses!
So, I've just resigned myself to the very real possibility that I'll be an eyeglass wearer for the rest of my life, and that's OK.
It just amazes me what people do for vanity. One of my mentors told me about the PRK/Lasik industry way back in 1999. He told me that the surgery was a bunch of garbage and it was all about greed and vanity.
The people who invented the excimer laser convinced me otherwise. A good doctor convinced me and insured me even further; "It's just math. Here's your lense. The laser merely reshapes it." Sound's good in theory. But what about the brain? What about the inner lens and the retina/fovea? In the case of PRK, what does Bowman's layer really do? If you remove it, what really happens long term?
I can understand where people get caught up in the thing. You're just reshaping a lense, right? Well, maybe not. Is that lense plastic, or a living tissue? It kind of goes back to the statement, "God don't make junk."
And who is God? Well, I say God is that dude who designed our vision way back when.
If the eye surgery is questionable at this point I'd just wait a while. With technology improving by leaps and bounds who knows what breakthroughs we'll see in just a few years.
They've been saying that since about 1996 or 1994!
Just because the FDA appoves it, doesn't make it a good idea!
I'm starting to think that those coke-bottle glasses are sexy!
Besides that, they've come a long way with the coke-bottle glasses.
If you're out sailing and your glasses fall off, reach into your pocket and find another pair of coke-bottle glasses. It's not life and death, people! This is Elective Surgery!
I met a doctor who said just that. If you're going for monovision, just treat one eye. Have one for far and one for near.
Problem is, if you're the doc you earn 50% of what you should!
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Besides, as everyone else said, my vision is too precious to take a chance that the surgery would produce satisfactory results--not to mention no promises are made for perfect 20-20 vision. I've worn glasses for so long (since 4th grade and I'm in my mid-40s now), I don't even think about the inconveniences of wearing them, i.e., slipping down the nose, getting scratched, getting them wet in the rain, etc. I take really good care of my glasses! 
But I won't hastily risk my vision. I want a Dr. to be confident that it's safe for me.
