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...Unless you're totally blind without your glasses, like I am, you have no idea how much a chance at seeing like normal people can mean to someone.
I agree totally. I was wearing bifocals at the age of 5. When I entered my teenaged years my glasses were as thick as coke bottles, even with supposedly-ultra-thin lenses. I had astigmatism. I wasnt able to wear contacts and my nose had a permanent ridge from the weight of the glasses.
Lasik surgery was truly a miracle. Even now, 11 years later, I still marvel at opening my eyes every morning and being able to see the small clock across the room. I elected to have monovision (where one eye is corrected to 20/20 for distance vision and the other eye is corrected to 20/40 for closeup vision) -- now, at the age of 70, I dont even need reading glasses. I have regular eye exams and my eyesight hasnt changed at all.
Yes, it was expensive. I went to the best in the city and it cost $5,000 in 2010. The cost may come down since then -- but what price can you put on your eyesight? There's a credit card just for medical expenses -- CareCredit -- check it out. Good luck to you, rodentraiser.
I had Lasik (for shortsightedness) 4 years ago, when I was 20. I was virtually blind on the first few days. That was an annoying and uncomfortable side effect. I was also very sensitive to light for a few weeks. My eyesight was still blurry for a month. I wanted to complain about it, but then they told me that blurry vision is a side effect.
A few months later I noticed a big improvement. I started too see far away objects perfectly. I pretty much had a 21/21 vision. The eye specialist told me that my vision was "over-corrected", but that it wasn't any problem. Starbursts (seeing halos around lights) went on for a year or two. That was the longest-lasting symptom of the procedure. But it wasn't intrusive or anything. At least, I didn't find it bothersome.
Before the surgery, she did say that I was too young to do the procedure because I'll become shortsighted again by 25 (since the human body develops until that age). Now, flash-forward 4 years later, she was sort of right. I have noticed a decline in my eye quality. Some distant objects appear a bit blurry. Sometimes they don't. Above all, my vision wasn't as perfect as it was a year after my surgery. However, my vision now is still much better than the pre-op days.
To put it short, I'd definitely recommend it. Since you're over 40, your vision would be stable years and years after the surgery. My mother and uncle have had it around that age (for shortsightedness) and now they're only farsighted. So go for it.
I had Lasik in 2002, when I was 23. I was -2.50 in both eyes. After surgery I was seeing 20/20 in the left, 20/15 in the right. This lasted maybe a month. My vision was not corrected equally and this was very annoying. My night vision was terrifying with halos and very bad vision. I felt blind at night and cried about it for months. Slowly, it did get better, but my distance vision started regressing quarter by quarter after the first year.
2006 I got fed up with blurry distance vision. I've been back in glasses/contacts since. -1.75 is what I've regressed to, but it's stabilized for years now. I would never get an enhancement. There's only so much cornea you can shave off. The uneven vision was beyond annoying and I'm grateful for perfectly clear vision with contacts and glasses. My optometrist wouldn't have Lasik done either because of my primary complaints. I still have dry eyes and am sensitive to sunlight. That's never gone away.
Maybe consider implanted contacts? My former boss loved that surgery and whenever your vision changes, you get the contacts replaced.
both father and brother had lasik eye surgery.....dad was amazed at how well he can see now with no glasses needed.
brother was ecstatic......wore glasses all his life, since he was a small lad of 4....can see everything now and is very, very happy.
I had Lasik done 25 years ago at age 35-ish, now age 61. My eye MD sent me to Johns Hopkins outpatient facility with the best equipment and doctor. Lasik lasted 25 years and just this year I've had to get glasses again.
I was a photographer then (now retired) who wore glasses and contacts. Outdoors and sweaty work plus playing tennis made me decide to do it, soft contacts and pollen gave me trouble and could not wear hard contacts at all.
First the bad parts: I was not told I could lose close vision which MAY have changed my decision since I read a LOT and used computer a lot. Yes I lost all reading vision and had to use store bought readers. I might have chosen mono-vision.
Secondly it caused my brain a lot of problems to adjust to my new vision. I thought my career was over as a photographer for about 1-2 months. Then my brain adjusted to my new eyes and I begrudgingly got used to using readers. I was fairly angry this was not disclosed in advance.
Good parts: Everything else has been fine for the past 24 and 3/4 years. Great not to have to worry about glasses, not to have sunglasses with corrections and be able to see distance clearly at all times.
Now that Lasik has worn out my left eye sees well to read and the other is semi-OK distance without glasses but I gave in and got glasses. They are not as clear as my Lasik eyes used to be and need to be re-made in my opinion for better distance sight.
I hear that cataract surgery (may need in a year or 2) can correct my eyes again but who knows, eye surgeon may say Lasik precludes that. Life's crapshoot, you make the best decision you can at the time.
Very glad I went to the best surgeon possible because when something goes wrong at least you'll not blame yourself.
I had Lasik done 25 years ago at age 35-ish, now age 61. My eye MD sent me to Johns Hopkins outpatient facility with the best equipment and doctor. Lasik lasted 25 years and just this year I've had to get glasses again.
I was a photographer then (now retired) who wore glasses and contacts. Outdoors and sweaty work plus playing tennis made me decide to do it, soft contacts and pollen gave me trouble and could not wear hard contacts at all.
First the bad parts: I was not told I could lose close vision which MAY have changed my decision since I read a LOT and used computer a lot. Yes I lost all reading vision and had to use store bought readers. I might have chosen mono-vision.
Secondly it caused my brain a lot of problems to adjust to my new vision. I thought my career was over as a photographer for about 1-2 months. Then my brain adjusted to my new eyes and I begrudgingly got used to using readers. I was fairly angry this was not disclosed in advance.
Good parts: Everything else has been fine for the past 24 and 3/4 years. Great not to have to worry about glasses, not to have sunglasses with corrections and be able to see distance clearly at all times.
Now that Lasik has worn out my left eye sees well to read and the other is semi-OK distance without glasses but I gave in and got glasses. They are not as clear as my Lasik eyes used to be and need to be re-made in my opinion for better distance sight.
I hear that cataract surgery (may need in a year or 2) can correct my eyes again but who knows, eye surgeon may say Lasik precludes that. Life's crapshoot, you make the best decision you can at the time.
Very glad I went to the best surgeon possible because when something goes wrong at least you'll not blame yourself.
If you had Lasik done that long ago at Hopkins you must have participated in a clinical trial. If so, you probably were given a stack of information on the procedure that was about an inch thick. I find it questionable that you were not informed of all the side effects and problems known to be possible at that time.
Refractive surgery does not preclude cataract surgery. It is helpful for the cataract surgeon to have the before and after records for the previous surgery.
If you may need cataract surgery in the next year or two it may be that at least some of your current vision problem is due to the cataracts, not a refraction problem. Also, at your age changes in vision due to loss of the ability of the lens to change shape are to be expected. Lasik does not "wear out".
I had Lasik done 25 years ago at age 35-ish, now age 61. My eye MD sent me to Johns Hopkins outpatient facility with the best equipment and doctor. Lasik lasted 25 years and just this year I've had to get glasses again.
I was a photographer then (now retired) who wore glasses and contacts. Outdoors and sweaty work plus playing tennis made me decide to do it, soft contacts and pollen gave me trouble and could not wear hard contacts at all.
First the bad parts: I was not told I could lose close vision which MAY have changed my decision since I read a LOT and used computer a lot. Yes I lost all reading vision and had to use store bought readers. I might have chosen mono-vision.
Secondly it caused my brain a lot of problems to adjust to my new vision. I thought my career was over as a photographer for about 1-2 months. Then my brain adjusted to my new eyes and I begrudgingly got used to using readers. I was fairly angry this was not disclosed in advance.
Good parts: Everything else has been fine for the past 24 and 3/4 years. Great not to have to worry about glasses, not to have sunglasses with corrections and be able to see distance clearly at all times.
Now that Lasik has worn out my left eye sees well to read and the other is semi-OK distance without glasses but I gave in and got glasses. They are not as clear as my Lasik eyes used to be and need to be re-made in my opinion for better distance sight.
I hear that cataract surgery (may need in a year or 2) can correct my eyes again but who knows, eye surgeon may say Lasik precludes that. Life's crapshoot, you make the best decision you can at the time.
Very glad I went to the best surgeon possible because when something goes wrong at least you'll not blame yourself.
While I've commented once on this thread, the above warrants another.
It's what "they" don't disclose that scared me sufficiently (spidey sense) to walk away from the procedure at Age 42 here in Seattle.
Odds are good it will work out just fine for (you). But any counter-indications, the odds go way up of "something" going sideways.
The fellow above was a photographer and did this, boy oh boy. Lucky he recovered. I am a PC nerd, spending literally 8-10 hrs / day in front of various screens. I have zero strain or problems from this. Used to, from CRT, but not since LCD and dimming things down has that happened. That's my income, if that disappeared I'm screwed, making a $5K "elective surgery" decision a multi-million dollar error if I had to give my career.
Just consider the consequences, all.
I stuck with glasses. Guess what: late 2016 suddenly a few companies came out with daily wear contacts with near vision correction for those of us needing it. Multifocals, they are called. They work! So that's that, and I find them quite comfortable and I'm corrected to about 20/20 in one eye, 20/25 in the other due to a bit of astigmatism. Worn outside when I'm not working at home, mostly.
Great posts. Reading all of the comments. One thing to note is that I WANT opinions. Thanks for the links, and I will go through them but I like hearing the pros and cons from the community.
Reading through this I was heading towards not taking a risk with this....but I am about to book an eye appointment and I am thinking about how nice it would be to not have to interact with the sales pressure from an optometrist's sales office ever again. Oh get this coating that coating, you don't want coke bottles do you? No, no, no, is easy for some and it is easy for me too...but there is some stress associated with it.
It's kind of like walking into a used car dealership every year.
Just one more point about glasses. I was offered free LASIK after my cataract surgery to touch up the astigmatism the implants couldn't fix (I have been severely myopic & astigmatic all my life). After the cataract surgery I was able to see my face clearly without glasses for the first time since I was a teen and wore contacts. OMG, what a shock. I had no idea the wrinkles, eye bags and dark circles were so prominent. I look 15 years older without glasses than with. I told the optometrist "no thanks" to the LASIK, that I would get glasses with plain window glass if I had to, just to cover up the saggy skin under my eyes (and glasses are a whole lot cheaper than plastic surgery!) So I'm still happily wearing glasses even though I don't need them.
I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd reply. I had LASIK done 17 years ago, and it's absolutely the best thing I ever did. I had worn glasses / contacts since childhood (I was about 30 when I did it). My uncorrected vision was 20/750. That's not a typo. I couldn't even see the big E on the top of the eye chart. After the surgery, it was 20/20 in one eye and 20/15 in the other. I literally cried tears of joy. I would say anyone considering having this done should do it.
Very simple procedure, and I had no complications.
Last edited by Mike from back east; 02-06-2020 at 01:15 PM..
I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd reply. I had LASIK done 17 years ago, and it's absolutely the best thing I ever did. I had worn glasses / contacts since childhood (I was about 30 when I did it). My uncorrected vision was 20/750. That's not a typo. I couldn't even see the big E on the top of the eye chart. After the surgery, it was 20/20 in one eye and 20/15 in the other. I literally cried tears of joy. I would say anyone considering having this done should do it.
Very simple procedure, and I had no complications.
I've worked as an ophthalmic technician and optician all my professional career and had LASIK myself in 2000. I am normally an advocate until I discovered an unintended bad side effect decades later. A few weeks ago I was diagnosed with Fuch's Dystrophy, a serious genetic corneal disease that doesn't manifest itself until a person's 40s or 50s. I will need a bilateral corneal transplant in a few years. People with Fuch's should not get LASIK as it weakens the cornea. Had I known I would develop it, I would not have had the procedure.
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