Lasik Eyes Surgery - Four stories of a good lasik experience for a change! My comments included

Author

Four stories of a good lasik experience for a change! My comments included

Ace

2005-12-18, 12:56 pm

http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/lasik.htm

My comments: There is some disperencies. Firstly there is no way a
presbyope would be able to see 3 inches away unless he was -13
diopters! For anyone that wants to argue, note that he says things from
2 meters and closer are blurry! If he was -13 he would be out of range
for lasik. I have looked at his 20/21 BCVA, he probably extrapoliates
it based on how many letters he gets on a certain line, in the case he
may have missed 1 or 2 on the 20/20 line so hes a bit shy of 20/20.
This is great and expected because his glasses minify things, making
the 20/20 line smaller than what it is for an emmetrope or contact
wearer. I see that he achieved 20/18 vision(stabalized) post lasik.
This goes in line in me determining hes a -8. He would be getting the
same 20/18 with contacts too which dont minify vs. 20/21 with -8
glasses.

Despite his good lasik, he encountered a few issues. He mentioned
seeing bad glare at night which lessened as he healed. His glare may
remain forever due to induced aberrations and large(r) pupils.
Hopefully its not so bad that hes puting himself and others in danger
driving.
The other issue is dry eyes, especially as he wakes up. Lasik is known
for destroying some nerves and promoting dry eyes. Its something you
need to be informed of. The other issue is presbyopia but its not the
fault of the laser, however he mentioned he should have given this
matter thought and perhaps considered monovision or even a slight
undercorrection in both eyes which would have really helped him play
pool without the need for reading glasses.

There is no way hes going to be seeing 20/400 UCVA(unless he recalls
from memorization which is easy since its assumed the top letter is an
E) if hes a high myope which I believe he is. The other clue point to
the fact hes a high myope is his 20/21 with glasses and 20/18 post
lasik. If he was a moderate myope, the weaker glasses would minify less
and he therefore wouldnt end 20/18. He also says he was seeing the
20/13 line on the walmart eyechart. He probably stood 15 feet away.
Easy to miscalculate the distance unless he brought a tape measure.

He ended up seeing as well as glasses(compenstating for minification)
after lasik which means he was dead on plano, a good thing. The
increase in aberrations has affected his night vision and some quality
of his overall vision. Him resolving 20/18 means he did not suffer
anything serious after lasik. I hope he doesnt get cateracts anytime
soon, if ever or the lasik will be wasted and he will need IOLs which
may get miscalculated.

http://www.nigels.com/fiona/lasik.html

My comments: It seems highly improbable her night vision would
dramatically improve since all laser surgury induces aberrations.
Perhaps she had tiny pupils and a large number of aberrations at or
near the center of her pupil and while lasik increased her aberrations,
they ended in different locations with many outside her tiny pupils.
Instead of many aberrations concentrated in one spot, they became
spread out. Still increased vs. virgin eyes but not in a critical spot.
The other alternative is her glasses lack antiglare or antireflect
coating plus her lenses were dirty and smeared much like this window
which could contribute to obstructing signs in low light.

http://static.flickr.com/21/25852295_84fecdd95d_m.jpg

I dont have much more to say but wish her well and hope her lasik
holds. She really hates glasses and makes it clear(pun? lol). She also
cant tolerate contacts. Its likley she will get an enhancement when/if
she regresses. If she cant get enhanced shes probably gonna have no
choice but wear glasses which id imagine she will as little as
possible, like for driving and movies only. I know some people that
hate glasses so much they go around with blurry vision. If they are
worse than 20/100, they might as well get lasik, or better yet lasek.
Despite the risks, they would be comparing worse than 20/100 UCVA to
whatever lasek gives them. High chances for satisfication because they
are highly likley to end up closer to plano than where they are. If
they wore glasses then no I wouldnt reccomend laser surgury because
they wont achieve the vision quality they do with correction but its
easy enough to compare to worse than 20/100 UCVA.

http://chaostime.com/stories/lasik.html

My comments: story from a lucky guy with a nice lasik outcome. Any
complications he had were temporary. Still the long term complications
10+ years out remain unknown. I do wish him the best!

http://www.veshman.com/mt/archives/000118.php

My comments: He did have a complication with the flap, but fortunately
got resolved with no further issues. One eye regressed slightly but I
sure hope he doesnt enhance it, its too close to perfect and may
overcorrect or otherwise end up worse. He has natural monovision and
will be thankful once presbyopia comes. This is another case of a happy
camper and I am happy for him. He was scared but seems like he did his
research and understood the risks and made an informed decision to "go
for it"

If you read the comments by others below his lasik story, youll see a
few unhappy people. let me paste what they said.

I have had laser eye surgery about one year ago to correct my short
sightedness. Man its been a mistake!! My vision now is not as good as
it was with my contact lenses. I have been suffering from itchy burning
sensations in my both eyes. I am needing to use artificial tear drops
all the time. Should have stuck with contact lenses as it was doing its
job just fine...

*****why did she get lasik if she was dealing with contact lenses fine?
It takes 1 minute to insert and remove contacts. If contact lenses are
not easily tolerable, then go back to glasses and if you dont like them
you can either deal with glasses anyway or take a risk with lasik

I had excimer laser surgery a month ago. I have to report that my right
eye is 100% perfect but my left and dominant eye although 20/20 is
still got some ghosting and fluctuates. Night vision is pretty bad with
halos, star bursts and ghosts. Also my eyes seem to get really dry and
have to use systane all the time.
I hope things improve since I`m only a month post op, but I`m
defenetely not happy about the marketing they do on laser surgery. I
thought I was going to be ok after 48 hours, only to find out that now
I have to wait 6 months to 1 year to stabilize.
I dont recommend it if you are picky with your vision as I am.

*****I hope things look up for him. He may have had larger than normal
pupils. Also the induced aberrations is responsable for his symptoms.
lasik 20/20 isnt the same 20/20 you get with glasses. He probably isnt
even a full 20/20 either.

I have shown you 4 good or fairly good results and commented on them.
Perhaps their lasik didnt go 100% perfect but they are part of the 90%
who are satisfied. Yes they had some tradeoffs in order to reduce
glasses dependancy but they hated glasses so much and wouldnt have it
any other way.

CatmanX

2005-12-18, 6:06 pm

It is always so good to hear an expert like Ace critique laser surgery.
I feel all gooey inside that he is the omnly person that is able to
read a web posting and determine that a procedure was done properly.

We are so fortunate to have an expert like Ace telling us all this good
news.

dr grant