| SamregretsLASIK 2005-08-04, 10:54 pm |
| Eveyone should read these letters!
Read these words from a surgeon who had LASIK last year:
"I had "Custom Wavefront" LASIK on both eyes last January which puts
me at about eight months. I have severe dry eye and had to have both my
lower puncta cauterized three months ago. I've also developed erratic
visual acuity and loss of contrast sensitivity; glasses and contacts can't
help
since refraction for me is a moving target. I also now have terrible
accommodative
dysfunction which no one seems to be able to explain. I guess this
generates
a lot of the eye pain that I experience.
I am in a procedure-intensive specialty and I have some knowledge of
the informed consent. The consent form offered up by most refractive
surgeons is a sorry document which is guided by legal standards and
doesn't give the patient realistic information by which to make their
decision. I fully believe that that constitutes malpractice in the
setting of an elective procedure. There is also too much reliance on
patient satisfaction surveys and not enough emphasis on real science.
Sure, if you were trying to market an expensive surgical procedure,
glowing patient testimonials are better for the bottom line than
evidence-based medicine. Not even a marketing 101 flunkie would submit
a brochure which lists these real, possible outcomes...
-likely decrease in low light and night vision
-definite decrease in tear quantity and/or quality...no real way to
estimate if you will be symptomatic or not -eye fatigue and/ or eye
pain -unpredictable quantities of metallic debris left behind
-permanent denervation or paresthesias of the cornea -retinal
detachment or ischemia during surgery
If I would have suspected that any of the above outcomes were possible,
I'd be sitting here right now CLEARLY viewing my computer screen with
my old trustworthy glasses on.
Sorry for the long rant..I'm having a particularly bad "eye day"
today."
"I genuinely believe that RS is a crime in its present form. LASIK may
be the worst of the offenders. It "cheapens" the field of medicine and
is perpetuated by greed. I don't consider refractive surgeons
colleagues...these people aren't healers. I've also given lots of
thought on how to reach potential victims of the RS industry. At least
patients deserve accurate information before making such a potentially
life-altering decision."
"It's frightening to think of all the potential complications which
haven't yet happened. There are thousands of people out there who will
follow you and I into the 5% heap...patients that the ophthalmologists
would like to forget...patients marketing types don't even consider
when pressing out their glossy brochures. I really feel for these
unsuspecting myopes. I'd give almost anything to have it back, to be in
the pre-surgical decision phase. Next best thing is to keep others
from making the catastrophic mistake that I did."
"My conjunctivochalasis didn't exist to any degree before LASIK. With the
severe dryness, my conjunctiva has thinned and degenerated and has
now become an additional contributing factor to myeye pain."
"I'm still struggling with accommodation dysfunction and wild variance
in acuity. Night driving is Hell. I've developed alternate routes to and
from
work based on day vs night driving. My night route puts me on the roads
with the brightest street lights but is the least direct."
"Accidental altruism is what I call my experience. I couldn't save myself
from the bad outcome, but I am determined to save others
from it. I see that in you. Sure, everyone is angry with bad RS
outcomes, but it is clear to me that what sustains your passion is
altruism. The only way to avoid degraded low light vision, weakened
corneas, and dry eyes is - "don't get LASIK!" If you bury this procedure,
you'll have created more healthy eyes than a city of ophthalmologists."
"I was using drops as prescribed every 1-2 hours for the first month.
At month two, I had severe eye pain, shitty vision, and accommodative
dysfunction. My lame refractive surgeon and lamer yet co-managing OD
said these were transient symptoms. At month six, they basically
abandoned my case because the transient nature of my symptoms seemed
more tenacious than they were able to deal with. I found a better OD
who tried everything to help with my accommodation problems. Reading
glasses just gave me horrendous headaches.( I love to read and this
"benefit" of LASIK has caused me great hardship). His diagnosis was
irregular astigmatism, accommodative spasm with gross refractive
fluctuations as a result of dry eye.
Christmas is tough. I'm coming up on my year anniversary of the char
and scar, sometimes referred to as LASIK."
The medical board answers to no one.... the board's function is to
monitor, review and police substandard care and non-professional
behavior of the licensed physican. As a medical professional, I can
assure you that your butcher's actions are unethical. Well, any
ophthalmologist performing LASIK is unethical by reasonable standards."
"I do find that eyestrain is now a way of life. The headaches
get me down sometimes.The OR is brutal since the relative humidity is
kept below 20% for infection control-so dryness is always an issue. I
blast in a couple of drops of Freshkote before a case. My colleagues
know about my ordeal with refractive surgery. I've managed to scare off
a number of potential LASIK candidates who've asked if I was pleased
with my results. My answer to that one usually renews their affection
for their glasses or contacts."
"I'm not religious by any means, but if there is a Hell, there is a
special place in it for Refractive surgeons.
I've been trying to understand the phenomenon of LASIK surgery's
tenacity despite all the clear indications that it should be abolished.
I believe that there are several key elements that refractive surgeons
consciously or inadvertently exploit. First, we all hated our glasses
and contact lenses. The promise of "perfect", unaided vision is so very
seductive. The lure took away much of my objectiveness so I was hearing
and reading only the propaganda and little of the real science. The
dense marketing overwhelms the objective information on RS. Next,
vision is poorly quantitated. Visual acuity is a subjective report by
the patient..."yeah, one looks clearer than two...wait, let me see two
again". No none really assesses how light is refracted by the anterior
eye then interpreted by the retina and brain. The optics of the human
eye are not static either. So the patient, ecstatic to be free of
lenses, believes he or she is now seeing great just because the 20/20
line can be resolved without glasses. Never mind the loss of contrast
sensitivity, loss of night acuity, loss of accommodation, corneal
derangement, dry eye...........etc. Now you have a population of LASIK
patients who want to believe their vision has been improved. They go on
to be poster children for LASIK and tell their friends and the vicious
cycle perpetuates. The "1%" of us that get the complications are
written off as unlucky bastards. Like the crazy aunt in the basement,
no one wants to acknowledge us because of our small numbers. After all,
would a reasonable person avoid going outside because of the
infinitesimally small risk of being hit by lightening? That's what we
are up against.
The FDA is a joke. They obstruct good medications, devices and
procedures and seem to bless the crap. Physicians on those panels are
notoriously the bottom 5% of their medical school classes. Most
couldn't critically read a peer reviewed journal if their lives
depended on it. It may take a class action lawsuit to stop the
butchering of eyes. [Deleted name of physician's lasik surgeon] is big
here in [deleted city of surgeon's residence]...the TLC equivalent.
What about this- "LASIK special $499, red-tipped cane included!" Or
maybe "LASIC-Lost Acuity Since I Came." It would get some righteous
publicity.
Getting physicians to organize a campaign might be a start. Let's get
the PhD's involved too.
I do have a wonderful wife who has helped me through all this. I don't
think she can ever comprehend the magnitude of the damage LASIK has
caused me. She has witnessed my decline into the darkest depression
that I have ever experienced. I do understand what [deleted name of
University of Michigan Psychiatrist who committed suicide in 2004 over
his bad LASIK outcome] was dealing with. I believe that I came
frighteningly close to his fate."
"I was contemplating life in general today. It's amazing how
drastically the LASIK has altered my life. I know you are experiencing that
as well. I realize that for me, I'm waging two battles. The obvious one is
the post-LASIK eye damage with all the associated treatments and daily
misery. But possibly more debilitating is the way that this outcome has
screwed up my psyche. At first, pure regret and anger wore me down
until I was clinically depressed. Then medication helped me out of that
dark state but I haven't yet regained my previous self. I still feel
kind of dazed. Have you felt this? It seems everything about my daily
experience has recentered on my eyes and vision. If my eyes feel better
one day, it's a good day. If I'm seeing particularly bad one day,
getting through a day is Hell. Every activity from reading to driving
at night reminds me of what I once had but have no more. I hate having
my mental state and moods hard-wired to my eyes...know what I mean?"
"You are more than welcome to use anonymous excerpts from my emails.
If we can save a single potential LASIK victim, we've given someone an
invaluable gift for life."
"One of the things that really irritated me about USA eyes and LME was
that idiot Glenn Hagle (sp.?) What a bag man for the LASIK industry. He
tries to come off as some patient advocate but he shamelessly promotes
the butchers. His stupid disclaimer "I am not a doctor" at the end of
every posting should read "I am not in any way reputable." Patient's
with real injuries are simply referred to the "links". I watched a long
thread where some guy with serious complications was communicating
with Glenn. Glenn's advice was so pathetically worthless. Those
generic "links" and canned advice Glenn was touting were going to get
him nowhere, and might delay some needed intervention. Turns out that
the guy was sitting on an overlooked retinal detachment. NICE!"
On people who won't express dissatisfaction with bad LASIK outcomes:
"Too negative," now that's rich. Someone nearly blinds you, curses you
with unrelenting eye pain, and robs you of essential tears and you are
angry? I wouldn't pay much attention to the lemmings. After all, they
dilute the visible dissatisfaction with the procedure which allows more
victims to be injured."
On LASIK suicide:
"It really sucks about your friend's vision. Her dry eye sounds
miserable too. I know that pain all too well. LASIK will not only
damage your vision and ocular health, it can be poison to your psyche.
Her suicidal ideations ARE scary. I was there once. Looking back, I was
dangerously close. By telling you, she may be seeking help. I didn't
tell anyone. If she gets silent about it, it's time to worry."
More on LASIK suicide:
"Wow, the suicidal times seem like a dream now (nightmare of course). I
was really thinking about driving over to the [Deleted name of LASIK
surgeon] clinic in the early AM hours, putting a sign on the windshield
"NICE RESULTS [surgeon name deleted]", and blowing my brains out
with a pistol. The media coverage would've dinged the bastard pretty good.
I actually had the sign made. I came so close it now gives me the creeps
to think about it. You are the only one I've told that to. I'm like you
though.
There is a threshold of debilitation above which I will not accept. That
would
be an unfair life sentence."
" I spent five months in the deepest, major depression. Only in the last
month
have I felt that I might not end up as a suicide statistic. There were many,
many
nights where I would lie down in bed at night, hoping for an arrythmia or
ruptured cerebral aneurysm to keep me from waking up to another day. Every
morning when I drove to work, I wished for a big truck to T-bone me in an
intersection...living was certainly more painful than dying. I first though
about
inert gas asphyxiation with nitrogen, cheap, painless and easy. I thought
about carbon monoxide but levels from new cars with catalytic converters
isn't enough to give you more than a headache.
KCL, good if given through a central line, but caustic to veins...so
you inject it in an arm vein and get pain and a quickly clotted vein.
Later, I bought a gun, Glock 9mm.
It was the knowledge that I would destroy my wife's life that
kept me from aerating my skull. I was really messed up!
The one thing that the psychiatrists don't realize is that nothing follows
you around
like your vision. We are constantly reminded of the damage which wears your
psyche down in the most effective, cruel way. It takes extra effort and
strength
to come up out of that type of depression."
On a movie theater experience after LASIK:
"My first post-LASIK movie experience sucked. I was in the nasty part
of my depression and went to see that pathetic film "The terminal."
The low light, ambient light aberrations were horrendous. I was so
dizzy from them that I barfed thirty minutes into the flick."
On vision after LASIK and pain:
"My irregular astigmatism seems to be minimized when my eyes are moist
with natural tears. If they are dry, my vision, day or night, stinks.
Night vision can be really bad with halos. Dryness also gives my a wierd
haze during the
day, as if I were looking through a glass of skim milk. The best
artificial tears don't alleviate this regardless of how often I use
them. Natural tears really resolve the haze. I still have constant eye
burning,
but it's now a 5 rather than myprior 9's. The accomodative spasm only occurs
once
a week or so, usually after reading or a demanding case at work. Reading
glasses
are a no-no. In an optimistic fugue a couple of days ago, I tried them on to
read
and was rewarded with a Gozilla of a headache and reallyblurred vision for
about 24 hours."
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