Lasik eye surgery ??

Discussion in 'Health & Fitness' started by ArtofWar, Jan 9, 2006.

  1. ArtofWar Registered Senior Member

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    121
    I was pondering the prospect of having Laser eye surgery, and after my research i find "Lasik" the obvious choice of procedure. Now i have thought about this for atleast a couple of years, pretty much ever since the price has gone down. Now my question to those who are familiar with this proccess is. What are the pros and cons come along with this that the care centers do not tell you about? Bottom line is i am tired of wearing Contact lenses and glasses. :bugeye:

    http://www.allegretto-wave.com/ This i gather is a new form of the "Lasik" laser, may be wrong but check it out

    http://www.lasersurgeryforeyes.com/
     
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  3. Oxygen One Hissy Kitty Registered Senior Member

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    Look it up. Any decent search engine will give you plenty of sites with the pros and cons. My husband was thinking about it, but was hesitant as the long term affects hadn't been properly studied and/or reported. For lack of information, he backed off and is getting glasses. There may be more information now, but I think 800$ per eye is a bit steep for vanity's sake. (That's what it goes for here.)
     
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  5. ArtofWar Registered Senior Member

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    Well, obviously from my post i have done my research. I ask for insight from those with empirical observation. I have a freind who had it done a couple of months ago, and everything was fine so the is really nothing he can share with me

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    . Where he went cost $4400 USD, and i considered going there but cannot afford it. where i am planning on going charges around $980USD per eye, hence why i want to hear from people who have experienced complication, cuz you get what you pay for! :bugeye:
     
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  7. Kotoko Laptop Persocom Registered Senior Member

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    My feeling is this;

    I only have one set of eyes. Glasses are not going to damage my eyes. But surgery might.

    What will it cost you if it fails? Do you get your money back if they screw you up more than you already were?

    Is vanity and inconvience worth your eyesight?

    Can any one of these places insure success?

    No thank you.

    I've worn glasses since I was eight, when I am not wearing them, a piece of me is missing at this point. I don't like contacts either. I have a set of disposables for special occasions but prefer my glasses.

    Four of my friends have had it and had no problems. One had her vision get worse, and now she also has a little bit of scar tissue that is prone to infection. One in five doesn't seem like good odds to me.
     
  8. allisone417 i'll be in my room Registered Senior Member

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    Flanders: "I got that trendy new eye surgery, but what they dont tell you is that at the 10 year mark, your eyes fall out!"

    there are excersizes to improve your eyes, and vitamins and minerals like carrotine are known to help, even if only a bit.

    the body knows how to take care of itself. but it still needs the tools.
     
  9. Oxygen One Hissy Kitty Registered Senior Member

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    2,478
    ArtofWar-How bad is your eye condition? I severely injured my right eye when I was 4. We were too poor to afford glasses but not poor enough for assistance, so I've spent the last 34 years with one eye good for only about 4 or 5 feet before everything got blurry. I used my left eye to see and my right eye only for a sense of depth. I finally got glasses when I went into the Navy but had become so used to not having them that I never wore them. I failed an eye exam at the DMV and had to wear them for driving (actually I put them on my head and flipped them down really fast when I got pulled over for anything), but forgot to take them with me at my last renewal. I passed! My vision actually had improved!

    I attribute it, as allisone417 suggests, to a dietary improvement. Beta Kerotine (yes, found in carrots) played a big part, but I did a gradual overhaul of my diet over the past year that seems to have done the trick. My eyesight isn't 20/20 yet, and I don't know if it ever will be again, but it has improved more since my DMV test.

    Of course, if there's something seriously wrong with your eyes (you wear coke-bottles, people suggest you should switch to contacts and you reply "My vision's so bad these ARE my contacts!"), you may want to go for it. It would be nice to hear from users here who have actually had the surgery themselves, as my husband is still thinking about it.
     
  10. ArtofWar Registered Senior Member

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    121
    did your 5th friend do something he/she shouldn't have done during the healing proccess??


    my vision is 20/240 which isn't good at all. No i donnot have coke bottel glasses, as of yet seeing i am still yound

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    , but i could not drive safely without my contacts or glasses.

    As far as Kerotine is concerned, i am pretty sure that i am beyond that level of repair. I could function wihtout my glasses on, but ould have alot of trouble doing normal day-to-day activites without them (driving,tv,lectures)
     
  11. Oxygen One Hissy Kitty Registered Senior Member

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    2,478
    If I was in your spot, I'd go for the surgery. If you're still young and your eyesight is that far gone, what have you got to lose? Without some kind of treatment, it's only going to go downhill as age ambushes you. You can't help a natural decay to some degree of your faculties as you get older, but I haven't heard of anyone going blind from the surgery (unless they failed to follow the post-op instructions).

    I'd also consult with a couple of eye doctors that aren't involved in Lasik just to get a second and third opinion. Surgery is surgery and should always be regarded carefully.

    PS: I don't know what your diet is like, but making sure it's healthy enough can't hurt in making a smooth recovery process!
     
  12. mercaptan Das Feuer liebt mich Registered Senior Member

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    For vanity's sake? I'm pretty sure it would be more for practical sake than for anything else. Having glasses and/or contacts (which I have both) is just uncomfortable and a big hassle. Second, $800.00 per eye is relatively cheap compared to the late 90's price of $2000 per eye.

    I'm sure you'd agree being able to see clearly is so valuable you can't really say 800 bucks is too much. Being able to wake up in the morning and not put on glasses or contacts and just being able to see is...well, wow...I can't quite imagine it yet....but soon.

    To the original poster. I too am thinking about Lasik for my eyes. What is your diaptor? I have a -5.50 dia. That's pretty bad but my eye doctor has told me I would make a good candidate for the surgery. I'm here in Germany and I am going to find out what the costs are like here.
     
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  13. Oxygen One Hissy Kitty Registered Senior Member

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    Is putting on glasses really that difficult? Is it too much trouble to flip open a pair of little metal levers and put the things on your head? $800? Give me the 800 bucks and I'll put the things on your head for you. (Heck, I'd even do it naked, but you'd probably claw your eyes out rather than risk that spectacle again!

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    ) If it's for mere convenience (I've never had to put contacts in, but I hear it's a pain in the ass), I wouldn't spend money I really can't afford. $800.00 is a month's rent here (actually it's $825.00), and I'd rather put on glasses and pay the rent rather than have crystal clear vision while sleeping under a railroad trestle. So yes, I can say that 800$ is too much.

    However, 20/240 is pretty out there. I knew someone whose eyesight hit the upper end of the scale. They couldn't make a lens that would correct his vision. It could only make it better than it had been. At 20/240 I'd start saving up because it's only going to get worse with age.
     
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  14. ArtofWar Registered Senior Member

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    121
    Well there are people (i.e. Larry king) who are in the range

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    that i'll be me in 35 years, but technology will be or is at the point where my lenses will not be thicker than the length of ones nose lol
     
  15. Killjoy Propelling The Farce!! Valued Senior Member

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    5,289
    My boss had lasik surgery done recently, and one complication which arose in his case - which he was apparently not informed of the possibility of beforehand - was a condition in which a fluid of some sort has accumulated beneath the reshaped portion of the eye that is distorting his vision equivalent to farsightedness (as opposed to what he described as the intolerable nearsightedness which prompted him to have the surgery done).

    The result is that he now utilizes a pair of those cheapie "reading glasses" in order to see clearly from about arm's length distance & closer.
    He's related that the doc told him that this side effect will take approximately 6-10 months to abate. Supposedly it is sufficiently rare that they felt no need to mention it.

    He claims his "distance" vision is quite a bit clearer than before the surgery.
     
  16. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    4,885
    Tiger Woods had the surgery a few years ago. He probably had the best surgeon & technique money can buy. apparently he has done okay.

    Get a couple opinions. The conditions known ot result in bad odds are well known.

    I have been wearing disposable contacts for about ten years, which I find far better than glasses. My vision was about 800/20 and the contacts make me far sigghted, so I wear cheap reading glasses for close work.

    I was told that I was a good candidate for sirgery, but I find the contacts so convenenient tha it is not worth even a small risk. I take the disposables out every night and put them in in the morning. It takes total about 5 minutes per day. They are supposed to last about a week or so, but I use the same pair for 2-4 months. Once I put them in, I do not know they are there.

    It is my understanding that people who have been near sighted for many years people do not have much focusing ability. You are likely to need reading glasses if you have thw surgery.

    For me, 5 minutes per day is no big deal. While cost is not really important when making decisions about your eyes, note that it will take me 5-10 years before the contacts add up to the cost of the surgery.
     

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