LASIK/Epi-Lasik Eye Surgery. Have you done it?

[Paul Hudson]

I have shot the procedure many times. I have several Eye surgeon clients. The surgery is now fast as well as the recovery and is relatively painless compared to several years ago. I am now considering the procedure to correct far-sightedness. The price has really come down, I just have to make time to do it.

 

[Antonio Forjaz]

I had it done in 1997...and I am still seeing very well...and in 1997 it was not like it is now I think.
It really makes all the difference
It is really worth it

 

[Stephen Williams]

I had it done in Mid May, expect some fluctuations in vision for a few months. After 4 months night driving is not a problem at all, you will need to take care for first 2 months. Full recovery is at least 6 months. I have an eye chart at home, some days it's better than 20:20 others not. If the eye is dry the vision is not as good.

Update:

The surgery went well. It's not really anything I ever want to experience again though. For those unaware here is the step by step:

1. They drug up your eyes so you don't feel anything. The nurse put drops in my eyes around 4 or 5 times.
2. They take you to the operating room and lay you and down position the laser. One issue I had is I didn't fit the damn machine very well. I guess it wasn't built with tall people in mind...
3. The doctor says to look at a light, in my case green, and don't move. Easier said than done...
4. The doctor uses a speculum to open up your eyes Clockwork Orange style.
5. The doctor pushes on your eyeball with something until your vision goes black.
6. Let the cutting begin. I couldn't really tell when he started cutting because you don't feel anything, but pressure, but when he flips back the flap everything goes blurry. It's a very unnerving thing to experience...
7. Now the lasering begins. There is a cracking sound, a few seconds of brigh flashing lights and the pleasant aroma of your eyball burning (smells like burnt hair).
8. Then the doctor washed out my open eyeball which I can is a very strange experience. The first thing that popped in my head while he did it was, "he's waterboarding my eyeball."
9. Now the flap gets closed up, checked for proper alignment with some sort of magnifying glass and a bright light and a protective contact lens was stuck on (not all doctors do this).
10. Now you repeat everything again with the next eye. Except this time I coul feel a slight bit of pain as he cut. I guess the drugs wore off a bit. The pain was not bad at all, but I was quite worried that it was going to get worse as he cut. Fortunately it didn't...
11. After the left eye was finished the nurse helped me up and asked how things looked. The answer: Not that great. Extremely foggy and a bit blurry. The fog is normal, but the blur was partially caused by the protective lens which has a slight correction.
12. Next the nurse took me to my room where I laid in bed for a couple hours and relaxed. The place I went to is kind of a boutique clinic so you get quite good treatment. After surgery you get a bed to sleep and relax in for 2-3 hours.

After a couple hours in bed I went out to eat at a place near the clinic and then went home.

At the exam the next morning everything looked good. I went early to the clinic because when I woke up I found that the protective lens on my right eye was folded. They saw me immediately, pulled out the lenses and checked out the flap. All good, except there is (was?) some inflammation which is normal. My vision was technically 20/20 with my left eye, but not 20/20 in my right probably due to the folder up contact lens. I say the left eye was "technically" 20/20 because while I could read the line it was a little blurry. The doctor says all this will improve dramatically over the next week.

I'm only 3 days post op, but I'm quite pleased with the results already. I have to wear sunglasses everywhere because my eyes are quite light sensitive. This is par for the course and they advise everywhere to wear sunglasses (100% UV blocking) for at least 7 days post op. My night vision sucked the day of the surgery. Lots of haloing and starbursts with bright light sources. This has gotten much better, but still I have some haloing and starbursts. Again, this is all normal at this point.

My vision also does fluctuate a bit. Sometimes things go a little blurry and I have to do a slow blink to kind of "reset" things and then they are sharp focus. I must say when things are in focus, most of the time, it is absolutely beautiful. I don't remember having such sharp vision ever.

One other side effect I have noticed is when I am not wearing my sunglasses (polarized Ray Bans) I seem to not have the same amount of contrast in my vision as usual. This is also supposed to be temporary and is probably related to how light sensitive my eyes are right now.

That's all for now... I'm not really supposed to be spending more than a few minutes looking at a computer screen. I will update this thread as things progress. I have a check up this Friday again. Overall, I have 0 regrets and I am very optimistic about this.

 

[Brandon J.F.]

I had it done in Mid May, expect some fluctuations in vision for a few months. After 4 months night driving is not a problem at all, you will need to take care for first 2 months. Full recovery is at least 6 months. I have an eye chart at home, some days it's better than 20:20 others not. If the eye is dry the vision is not as good.

Every day it keeps getting better. I am excited for my eye exam later this week.

Do you have any problems with dry eyes?

 

[Brandon J.F.]

My one week post op check up was today. My vision is already better than perfect. I could read the 1.25 line done and a little from the 1.6 line. In US terms that's approximately 20/15. The doctor was impressed and says it will get even better over the next month. My right eye is lagging behind my left right now, and there is still some swelling. My vision does still fluctuate, I still have some starbursts and slight haloing at night, my eyes get dry when reading and are often a little sore. My eyes are also still a little light sensitive. It's still early though and I'm very confidant these symptoms will all go away. I really do not think my vision has ever been so crisp and clear even when I did not need glasses. It is amazing.

 

[Stephen Williams]

Every day it keeps getting better. I am excited for my eye exam later this week.

Do you have any problems with dry eyes?

No problem with dry eyes, I had drops for about a month IIRC.
Sounds like your result is very good, fluctuation in vision will get less as time goes on. My only beef is that eye tests are done in bright light, so so the iris is stopped down, it would be more accurate if it was done wise open!

 

[Brandon J.F.]

All my exams at this clinic have been in dimly lit rooms.

 

[Stephen Williams]

All my exams at this clinic have been in dimly lit rooms.

The eye chart is supposed to be quite bright, I took a ND 1,5 to look through, made a difference of 0.5 dioptre, I wish I had done that in the beggining.

 

[Brandon J.F.]

The chart was bright. The room was dim.

 

[Stephen Williams]

The chart was bright. The room was dim.

Thats what I mean, the eye is stopped down so you have depth of field, much better to 'collimate' wide open!

They ask questions, which is better, often they look the same due to DOF.

 

[Brian D. Goff]

Hey Stephen

Were did you do it? Am thinking about going that route.

Brian

I did it earlier this year in 1 eye, 2 hours later I went shopping, I was told to go home & rest! Zero pain, I was 20:20 the following day, it's regressed slightly, however I can still almost read the entire 20:20 line.

 

[Stephen Williams]

Hi Brian,

I had been researching for 5 years after shooting a film on the Subject. I spoke to a few clinics in CH, they all were more interested in Money than listening to what I wanted to do. I only needed to treat 1 eye, they wanted to operate on both.

Due to the colapse of the £ I did some research in London, http://www.accuvision.co.uk/ had the best surgeons & best Equipment. Thats the best place I found, custom wavefront £1450 for 1 eye. As the other eye is better than 20:25 / 80% , they agreed there was no reason to touch it! Esayjet Basel-London can be 65 chf return if booked in advance.

 

[Brandon J.F.]

Thats what I mean, the eye is stopped down so you have depth of field, much better to 'collimate' wide open!

They ask questions, which is better, often they look the same due to DOF.

Gotcha, all clear now.

Hi Brian,

I had been researching for 5 years after shooting a film on the Subject. I spoke to a few clinics in CH, they all were more interested in Money than listening to what I wanted to do. I only needed to treat 1 eye, they wanted to operate on both.

Due to the colapse of the £ I did some research in London, http://www.accuvision.co.uk/ had the best surgeons & best Equipment. Thats the best place I found, custom wavefront £1450 for 1 eye. As the other eye is better than 20:25 / 80% , they agreed there was no reason to touch it! Esayjet Basel-London can be 65 chf return if booked in advance.

Mine was roughly £1200 for both eyes. Latest equipment, great surgeon, custom wavefront and a bed to sleep in for a couple hours after the operation. Couldn't have asked for more really. It was not done in the UK though. A bit further northeast...

 

[Stivan Widick]

I highly recommend the custom cornea with wavefront analysis -- custom wavefront -- over LASIK. I had this done about 6 years ago when it was a new procedure. I was told that LASIK uses about 9 laser hits to shape your cornea whereas custom wavefront uses around 200 computer-controlled laser hits, determined by the topological analysis of the relationship between your lens and retina generated by bouncing radar waves into your eyes. This is supposed to completely eliminate the nighttime halos and streaks that people can get from traditional LASIK. After the surgery I was 20/20 in one eye and better than this in the other. I'd worn glasses since my teens.

 

[Stephen Williams]

I highly recommend the custom cornea with wavefront analysis -- custom wavefront -- over LASIK. I had this done about 6 years ago when it was a new procedure. I was told that LASIK uses about 9 laser hits to shape your cornea whereas custom wavefront uses around 200 computer-controlled laser hits, determined by the topological analysis of the relationship between your lens and retina generated by bouncing radar waves into your eyes. This is supposed to completely eliminate the nighttime halos and streaks that people can get from traditional LASIK. After the surgery I was 20/20 in one eye and better than this in the other. I'd worn glasses since my teens.

Custom wavefront is what I had, it's still LASIK (Laser-in-situ-Keratomileusis).

 

[Stivan Widick]

Yes, but with the differences that I noted above. A few years on now as I get older I'm losing my ability to focus near-range; I'm having to hold books further and further away. The doctor who performed my surgery said there was a new procedure in the works to address this, apparently involving tiny little rubber bands implanted around the edge of the iris. I think it's time to look into an alternative to reading glasses.

 

[Brandon J.F.]

I highly recommend the custom cornea with wavefront analysis -- custom wavefront -- over LASIK. I had this done about 6 years ago when it was a new procedure. I was told that LASIK uses about 9 laser hits to shape your cornea whereas custom wavefront uses around 200 computer-controlled laser hits, determined by the topological analysis of the relationship between your lens and retina generated by bouncing radar waves into your eyes. This is supposed to completely eliminate the nighttime halos and streaks that people can get from traditional LASIK. After the surgery I was 20/20 in one eye and better than this in the other. I'd worn glasses since my teens.

Custom wavefront does not eliminate the risk of halos, streaks, starbursts and other night vision problems. A lot of this has to do with how large your pupils are when dilated. This is something they check for prior to operating.

 

[Brandon J.F.]

As of a couple weeks ago my vision is 20/12. That's 160% perfect for those not from the US. My eyes are definitely still recovering though so there could be further improvement. I still get dry eyes if I am staring a computer screen too long, but that is improving with each day. I still have some slight hazing and starbursting at night with some headlights and street lights. That too is improving and really is not even a big deal anymore.

I have NEVER seen things so sharply ever in my life. I go in for my one month check up in a week, even though it's been more than a month, and hopefully I can read some of the 20/10 (200%) line

 

[Brandon J.F.]

It's more than a year since my last update. Getting this surgery is one of the best decisions I have made. I don't have any side effects at all anymore. I did have problems with eye strain when looking at a computer screen up until 3 or 4 months ago. Now I don't at all. I go in for my last check up in a few weeks or so. Looking forward to seeing what my vision is now.

 

[Abraham Lim]

I had Lasik wavefront done last year, and although I like not having to wear glasses anymore, I can't say it came out perfect. They corrected one eye for 20/20 and one eye was corrected a little less to give me the ability to read without reading glasses. I wore glasses all my life so my correction was pretty major. My eyes get blurry when I'm on the computer a long time, and given that I'm editing my own work constantly, that's not so hot. It's 3:39 where I'm at and that's blurry time for me.

I also get halos around lights at night sometimes, and sometimes not. They told me it would take about a year to clear out, but it's been about a year and a half. Most of the time it's just something I've gotten used to, but I don't like the uncertainty when focusing, it seems I have to verify it more. Wish I knew about the Vitamin C thing then, but I still think being able to break free from glasses was worth it. I don't have to worry about them breaking if I get punched in the face.