I know some of you have gotten LASIK, so...

[doomdragon6]

My eyesight is just dogturds and I'm getting a little tired of it. I'm generally fine with contacts, but I've been considering LASIK. I have a few qualms, though, so I thought I'd get insight from actual humans I vaguely know:

1) When I thought LASIK was just shooting lasers into my eyes, I was 100% fine with it. But then I found out they cut and fold back a little flap of your cornea and. I just fucking can't. I would need to be fucking unconscious or zooted out of my mind for this. I can handle most weird shit (like I could handle watching myself be cut open for a surgery just fine) but I could not handle this. What is this process like??

2) I have massive "I shouldn't have made that permanent decision" anxiety. I know that I would constantly be worrying if my eyes have healed right, if my vision is "perfect" or if I spent a lot of money to be slightly off, and so on. What was your healing process / time / anxiety like?

3) I have super wet eyes! It's good shit. I never get dry eyes and I can win pretty much any staring contest. (My record is 9 minutes without blinking before I got bored and went and did something else.) I do not want dry itchy shitty eyes in exchange for good eyesight. What's your dryness experience?

4) What's your degradation been like? ie, did you get LASIK and end up needing corrective eyewear later?

Thanks homies! Much appreciated on any in'sight's.

 

[Ravenpoe]

My eyesight is just dogturds and I'm getting a little tired of it. I'm generally fine with contacts, but I've been considering LASIK. I have a few qualms, though, so I thought I'd get insight from actual humans I vaguely know:

1) When I thought LASIK was just shooting lasers into my eyes, I was 100% fine with it. But then I found out they cut and fold back a little flap of your cornea and. I just fucking can't. I would need to be fucking unconscious or zooted out of my mind for this. I can handle most weird shit (like I could handle watching myself be cut open for a surgery just fine) but I could not handle this. What is this process like??

2) I have massive "I shouldn't have made that permanent decision" anxiety. I know that I would constantly be worrying if my eyes have healed right, if my vision is "perfect" or if I spent a lot of money to be slightly off, and so on. What was your healing process / time / anxiety like?

3) I have super wet eyes! It's good shit. I never get dry eyes and I can win pretty much any staring contest. (My record is 9 minutes without blinking before I got bored and went and did something else.) I do not want dry itchy shitty eyes in exchange for good eyesight. What's your dryness experience?

4) What's your degradation been like? ie, did you get LASIK and end up needing corrective eyewear later?

Thanks homies! Much appreciated on any in'sight's.

So I haven't had Lasik, but I know people who have, and they all had the same response to the icky idea of getting your corner cut open. The good news is you can't see it, they obviously use stuff to ensure you can't feel anything, but they also put a device over your eye that presses it down and makes it so it can't move, so all you really see is a black blotch and feel pressure on your face.

 

[blotsfan]

I’ll preface this with my general thoughts: I had LASIK about 10 years ago (according to my posts here, August 28th 2014) and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

So to answer your questions:

1) didn’t feel it at all. Also they have an all-laser procedure rather than scraping your eye and cutting with a knife. It costs more, but I had an astigmatism so I had to do that (something about the eye shape makes the scraping not possible). I would recommend it regardless because my recovery was a day rather than a month.

2) I woke up the next day with 20/15 vision. That’s technically not “perfect” but I’ve never noticed the difference. I’ve never once been upset about my vision.

3) I can’t think of the last time I used an eye drop. That’s not guaranteed for everyone but in my experience, no dry eyes. I have a friend who got it that has had them and he needs to do prescription eye drops once or twice a day. He says even with that annoyance it was 100% worth it.

4) 10 years later, no degradation. I might need reading glasses one day but I would’ve regardless.

My one side effect that I’ve had is that my eyes are more sensitive to the sun. I have to wear sunglasses if it’s sunny out, but a $20 pair of drugstore polarized sunglasses accomplishes what I need.

 

[Dei]

Depending on how bad your vision is, and how thick your corneas you might not qualify for LASIK and would need PRK, which would mean they obliterate that layer instead of making a flap, and it has to grow back which is a longer healing process.

I had to get PRK and I don't have a dry eye problem but I needed glasses again 6 years out (PRK at 37, started needing glasses again at 43)

 

[figmentPez]

A cautionary tale:


TL;DW He was unable to use screens or drive for over a month, and had worse vision than pre-surgery for the first 4 months after surgery. Because he was functionally blind for so long after the surgery, he suggests getting one eye done at a time.

 

[blotsfan]

Because he was functionally blind for so long after the surgery, he suggests getting one eye done at a time.

This sounds like hell and if your plan is to do this, I would just not get the procedure done.

 

[PatrThom]

2) I woke up the next day with 20/15 vision. That’s technically not “perfect” but I’ve never noticed the difference.

20/15 is better-than-"perfect" vision. It means you can see at 20ft what a "normal" person has to move up to 15ft to see. I used to have 20/10 vision in one eye and 20/15 vision in the other (the one that got burned by a cigarette as a kid). I miss it ENORMOUSLY now that the presbyopia has been settling in (don't know my current 20/?? other than I know I have developed astigmatism).

I have considered wavefront/pLASIK but have been putting it off because I want to wait until the absolute last minute to see how ophthalmology progresses, since I am worried that some new treatment will come out for reversing hardening of the lens or whatever but there will be some "Does not work/can't have the treatment if you have already mutilated your cornea via LASIK" kind of restriction. Also because it is expensive and "elective" which might as well be a multiplier on the expense part since that means health insurance people are less eager to help out.

For now it's an inconvenience more than a medical necessity, but if that changes, I'll be looking forward to see how the rest of this thread fills out.

--Patrick

 

[Dei]

A cautionary tale:


TL;DW He was unable to use screens or drive for over a month, and had worse vision than pre-surgery for the first 4 months after surgery. Because he was functionally blind for so long after the surgery, he suggests getting one eye done at a time.

Yeah it took me a month to heal from PRK enough to be able to drive so my husband had to finagle his work schedule to do school drop off/ pick up.

 

[Simfers]

I had LASIK done back in 2006, which, tech-wise, is probably equivalent to having it done back in the stone age with a rock. I have yet to have any regrets over it. Best money I've ever spent. Now, as to your questions:

1) When I got it done, they basically had me lie down on a table, then strapped my head so it couldn't move and blocked one of my eye with an eyepatch. They then put drops in the uncovered eye (I think it was cortisone? anyway, it numbs the eye) and put some kind of pressure pad that compresses your optic nerve so you can't see. The opening of the eye itself is painless, completely. Vey lightly run the tip on your finger on your cheek, like, barely touching it. That's what it feels like. Once the flap is flipped over, it's SUPER weird, like you're seeing through a glob of jelly or something. Then the laser starts doing its thing and turns out burning eyeball smells like burning pork. Flip the flap back, laser suture, then repeat for the other eye. I was fucking terrified in the waiting room before the whole thing, they offered me something to calm me down as I was shaking so bad. Unfortunately, since I'd never taken valium before, they could only offer me half a pill. Being over 200 lbs, it did jackshit.

2) I had dry eyes for, like, a week, with prescription eye drops 3 or 4 times a day and regular ones as needed. Had to wear sunglasses at all times (including a Corey Hart impression) for a couple of days. Showers were more annoying, since I had to wear pool goggles for a bit. Also had to wear some type of eye covering during the night to make sure I didn't reflexively rub my eyes when waking up and tear everything. TAHT sucked. Slept pretty poorly for a few days. Overall, I was all done in roughly a week, but that's unusally fast. My friend who got it done a few weeks before me needed two. Also never got the haloes a lot of people get around streetlights.

3) Aside from the period I mentioned at item 2, no dryness, at least no more than I'd get anyway.

4) So far, no noticeable degradation unless I try to read something very small, like a pill bottle, where I have to struggle a bit. But,I mean, LASIK was 18 years ago, and I'm now 45 (or roughly a tenth of a Dave), so that's probably just a sign of the times.

It's a scary, scary procedure, my dude, and completely non-essential. But the first time I was able to read a sign on the other side of the room without glasses for the first time in nearly 20 years (which happened roughly 30 minutes after the procedure)? I cried like a baby.

 

[GasBandit]

I had LASIK done around 2008. They doped me up on valium which made me not care that they cut a flap open on my cornea and brushed it back with a wet paintbrush. They made me stare at a dot on the ceiling while they fired the laser (which sounded like a small hammer hitting a block of wood twice per second), and there was a burning smell in the air, but otherwise I didn't feel a thing. They had me wear a facemask while I slept for a couple weeks to keep me from rubbing/mashing my eyes in my sleep while the flaps healed, but apart from that I already had vastly improved vision just walking out of the clinic to be driven home (because Valium).

What they say about LASIK screwing with your night vision was pretty true in my case - it makes it harder to drive at night or find certain people in the crowd in a darkened theater. But it's still the second best thing I've ever done for myself (after my Gastric Sleeve surgery).

I absolutely would do it again if I knew then everything I knew now.

 

[Adam]

I had LASIK done around 2008. They doped me up on valium which made me not care that they cut a flap open on my cornea and brushed it back with a wet paintbrush. They made me stare at a dot on the ceiling while they fired the laser (which sounded like a small hammer hitting a block of wood twice per second), and there was a burning smell in the air, but otherwise I didn't feel a thing. They had me wear a facemask while I slept for a couple weeks to keep me from rubbing/mashing my eyes in my sleep while the flaps healed, but apart from that I already had vastly improved vision just walking out of the clinic to be driven home (because Valium).

What they say about LASIK screwing with your night vision was pretty true in my case - it makes it harder to drive at night or find certain people in the crowd in a darkened theater. But it's still the second best thing I've ever done for myself (after my Gastric Sleeve surgery).

I absolutely would do it again if I knew then everything I knew now.

Except for the night vision issue (I had halos, but only for a short time), this was exactly my experience and outcome.

 

[PatrThom]

They then put drops in the uncovered eye (I think it was cortisone? anyway, it numbs the eye)

You're close:

Cocaine's use in ophthalmology: our 100-year heritage - PubMed

One hundred years ago the fledgling ophthalmologist Carl Koller demonstrated that the alkaloid cocaine was a local anesthetic suitable for rendering the eye temporarily insensible to pain. It was an event of historical significance, as his discovery opened the door not only to a new era in...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

--Patrick

 

[Tinwhistler]

I've never had LASIK. But I have had cataract surgery. Without the benefit of anesthesia. It's less discomfort than getting a shot. I imagine I could handle LASIK just fine..and the only reason I haven't done it is because, at least before the cataract surgery, I was already legally blind in one eye and so docs were hesitant to risk fucking up my good eye. Now that I've got a plastic lens in there, though, I haven't really done the research to see if it's even an option.

But I imagine I'll get around to it sooner, rather than later.

 

[GasBandit]

One other caveat - if you get LASIK in your 20s, expect to need reading glasses by 50.

 

[blotsfan]

One other caveat - if you get LASIK in your 20s, expect to need reading glasses by 50.

I was in my 20s and the doctor explained it to me that “it doesn’t cause you to need reading glasses, it just doesn’t prevent you from needing them.”

 

[GasBandit]

I was in my 20s and the doctor explained it to me that “it doesn’t cause you to need reading glasses, it just doesn’t prevent you from needing them.”

Because I was so INCREDIBLY nearsighted, I probably would not have needed reading glasses. I used to be able, pre-lasik, to just hold something small right up to my eye and read microprint. That ability IMMEDIATELY went away.

Now I'm 45 and I'm already having to hold normal size documents away from my face to focus on them.

 

[PatrThom]

Yeah, I don't know if you read the presbyopia thing, but beginning by at least your 50's you're going to start needing some kind of glasses (or cataract surgery!) no matter what. Seriously, they even did a study on fighter pilots (a population which already selects for above-average eyesight) and concluded that while you can do things to delay degradation of vision, you absolutely cannot prevent it from happening.

Even into my early 40's, I could still hold a Lincoln penny up to my unaided eye and clearly read the engravers' initials from the front and back while still being able to clearly "zoom out" to infinity for things like driving and stargazing. Now that's just a distant memory.

--Patrick

 

[doomdragon6]

These are all very helpful responses!

Some things made me feel way more confident about trying, and others made it feel way worse!

So I think I evened out to "uhhh.. I'll probably stick with contacts for now".

That permanence really messes with me.

 

[Simfers]

Yeah, that's valid, man. Like any surgery, there's risk involved, and it's not always possible to go back and correct the correction, y'know?

My friend I mentioned above? His wife also got it done, but she had a WAY stronger prescription than we did. Like, we had a risk that it wouldn't work, but that was the worst case (barring extreme complications like an earthquake hitting). SHE had that but also a risk of straight up going blind.

She went for it anyway and was wearing glasses again a couple of years later.

I totally get the choice of wearing contacts instead.

 

[LittleKagsin]

There is a third option which is ICL, an implantable lens. Which also comes with the benefit of not being 'permanent'. If your prescription changes, your opthalmologist can change the lens out.
I have incredibly horrible eyesight and am not a good candidate for Lasik so my eye doctor recommended this if I was ever interested. So this may be a good option for you! There is a higher risk for infection vs. Lasik - only at the time of the procedure - since you're basically putting a permanent contact on your eye, but seems to come with less drawbacks too? Studies show less dry eyes, no haloes, improved night driving, so all depends what you want.
From one blind bat to another, good luck!

 

[PatrThom]

There is a third option which is ICL, an implantable lens.

The IC is intra-corneal, right?
(searches)
Yep, that's basically it. I knew it existed, but what I didn't know is that it's mainly for nearsightedness (myopia), and that they apparently don't do it once you're older than 45?

--Patrick

 

[LittleKagsin]

The IC is intra-corneal, right?
(searches)
Yep, that's basically it. I knew it existed, but what I didn't know is that it's mainly for nearsightedness (myopia), and that they apparently don't do it once you're older than 45?

--Patrick

Maybe things changed since I researched last, but last I knew the age was 60, not 45.

 

[Bubble181]

I'm in the rare case of having done LASIK on one eye, and nothing on the other.
However, it's been a long while and at the time they could only do the flap if the correction wasn't too bad - in my case they just had to start scraping at the top layer to have enough left over. And, of course, techniques have improved.
Having said that: other than "slightly crustier eye gunk when waking up" I haven't had any problem with dryness. The eye with surgery is still perfect, the other one (which had near-perfect vision at the time) now requires a contact lens.
As for light sensitivity - yes, a bit, in the sense that going from dark to light environment or vice versa the eye adjusts somewhat slower, but after a minute or so that evens out again.
If I had the money I'd happily do LASIK on the other eye as well.

 

[Far]

Sarah got Lasik and I'll answer based on her responses she's given when I've asked her similar questions in the past.


1) When I thought LASIK was just shooting lasers into my eyes, I was 100% fine with it. But then I found out they cut and fold back a little flap of your cornea and. I just fucking can't. I would need to be fucking unconscious or zooted out of my mind for this. I can handle most weird shit (like I could handle watching myself be cut open for a surgery just fine) but I could not handle this. What is this process like?? She said that the most uncomfortable thing was the numbing eye drops, after that everything was done so quickly she didn't have time for it to be uncomfortable.

2) I have massive "I shouldn't have made that permanent decision" anxiety. I know that I would constantly be worrying if my eyes have healed right, if my vision is "perfect" or if I spent a lot of money to be slightly off, and so on. What was your healing process / time / anxiety like? Roughly month of over dryness mitigated by lots of prescribed eye drops. She had very dry eyes prior to it and after the month, partly because not wearing contacts anymore we assume, that prior dryness has all been but eliminated entirely. She was only sequestered in a dark room for the day after with roughly 2 weeks of sleeping with a sleeping mask to avoid eye rubbing.

3) I have super wet eyes! It's good shit. I never get dry eyes and I can win pretty much any staring contest. (My record is 9 minutes without blinking before I got bored and went and did something else.) I do not want dry itchy shitty eyes in exchange for good eyesight. What's your dryness experience? As mentioned above, her eye dryness actually got better afterwards and has remained better to this day.

4) What's your degradation been like? ie, did you get LASIK and end up needing corrective eyewear later? She had hers done December 2021 so honestly don't know that it's been long enough to say if there has been any by this point.



She has frequently said it's been the best thing she's ever spent money on. One downside is she doesn't like driving at night in the rain now as the starbursts she gets from lights( she always had these but can ironically now see them better), magnified by them reflecting off the wet surfaces, make it difficult.

 

[doomdragon6]

There is a third option which is ICL, an implantable lens. Which also comes with the benefit of not being 'permanent'. If your prescription changes, your opthalmologist can change the lens out.
I have incredibly horrible eyesight and am not a good candidate for Lasik so my eye doctor recommended this if I was ever interested. So this may be a good option for you! There is a higher risk for infection vs. Lasik - only at the time of the procedure - since you're basically putting a permanent contact on your eye, but seems to come with less drawbacks too? Studies show less dry eyes, no haloes, improved night driving, so all depends what you want.
From one blind bat to another, good luck!

Oh interesting, that actually sounds way better

 

[LittleKagsin]

Oh interesting, that actually sounds way better

Agreed! Definitely worth looking in to at least.

 

[Shawn]

Best thing I did. I want to say I had it done in 2010 and my eyesight is still 20/20 as per my most recent vision test last year.
As far as how the procedure feels. Basically it feels just like my doctor at the time described it. "The most you're going to feel is uncomfortable."

 

[Ravenpoe]

Best thing I did. I want to say I had it done in 2010 and my eyesight is still 20/20 as per my most recent vision test last year.
As far as how the procedure feels. Basically it feels just like my doctor at the time described it. "The most you're going to feel is uncomfortable."

That's my secret, Doc. I'm always uncomfortable.