LASIK enthusiasts - give me some insight

[USERNAME]

fellow LASIK enthusiasts,

i am considering having wavefront LASIK done to correct my vision. (my physical vision, not the inner force that guides me through this life - i correct that with bourbon.) i would like to hear from those of you that have either had, or seriously considered the procedure. here's what i'd like to hear from you:

a) when you had it done.

b) the "working" diameter of the LASER used, in mm, and the diameter of the blend area they used. (mine would be 6.5mm and 8mm respectively.)

c) your pupil diameter, in a dark room. (not after dilation drops were added.) (mine is 6.25mm)

d) the amount of correction performed. (the diopter of your prescription. for instance, i'm roughly -3.25 in both eyes.)

e) your cornea thickness prior to the surgery. (i'm at 530 microns, thinnest point.)

f) your cornea thickness after the surgery. (im around 480 microns, minimum.)

g) your rate of recovery - how soon did you feel safe:
i) driving
ii) riding your bike
iii) doing either of those at night.

h) any other feedback you might have for me, particularly in regard to needing a follow-up enhancement, and night vision.

i'm concerned about the usual stuff, namely aberrations imparing my night vision, and especially those severe enough that riding at night is unsafe. secondly, i'm interested in your recovery period. i'm planning to have the work done in the first week of april, and would like to be able to do a long-ish weekend ride 2-3 weeks later. i'm trying to get my expectations properly set for this.

thanks.

[99007]

i was kinda interested in the procedure (my eye doc pitches it hard every time i go in for an exam) and then the guy told me i would be awake for the whole thing and i started crying and wet myself so they figure i am not a good candidate. (i tell ya - pee your pants and pretty much any salesperson will back off.)
how will we recognize you without your glasses? (how will we recognize you with your glasses?)
good luck with your mission. sorry to interupt your quest for info w/blubbering.

[USERNAME]

i was kinda interested in the procedure (my eye doc pitches it hard every time i go in for an exam) and then the guy told me i would be awake for the whole thing and i started crying and wet myself so they figure i am not a good candidate. (i tell ya - pee your pants and pretty much any salesperson will back off.)

i did the same thing, and the doc said, "don't worry about it, we line the operating chair with an absorbent pad." clearly they are making strides in the procedure to allow a wider group of pee-ple to have it done.

how will we recognize you without your glasses? (how will we recognize you with your glasses?)

i'll be wearing a shirt that says, "username."

[BRADFORDBENN]

That would explain why the person at the airport wearing the "T-Shirt" shirt had no idea why I was calling him username. The fact that it had capital letters should have let me know that it wasn't the real username

My brother has had Lasik without problem and he was skydiving after a week. Yes, he was skydiving before the surgery. A person at work got it, and it didn't work out so well as there is glare at night and he still needs glasses to read.

Me personally, I am too scared to get it. But if you get it, make sure you ask them what they will do if it doesn't work.

[Emoto]

I got it almost 5 years ago. Don't know the numbers you asked for. It has worked out well for me in that I can now do everything without glasses and before, I was blind as a bat without them. Two issues are dry eyes almost every morning (a couple of artificial tear drops take care of it) and I had some difficulty at night for the first 6 months or so which has continued to improve to the point where it may be no worse thsan before the surgery although I am not certain. By difficulty, I mean glare around lights and less night vision. Riding in the rain on unlit roads at night was possible, but just barely. Nowadays I think the laser is larger than everyone's pupil; that was the problem for me. Knowing what I know now, I would do it again if assuured the same results, but screwing with your eyes is a very personal decision and you should make up your own mind.

[BobFV1]

I don't know about all those specifics you asked about, but I had LASIK done 5 years ago with a pre-wavefront laser. It was the second greatest day of my life, after gastrulation! I now need +1 reading glasses, but that is normal, and I have slight halo effect at night but normal night vision and occasional dry eyes - but I can see and I am glasses-free and it was the greatest thing I've ever done!

[USERNAME]

here's an update, for the sake of follow-up. (most people on here ask for advice on things, but then never post a follow up to let us know if the advice was any good, how it all worked out, etc. that bugs me.)

i'm almost 7 weeks out from the eye surgery. im pretty dang pleased. the first couple of weeks were rough when trying to read or see in low-light. my night vision was also full of severe starbursts and halos. for a very brief period of time i wondered if maybe i had made a mistake. early on i was experiencing eye strain for the first time in my life, and i was concerned that it might become normal. it's gone. with lasik, as with so many other things in life, patience and acting through willfull inaction allowed things to work themselves out. currently, reading small text is no longer an issue, and my night vision is both different and better than prior to the surgery.

i've learnt to divide my judgement of my vision into four categories, ranked by what i consider degree of difficulty for vision in general, as well as for the surgery to accurately correct.

1. normal daytime vision.
2. reading.
3. reading/detailed work in low light.
4. night vision.

here is how i'm currently scoring it.

pre-surgery post-surgery
w/ glasses

1. 10 9.75
2. 10 9.75
3. 10 8
4. 7 9

while #1 and #2 degraded somewhat, they continue to improve with time. it's weird.

#1 was good 72 hours after the surgery. i was 20/20 in the left eye and 20/30 in the right. i was able to see 20/20 with both eyes. (note: you have to be 20/40 with both eyes in order to drive without corrective lenses, at least in texas. 20/40 is AWFUL!) i feel like i'm 20/20 in the left eye and 20/25 in the right. pretty sweet.

#2 was AWFUL right after surgery, and got better with time. i'd say it took about three weeks before i was able to read and not have to think about it.* now i'm fine. i have to strain to read really small type, but i can still make it out. i can read "normal" books and documents with no issue whatsoever.

#3 is where i most notice the fact that i had surgery. reading in low light is not something one should do, but it happens. when it does, i have to work harder to do it. anything below 10pt type, in low light, is hard to see. i liken this to what it will be like when i get older. this is the category that still continues to improve, week over week. it's very interesting.

please note that for #2 and #3, i can still read everything i could read before, but now i feel like i'm working for it. that the reason for the lower rating compared to glasses.

#4 is the really interesting one. prior to surgery i had both starbursts and halos with my glasses. the starbursts were pretty big, and the halos were faint. in the 4 weeks after the surgery, i had larger starbursts (they changed in shape over those four weeks, which was fascinating.) and i had pretty bright halos. at the time of this writing, the starbursts are gone, and the halos are fairly faint. the halos are highly dependent upon light source, which i think is really interesting. for instance, normal traffic lights have small to no halos. (my halo shape is a slight "shadow" of the light shifted part way up. when i look at a traffic light, i see a slight shifted shadow directly above the true light source, with the center of the halo being about 2/3 of the diamter above the center of the source.



these halos do not actually distract me so i'm not losing sleep (har har!) over them. and the rest of my night vision seems sharper and better. overall, i'm pleased. riding at night, and at night in the rain is way easier now than it was before the surgery, and i'm super happy about that.

the other thing to point out is that i am really stoked about not wearing glasses or contacts. i f-ing love it. wearing contacts always bugged me, and my eyes would get dry and scratchy, even using drops. wearing contacts all day one day, from early morning to late at night, and then getting 3-4 hours of sleep, and having to put them back in my eyes, sucked. that's gone now, and i'm glad.

so all in all, i'm delcaring it a success. i may have the chance to elect to have an "enhancement" done on my right eye, but i'd likely leave that until after next christmas, and see what "well enough" is and if it should be left alone.

* i evaluate the condition of my body by whether or not i notice the body part im using. so if i feel like i am *trying* to see, then there is an issue. similarly, with motorcycling, if i am aware that i have an ass, or that i have arms, or a back, or a neck, then something is not quite right. if it hurts, that's worse. anytime the use of a body part intrudes into my consciousness, not just with pain, but just by being noticeable, i conclude that there is a chance to improve how im using it and i pay close attention to *why* im noticing it and try to avoid injury.

[ChrisM47]

The Princess is an opthalmic (now I KNOW I didn't spell THAT right) tech. I'll have her post a reply later today. She has 15 years experience.

MTBATP

[BRADFORDBENN]

so all in all, i'm delcaring it a success.

Glad it worked out for you. However I notice you still can't find the Shift Key.