Laser Eye Surgery , to burn or not to burn
Offline Hi,
I'm considering having laser surgery so I don't need to wear glasses. Its not really for cosmetic reasons more a case of I've had skin problems most my life and often have painful sores when I wear glasses regardless of what type I wear.
I tried contact years around 15 years ago but couldnt actually relax enough to put them on but are going to try again.
Now why am I posting this hear,
well atheists
a) tend not to agree on anything so hoping to get some oppossing opinions
b) they tend to be reasonably well educated, intelligent yet a little cynical
Now the NHS in the UK (evil tax payer nationalised medicine) doesnt cover luxury/cosmetic operations which this clearly is and I don't mind paying money for this but I'm also extremely concerned about talking to doctors when they have a profit motive behind them. While that may be the norm for Americans its totally unnerving for me. 'Sure its safe give us £1000 $2000 and we burn a hole in your eye and you're love it'
I really don't know where to get even remotely unbiased advice, opticians want to sell me glasses not surgery, surgeons want to laser me for money and I doubt if my GP (UK a doctor that works outside a hosptial and refers to one if required I think its called something else stateside) seems unlikely to know much about it.
So to burn or not to burn
Jon
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I had mine done about 10 years ago (in America) and it's the best thing I have ever done. I now have 20/15 vision. The only draw back to my story is that I occasionally get a little dry eye. Beside that, I catch myself wanting to look closer at small objects (as I did before the laser). Thats about it.
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My dad had it done about 9 years ago... and it was a bad experience. They botched his surgery - I think what happened was they mismeasured the diameter of his pupils, if I remember correctly, so he could essentially "see" the incision on his lens. At night it caused a "starburst" effect in the way it scattered light when it met his eye, so when he was driving it was hard to make out indicidual headlights and streetlights. He couldn't drive at night for a long time. And he was so depressed over it - I had never seen my dad cry before this happened.
However, I think he was able to get it partially fixed. Now he's able to drive at night, and doesn't need corrective lenses most of the time. He still wears glasses for certain tasks though. He donated a substantial sum of money to LASIK research, to improve the technology, which I'm sure has improved over the past few years.
So make of that what you will.
I was born with an eye defect that was surgically corrected when I was young, but apparently because it affects my depth perception, I can never ever ever be a candidate for LASIK surgery. Luckily, my eyesight is pretty good on its own, so I can get away with just wearing contacts. You might want to give the contacts another try - it freaked me out a bit when I first started wearing them at age 11, but I got used to them after a couple weeks. Go with soft, not hard lenses - I tried hard once and it was the most painful thing I've ever put in my eye.
My brother had it done a couple of years ago, and is like Crabbybastard -- he loves it.
Me, I've been thinking about it, and might try it someday, but I like my glasses. The only time I wish I didn't have them is when riding roller coasters and whatnot.
In your situation, I'd have it done.
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Luckilly I almost never need them - I used to to drive (which Ic an no longer do anyway) and will wear them to watch a DVD if I watch in the TV rather than my computer. I know what you mean about contacts - I could never wear them. When I'd go to the eye dr it would take at least 6 trys to get the drops in my eyes - I utterly cannot stand to have anything come at my eye. I'm guessing that would have been an evolutionary advantageous trait - before modern medicine and eye doctors having something touch your eye would pretty much always be a negative thing.
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The laser surgery basically does a sculpting of the eye pupil, it can't be done twice, because there's not much of the pupil left. The only alternative after that is replacement by an artificial pupil, which seems a bit gross to me. So I would recommend it only if you have a lot of dioptries, which seems to be your case.
My friend had this laser surgery too, he had about 9 dioptria if I remember, and he really liked the result, went more to parties, got a girlfriend... Obviously, paned guys ain't in fashion. We can't get seriously drunk or high, there's always a threat of losing the glasses.
I, for example, wear glasses too, but my dioptria will hopefully get erased. By a process of aging, the eye becomes long-sighted, it may even surpass the short sight.
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I thought the pupil was a hole? How can you sculpt a hole or replace it with an artificial hole?
Am I the only one who wants to see the list of other, painful things GG has put in her own eye?
- salt water
- lemon juice
- coffee table
The possibilities are endless...
Nitpicky correction: they sculpt the cornea of your eye, not the pupil, which is a hole. He very well may be right about the "no second chance" thing, though; I have no idea.
I am quite reserved when it comes to surgery like this, from a cost/benefit ratio. Yes, the odds of it going wrong (disastrously or otherwise) are very low, but risking blindness for the 20/15 vision I used to have doesn't seem worth it to me. Maybe I'd feel differently if I had issues with contacts (at this point, I feel I probably could put a coffee table into my eye if I got to use both hands) or glasses (other than I haven't found a set of frames yet I don't feel make me look like Tyrell from Bladerunner).
So in short: I'd say wait a few years. You can get it done later (and these treatments have a way of getting cheaper as time goes on), but once it's done, you can't get the money (or cornea shavings) back, so what's the rush?
I think you're right to be suspicious of motive on the part of the LASIK centre, though; they're just like real estate agents at that point (if you don't buy, they don't get paid, so why would they ever tell someone it was a bad idea?).
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"Yes, I seriously believe that consciousness is a product of a natural process. I find that the neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers who proceed from that premise are the ones who are actually making useful contributions to our understanding of the mind." - PZ Myers
There's a lense over said hole, and it's this lense that actually gets sculpted. Small mistake in terminology, but one we should be careful of as it's this same mistke in terminology that gives rise to creationist evolution etc.
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Fuck eye surgery. Go with contacts - they're awesome. Once your eyes adjust to them (mine didn't take more than a couple of days), you feel like you have your eyes back again - and without the expense or risk of having a laser hack away at your lens.
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I've heard mixed reviews of Lasik procedures.
If you haven't tried contacts for 15 years, you should probably try them again. My wife says their quality and comfort have improved immensely in the past few years. And she's extremely picky about her eyewear.
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I personally am trying to get it done, however mine is really expensive (Yeah I got bad eye sight -5.25 in each eye) so they are asking about 5000 per eye (now this was 4 years ago), however because of my work and my lifestyle I would like to get rid of my contacts (I don't wear glasses anymore because I keep on breaking them). But like any surgery there are risks involved, like in the case of Greek Goddess, but really those are a small percentage, but it could happen, read about the risks, the chances of those risks, and just be well informed over all.
I have really poor vision, and wore contacts for many years. These days, I just wear glasses because the technology has gotten a lot better and the lenses aren't so thick anymore. I had trouble with contacts, but it was probably my own fault a lot of the time. The worst thing for me was that after about 12 hours, they would dry out, and I had to constantly keep rewetting drops in my pocket. Even with extended wear, I found that I always had dry eyes.
There's also a higher incidence of eye infections with contacts. Duh... you're sticking your finger onto something that's going into your eye.
Oh, the worst thing is that when they would dry out, sometimes they would pop out of my eye at very inconvenient times. When you're as blind as me, and you drop a contact on the ground, you have two choices. Spit on it and try to get it back in your eye (hoping there's no bacteria on it) or plead with someone to please drive you home to get a spare.
In general, I find glasses to be convenient, easy, and economical. I've thought about LASIK a few times, and have been close to committing to it, but each time, I've talked myself out of it by reminding myself that I function just fine with glasses. In your case, LASIK might be the way to go, since contacts are more of a pain in the ass than glasses.
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I love my contacts. I wear my glasses occasionally (who doesn't love glasses?) but most often my contacts are in from the moment I rise until I'm ready for bed. My eyes seem made for them as I never have irritation and even after especially drunken escapades where I've left my contacts in for some 48 hours, I just lube my eyes and I'm good to go (everyone who can should switch to 30 day wear lenses)
I don't think I would go with any type of laser eye surgery that required any cutting (not all laser eye surgery has any need for cutting at all, just the most popular type). In fact, I don't know if I'll ever get laser surgery as my eyes continue to get worse and I don't want to have a one off surgery and have my eyes deteriorate further or risk the numerous complications.
One thing about laser eye surgery that scares me away as well is that the statistics for complications make any procedure undesirable... laser clinics perform surgery on many people who are not fit for surgery and poorly educate patients about the risks even to the point of lying about the number of complications if they mention such a number at all. I don't trust laser eye clinics.
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"Well the things that happen less often are more likely to be the result of the supper natural. A thing like loosing my keys in the morning is not likely supper natural, but finding a thousand dollars or meeting a celebrity might be."
Well if will go for contacts if I can but the last time I tried I was told around 95% of people could get used to them in the end but I was probably in the 5%.
I usually give up on most things when people say 'just relax' . I don't do relaxing, I can just about master quantum mechanics, get through most of Richard Dawkins books and have a full understand of Flying Spaghetti Monster theology but i just dont do 'relax'
I'd love to get laser surgery on my eyes, but it wont do any good (at least for now). I'm planning to go for a different eye surgery in 7 months and I have to get the same surgery done twice(around a month apart), then likely 2 laser surgeries after that. At least for me, it will all be free as I live in New Zealand and have universal health care. the short of the long; I have cataracts. Had them for probably around 3 - 4 years though only noticed them half way through '06 (age 18) when I tried to read a book and couldn't make out any of the words. I have to get my current lenses taken out and new plastic ones put in, then there could be some remnants of the cataract on the lens capsule so that will be lasered to let light get through unabated. I'm going to try get both initial surgeries done with time for recovery before my 21st (as I've been told that is around about the age that human eyes stop growing[at least growing significantly that is])
if I didn't have the cataracts, just poor vision, I would most likely stick with contacts and glasses instead of laser treatment. It seems to me like unnecessary risk for something that could go awry so badly. Still, if other options just aren't working comfortably then go for it.
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My mother got Lasik surgery 5 - 10 years ago and went from near-sighted to far-sighted. She was pleased, and she hasn't had any trouble with it. My grandmother also got lazer surgery when she was having her cataracts removed, and as far as I know, she has also been happy with the results. She no longer needs glasses to drive, etc. I'm planning on having it done someday when my eyes stop getting worse. I'm told that you're supposed to wait until then.
For expert advice, I'd suggest www.webmd.com. My Dr.'s office says their information is reliable, and the website is accredited by impartial, 3rd party health experts.
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I would love not to have to worry about glasses anymore, and I hate contacts more than anything in the subject of vision.
And the statistics show laser eye surgery isn't as risky as tons of people make it out to be, but still...
Half the people I talk to tell me it's a horrible idea. It frusterates me. I want Penn and Teller to answer this question for me.
Where do I sign up. I have wanted this sugery for years. Many people I have spoken to reguarding this procedure had a positive experience. Only 1 guy said it didn't work for him. This surgery doesn't work for everyone, but neither does sterilization.
I had it done 4 years ago. Overall it was great. But soon I'm going to need reading glasses. I need to magnifing glass to see up close things now. You can smell your cornea burning when they do the operation. It's a big pain for 3 days then a little pain for 2 more weeks.
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I had my laser eye surgery done on Friday, 29th june. My prescription was -7(20/700) and had been wearing glasses since I was 12.
I am now perfectly alright, i had no pain rather I drove myself the next day for my post operative appointment.
In Toronto almost all these clinics provide you with free complementary assessment.Before my surgery I went to two places and then chose one in mississauga. It cost me 4000.
My opinion is first do your own research by personally visiting atleast 2 such places and then decide.
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Ha ha. I would personally love to see Penn get irate over LASIK.