Lasik complications?

[Circe]

Hey, guys - figured I should post a topic with a more specific title! I was wondering if any of you had had Lasik eye surgery, and if so, whether

i.) you''d experienced any complications, and

ii.) if so, how you dealt with them, and whether you could recommend any qualified vision therapists (suggestions for SoCal, NYC, or Houston very much appreciated: DiamondSeeker06 gave me a great rec in my earlier thread, but I figured it couldn''t hurt to broaden my pool/base of knowledge).

Thanks!

 

[Stephanie]

Well, I don't live in that area, nor have I had lasik (don't wear contacts) but FI did have it done.

He did have one complication. When they began the procedure, the numbing drops were dropped in his eyes. Well, I don't know if they didn't put enough or what, but when the laser began hitting his eye, he was screaming from the burn, and he moved his eye. They stopped and had to readjust everything. They continued to the next eye with no complication then sent him home. After the healing time passed, he went back to the doctor's office and had his vision tested. Sure enough, the eye that moved was not as clear as the other - it still isn't. However, he loves that he had the lasik done and his vision is still crisp (this was about six year ago).

 

[laine]

I have a little bit of trouble seeing at dusk, and haloing around lights and reflective signs at night. Its a little irritating, but doesn''t bother me too much--I still drive at night and stuff like that. If I could go back, I''d still do the surgery. I''ll take the little side effects over having to wear glasses/contacts! I had mine done outside of DC, so that doesn''t help you.

 

[Cleopatra]

I had Lasik back in November - I was super nervous! wow - I still get anxiety thinking about it - but all is well!

Right after the surgery (I''m talking within hours) my eyes burned and teared up constantly - it was bearable, but very bothersome. My eyes were very dry for about 2 weeks after surgery and i had to constantly put in drops...But nearly 2 weeks on the dot, I stopped having any bothersome side effects completely. I''ve been perfectly fine since then! I see better than 20/20 and it was absolutely the best thing I ever did for myself!

Some people experience halos around lights at night, but I never had any problems like that.

Any question, I''d be happy to help out as best as I can!

 

[Tacori E-ring]

My night vision is bad (as is my sister''s and SIL who also had it done). Also sometimes it is hard for my eyes to focus in Target/walmart/etc... lighting conditions. DH''s cousin has permanent halos which would DRIVE ME CRAZY!!! Like any surgery there are always risks.

 

[neatfreak]

One of my coworkers is still seeing a bit of double. 2 years later...AND she did it again to try and correct it. Helped, but didn't make the problem go away.

 

[sna77]

I''ve had both LASIK and PRK...

10 years ago I had LASIK. I went from 20 / 400 to 20 /20 vision. Had my surgery by one of the best eye doctors in Boston. I was 21 when I had the surgery.

Vision was fine for 10 years, until 6 months ago when my night vision started to go. I went in for an eye checkup and am now 20 / 30.

I decided to go back to my original doctor and be treated again. Since so much time had passed they could not reuse the LASIK flaps, so they had to give me PRK, which is similar (if you are in the military, you have to get PRK I''m told).

Anyhow, the PRK went smoothly, and the recovery was not as bad as the LASIK I felt. After about a month, my eyes started to revert back to 20/30, which is where I am now. Apparently they heal that way sometime in rare cases... I''m going in to have the PRK redone soon.

 

[wishful]

I really want to get LASIK but I''m scared....

 

[Tacori E-ring]

sna, that is interesting. I had PRK b/c I had to for medical reasons but everyone else I know had Lasik. I was told PRK was harder to heal from (scrape vs. clean cut). Maybe PRK has gotten better. I had mine done about 8 years ago. It took two weeks to heal.

 

[Cleopatra]

Date: 6/11/2008 3:36:47 PM
Author: wishful
I really want to get LASIK but I''m scared....

I was a complete chicken. They definitely didn''t give me enough Valium! I shake my legs when i get nervous, and they had to have two nurses hold my legs to prevent them from shaking my upper body during the laser surgery! ha!

But all in all, it was WAY worse in my head than it was actually. It was painless, except for the burn on my eyes shortly after the surgery - but that passed after a LONG sleep with the sleeping pills!

If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn''t have worked myself up the way I did - things went smoothly and painlessly...

 

[sna77]

Date: 6/11/2008 3:39:54 PM
Author: Tacori E-ring
sna, that is interesting. I had PRK b/c I had to for medical reasons but everyone else I know had Lasik. I was told PRK was harder to heal from (scrape vs. clean cut). Maybe PRK has gotten better. I had mine done about 8 years ago. It took two weeks to heal.

Well, depends on how you define fully healing... With LASIK I had 1 day of pain, followe dby a month and a half of REALLY dry eyes... With PRK, I woke up w/o any pain the next day and my eyes were basically really dry for about 2 weeks...

So overall, I say PRK was a better experience... well except for the fact that it didn''t work. haha

 

[stryeyes102]

Date: 6/11/2008 3:32:30 PM
Author: sna77

(if you are in the military, you have to get PRK I''m told).

I just wanted to toss this out there.. In the military you have two options; one is PRK and the other is Lasik... They determine which they will use on you depending on how bad your vision is and the condition of your eyes. Seeing as you have already had lasik and they do not want to create scar tissue this is probably why you had the PRK.. My boyfriend had it about a yr ago and has had absolutely no problems. (he had REALLY bad vision without glasses or contacts)

Best of luck with your next procedure SNA77.. I hope it fixes things for you

 

[simplysplendid]

With Singapore being one of the top, if not the top country in terms of number of people with myopia, we have one of the best teams of eye doctors around. The following is a link to LASIK info from the Singapore National Eye Centre
http://www.snec.com.sg/singlasik/index.asp . Hope it helps. i haven''t done it but many many people around me have done it and love the results.

This is the team of doctors who was careful and observant enough to spot that many patients who used the baush and lomb Complete contact lens solution had certain eye infections and provided info to US CDC and prompted a recall of the entire range of Complete contact lens solution product.

 

[Circe]

Thanks, guys - I really appreciate all your info.

Stephanie, your FI''s situation sounds terrifying! I blink reflexively if someone else even does my eye makeup ... yeesh!

I''m really glad to hear that so many of you have had positive results with your surgeries: my husband had Lasik about two years ago with serious haloing at night, blurred night vision, etc: the eyedrops helped, but not enough, so he went in for a second surgery on one eye about a month and a half ago. Since then, he''s having *severely* blurred vision that one eye, trouble reading, the works ... we''re trying to figure out how best to handle the situation. Tacori, Neatfreak, do you know what your friends do to cope with the side effects from theirs? Sna77, if I''m reading you right, can PRK be used to fix botched Lasik? And, if anybody knows of a PS-like forum for this stuff, please point me in the right direction so I can stop bothering you all - I''ve tried Google-searching, but all the forums I''ve found are either full of people who are considering it, but nobody who''s had it, or all horror stories, all the time - I''m actually hesitant to point my husband in their direction for fear of depressing him!

 

[laine]

Date: 6/11/2008 3:39:58 PM
Author: Cleopatra
I was a complete chicken. They definitely didn''t give me enough Valium! I shake my legs when i get nervous, and they had to have two nurses hold my legs to prevent them from shaking my upper body during the laser surgery! ha!

But all in all, it was WAY worse in my head than it was actually. It was painless, except for the burn on my eyes shortly after the surgery - but that passed after a LONG sleep with the sleeping pills!

If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn''t have worked myself up the way I did - things went smoothly and painlessly...

Wow, Valium and sleeping pills! I didn''t get either, just the numbing drops. I think those would have been a nice addition!

The surgery didn''t hurt, but it was uncomfortable, and kinda scary watching it. I went to sleep afterwards, but it was the middle of the day, so I had trouble staying asleep, but I stayed in bed till it quit hurting to open my eyes (maybe 5 hours?).

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I got a Valium before too (but my dad worked at the same hospital).

I try not to drive at night too much. I haven''t really found anything that helps my night vision. My SIL wears glasses again (5 years after lasik) She wants to have it again.

 

[Lynn B]

I had LASIK done about 5 or 6 years ago. Went from blind-as-a-bat

(don't remember the numbers!) to 20/20 in the left eye and 20/50'ish in the right (the worst eye). Had an "enhancement" (basically, just a repeat procedure) to the right eye which then got it to 20/20 also.

But I did have to wait a few months for the enhancement, the eye had to have time to fully heal and we needed to see where it would ultimately "end up". Those few months were rather uncomfortable, because of the vision assymetry between eyes, plus I was scared not knowing how it would all "end up".

I do have slight halo-ing at night when driving, and also (since I am ***cough*** over 40

) need reading glasses for very small print. So I bought a cute pair of Calvin Klein glasses from my eye doctor, no Rx at the top, slight reading Rx at the bottom, had an anti-reflective finish put on them, and I wear them when reading or driving. Helps a lot with both problems.

But I am thrilled with the results, have never regretted it. It was some of the best money I ever spent on "me". Totally, unreservedly recommend it!

 

[meresal]

I''m in Hosuton and I went to The Mann Eye Institute. It''s right by the museum district. It was about $1400/eye if I remember correctly, but when it comes to my eyes, I wasn''t looking for a bargain. Ohh, and they do have payment plans if that is an issue. I think they have a 12 month no interest plan that lots of people use. Also, my brother had his surgery at the one in Austin, and he will swear by them as well.

I had PRK in Sept of 2008. First thing first, this was the best decision I have ever made. I used to sleep in my contacts bc I couldn''t see my hand in front of my face when I would wake up. Really, not kidding. I''m not sure my distance, but my left eye was -4.75 and my right was -5.25. That was before they determined I had astygmatism(sp?). I can still see some halos at night, but ANYTHING is better than before.

The only issue I had, was that all the way up until the morning of the surgery I was under the impression that I would be having Lasik. My parents came down for the weekend to take care of me. On Saturday morning, during my pre-op the office determined that my corneas were too steep for Lasik and PRK was my only option. The procedure was not painful at all, they put clear contacts over the corneas to protect them as they heal, and they gave me a valium to sleep. With PRK your vision progressively gets worse as your corneas heal over, and ANY kind of contact with your eye WILL mess up the healing. For a week I slept in protective goggles (rec-specs if you will), used 3 different eye drops 4 times a day, and couldn''t stare at a computer screen much less be outside in the sun without black-out glasses on, for a week. Apparently my eyes are super sensitive. After toting me around all week my dad left on Friday (I could drive now), and by the end of the 3rd week, and had been to 8 follow-up appointments. The dryness was mainly during the day and when you wake up, never bothering me when trying to sleep. Now, about 3 times a week I wake up with VERY dry eyes, but a little splash of water and they''re fine.

The recovery was the hardest part; but looking back, even a month of recovery would have been worth having great vision!!! I reccommend it to anyone!!!