Tell me about your experiences with corrective laser eye surgery?

Question

I'm interested in having surgery to correct my extremely poor vision. I have astigmatism in both eyes, and I have several family members who swear they've heard horror stories about botched surgeries. I'm SO sick of the discomfort of contacts and glasses, not to mention the insane amount of money and time I've invested in them over the past 17 years. I'm 25 now. Tell me about your experiences? I'd like to hear about cost, side-effects, pain, results, and your reflections on the experience as a whole. Thanks so much!

Answer 1

I had Lasik on my eyes several years ago. My vision wasn't too bad, but I still needed glasses/contacts.

I live in Singapore, so the cost was about S$3,000 (US$2,000) for both eyes with top-of-the-line eximer lasers to correct my astigmatism. I blew more than US$2000 doing stupid stuff, so it was a drop in the bucket to do something that made an actual impact on my life.

I had an initial consultation that took several hours to map my eyes and measure the corneal depth (if it isn't thick enough, you can't get the surgery). My doctor even had a mock surgery where you sat in the surgery room, had the retractors put in your eye and a targetting laser put in your eye. This is key because you need to be very still when the razor goes around your eye.
The doctor then told me everything that I was to expect, ran a video and gave me a book (3x redundant, but that's a good thing).


As you can imagine, it was a bit unnerving - but that what the practice was for. I was then told to practice fixing my gaze on points for two minutes at a time. It's much harder than it sounds.

When the time of the surgery came around, the Doctor did one eye only (as a risk mitigator). You first pop a valium to make you sleepy (mostly so you sleep through the most uncomfortable time after the surgery).

He put me on the table. I fixed my gaze. He put the ratractor in my eye. Put a piece of plastic bibbing around my eye, irrigated the eye with saline, put the cup on my cornea, which just feels like someone pushing your contact in your head hard enough that your see stars on your eyeballs. Everything goes dark for a second as the "cup" suctions onto your eye to secure it in place. There is a whir as the razor goes around your eye. No pain, just a two second whir. Then the doctor takes some foreceps and retracts the flap of your cornea. He tells you to stare at a dot - which is the focusing laser. The doc then turns of the laser and you hear a snapping noise as the laser ablates part of your eye. Your vision gets gradually worse. Depending on how bad your eyes are, it takes about 20 seconds to 3 minutes per eye. He then puts the flap back down on your cornea, your vision gets better. You are told to close your eye. A plastic shield is taped over your eye and you go take a nap in a recovery room.

After about 1/2 hour, you wake up. Nothing really hurt. At most it's uncomfortable. Like when you have an eyelash underneath your contact. You then go home, take it easy. The next day, when you wake up. You take off your plastic shield and - voila - you can see perfectly. A few days later, I had the other eye done.

The only side effect I have is night-halos. These are circles of light around bright lights at night. It doesn't bother me because I ahad them BEFORE my surgery, but I was night-blind to boot.

My wife also had Lasik. She's perfect. No side effects.

Now we scuba, do sand volleyball, go to windy places and other things you would dread doing with contacts. We don't miss the money and we love our vision.

I've recommended that friends come out to Singapore to do the same thing. Cost of a plane ticket and the surgery sometimes cost less than doing it in their home country. I went to Dr. Jerry Tan.

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Answer 2

This is the coolest thing I have ever done for myself. The new procedures they have now are wonderful. There is no such thing as horror stories with the new lasers. There is a 0% chance of blindness, and most people have great results.
I love it. It was $3,000 (California), it's the wavefront laser. Everything is done by computer so there is 0% error, the computer even tells you your exact vision.
Procedure:
The tests and wait time is pretty long before surgery, but there were lots if people to keep me company. Then you lay on this table, with all this stuff that hangs above your head. The Doctor clasps open your eye (a little discomforting) and then puts the machine over your eye within 30 seconds that eye is done. Then the next eye. The whole procedure takes about 4 minutes, including laying down and getting up. After its all done, they put these google shields over your eyes to protect them against anything, and it's very cloudy / foggy to see anyways. Someone MUST drive you home. You go to sleep when you get home and then wake up the next morning, take off your googles, and look over to see your alarm clock, and "OH my gosh, I can see the numbers!!!" Coolest thing ever!!!!!!!!!!
After:
For two weeks after, you can NOT wear any eye make-up. You must be very careful NOT to get anything in or around your eye. If you get something in your eye, you will get an infection and have to have a touch-up done! You don't want this! Just be very careful! You are not even suppose to get water in your eyes, so be very careful washing your face!!!
YOU SHOULD GET THIS DONE!!!!! I had the greatest experience, and would do it again. I think that this is a must for anyone who has to go through wearing contacts everyday!!!I went to the Laser Eye Center, they have locations all over the united states. They even offer a financing program with 0% interest for a year, how do you go wrong!!??!!
I also had astigmatism and everything was fine!!!!!

Answer 3

Laser eye surgery is very safe nowadays. My cousin got her dental implants and lasik surgery in India by a company called Forerunners Healthcare. The Price for dental and lasik surgery is very less in India. She paid 25% of the price she was quoted in America.

Forerunners Healthcare is very famous in India They arrange Dental surgery, jaw surgery, lasik eye surgery, Dental Implants etc for foreign patients in India. I read a lot about them in the Newspapers and magazines- about their patient stories.
They arrange financing for USA, Canadian, UK and other international patients who plan to have surgery abroad for low cost, as dental and eye surgery is not covered by insurance. They also have photos pasted of their International patients. You can checkout their website. There are huge cost savings. As a doctor I personally believe that surgery can be easily handled in India, as the quality of healthcare available In India is simply best in the world. The surgeons are USA/UK trained and facilities are 5 star.

http://www.forerunnershealthcare.com
Hope this helps.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Have you already tried out Vision Without Glasses process? Start on this page : http://Info.ClearVisionExercise.com . It might absolutely save yourself!

Answer 6

My mom, she had this and her one eye better, other need to get fix again. She happy with left eye, not right. It different sometimes with people experiances. Good luck to you!

Answer 7

I had not done it but one of my friend done it. I think it is wonderful.