cp_ste.croix
At the beginning again.
Anyone had it? Anyone care to opine on the subject? Considering my annual spending on contacts, and the fact that I play contact sports (and would like one day to own an expensive RF with impossibly hard to see wide angle frame lines) I am thinking about saving for the surgery...
kvanderlaag
my autofocus is broken.
Worth every penny. My eyes went from absolutely terrible to absolutely perfect, except for the fact that my brain doesn't process the image from my left eye half the time, but that's not something that surgery can correct. It doesn't really matter, though. It's not the eye I use for framing, anyways!
It hurts for a while after, though. In fact, sometimes, putting pressure on my eyes from the right direction causes them to REALLY hurt for a minute, and then sort of hurt for a while after. They're a bit finnicky, but for the most part, they work perfectly.
Today in particular, everything was absurdly sharp. I'm still not entirely used to being able to see so well.
If you have all those things tempting you to do it, I can't see why not to. I just did it because I could, subsidized almost entirely by the government.
It hurts for a while after, though. In fact, sometimes, putting pressure on my eyes from the right direction causes them to REALLY hurt for a minute, and then sort of hurt for a while after. They're a bit finnicky, but for the most part, they work perfectly.
Today in particular, everything was absurdly sharp. I'm still not entirely used to being able to see so well.
If you have all those things tempting you to do it, I can't see why not to. I just did it because I could, subsidized almost entirely by the government.
C
ch1
Guest
cp_ste-croix said:
I have personally resisted it because I'm a scaredy cat. But everyone I know who has had it has been pleased (that they still have one good eye
)Just kidding about the eye thing (I think).
back alley
IMAGES
kvanderlaag said:
how did you manage a subsidy?
joe
ClaremontPhoto
Jon Claremont
It sounds terrible.
mac_wt
Cameras are like bunnies
My wife is an MD. I mentioned to her that I would consider having laser eye surgery. She took me to an eye specialist, who basicly told us that it was mostly done by women for aesthetic reasons, that there was some risc involved and that the result in the long term is unsure (and that she didn't do it herself). I was pretty unhappy about this visit, but I could hardly argue against 2 doctors, of which 1 was my wife. I hope you guys can give me some good arguements to put the topic again on the agenda.
Wim
Wim
ClaremontPhoto
Jon Claremont
Give up phtography Wim. Sell me the Yasuhara. And get a new wife.
peterc
Heretic
I work with two people who had laser eye surgery and had to have it undone because it cost them their night vision. It left them unable to drive at night.
Research this carefully.
Peter
Research this carefully.
Peter
nomade
Hobbyist
I've a friend who has done this before, he was absolutely happy about it, in a short whil he felt like re-doing this again(not because he had fun certainly ), but his eyes weakened again...Maybe he's a special case, because many other people have done it and they were absolutely satisfied...Sometimes it's the only solution u've got...
), but his eyes weakened again...Maybe he's a special case, because many other people have done it and they were absolutely satisfied...Sometimes it's the only solution u've got...
Peter Klein
Well-known
Call me old-fashioned, but I don't believe in getting cut unless there is no other reasonable alternative. So it's glasses and contacts for me.
Many people are satisfied with the surgery. But a significant number have dry eye problems, or halos or other problems with night vision. If you do it when you're young, your eyes still change in your 40s, and then things are off again. Also, the surgery is a highly lucrative market which has attracted some shady operators.
You have to consider not just what the odds of a bad outcome are, but also how drastic the consequences are if you're the unlucky one.
--Peter
Many people are satisfied with the surgery. But a significant number have dry eye problems, or halos or other problems with night vision. If you do it when you're young, your eyes still change in your 40s, and then things are off again. Also, the surgery is a highly lucrative market which has attracted some shady operators.
You have to consider not just what the odds of a bad outcome are, but also how drastic the consequences are if you're the unlucky one.
--Peter
Mr C
Committed to Apathy
Just my 2 cents worth.....
I have worn glasses for 20 years but I did my research summoned up the courage & had LASIK in both eyes in March of this Year.
The procedure was very quick and almost entirely painless. The only sensation I had was of a lot of pressure being applied to the eye when they cut the flap in the cornea using a microtome. It was all over in less than 2 minutes per eye.
The next 12-24 hours were pretty uncomfortable with itchy eyes (Don't rub them!!) but the results were amazing and I now have close to 20/20 vision.
The downsides for me - dry eyes for about 3 months. I had to put eye drops in every 2 hours but I don't need them any more. I also have a high risk of RCE in my left eye but this is a rare side-effect.
RCE - or recurrent corneal erosion is extremely painful and occurs when the epithelial cell layer of the eye quite literally falls off leaving a corneal abrasion. On a pain scale of 1 to 10 this is close to the top due to the huge number of nerve endings on the corneal surface. It is like getting root canal work with no anaesthetic.
I had an erosion in May after an unlucky eye infection. The epithelium did not seem to grow back properly and I had another erosion while on holiday in the US in June necessitating a Friday night trip to the Shady Grove ER in Rockville, MD and 2 follow-up visits to a very good eye specialist in Gaithersburg (Thank you Dr Kane!).
I now have to use an oil-based lubricant in my left eye every night to stop the epithelium drying out and preventing another erosion. I am one of the unlucky ones whose outcome was not 100% but despite this issue I am still happier than when I had to wear glasses.
The Halo effect at night is related to pupil size. When you have the surgery the flap that is cut in the cornea is around 8mm in diameter. If your dilated pupil size is larger than 6-7mm at night light can refract through the scarring at the edge of the flap onto the retina, hence the Halo effect. Those people with small dilated pupil size (<6mm) do not have as many problems with halo's as the refracted light does not enter the eye.
Actually it's more like a dollar's worth looking at the length of this post
I have worn glasses for 20 years but I did my research summoned up the courage & had LASIK in both eyes in March of this Year.
The procedure was very quick and almost entirely painless. The only sensation I had was of a lot of pressure being applied to the eye when they cut the flap in the cornea using a microtome. It was all over in less than 2 minutes per eye.
The next 12-24 hours were pretty uncomfortable with itchy eyes (Don't rub them!!) but the results were amazing and I now have close to 20/20 vision.
The downsides for me - dry eyes for about 3 months. I had to put eye drops in every 2 hours but I don't need them any more. I also have a high risk of RCE in my left eye but this is a rare side-effect.
RCE - or recurrent corneal erosion is extremely painful and occurs when the epithelial cell layer of the eye quite literally falls off leaving a corneal abrasion. On a pain scale of 1 to 10 this is close to the top due to the huge number of nerve endings on the corneal surface. It is like getting root canal work with no anaesthetic.
I had an erosion in May after an unlucky eye infection. The epithelium did not seem to grow back properly and I had another erosion while on holiday in the US in June necessitating a Friday night trip to the Shady Grove ER in Rockville, MD and 2 follow-up visits to a very good eye specialist in Gaithersburg (Thank you Dr Kane!).
I now have to use an oil-based lubricant in my left eye every night to stop the epithelium drying out and preventing another erosion. I am one of the unlucky ones whose outcome was not 100% but despite this issue I am still happier than when I had to wear glasses.
The Halo effect at night is related to pupil size. When you have the surgery the flap that is cut in the cornea is around 8mm in diameter. If your dilated pupil size is larger than 6-7mm at night light can refract through the scarring at the edge of the flap onto the retina, hence the Halo effect. Those people with small dilated pupil size (<6mm) do not have as many problems with halo's as the refracted light does not enter the eye.
Actually it's more like a dollar's worth looking at the length of this post
RObert Budding
D'oh!
I had excellent vision when I was young: 20/13 and 20/15. But I've had to wear glasses for the past 5 years. I hated it at first, but that was because my first glasses came from a discount chain that poorly fit the lenses. I felt like I was in a fishbowl whenever I put them on.
I've since found an independent optomitrist in our town and , wow, what a difference! He really knows how to fit lenses, and he's a perfectionist. I keep my glasses on almost all of the time now. And I paid a bit extra to get nice Zeiss progressive lenses - worth every penny. The coatings stay clean and everything looks so clear. Almost like the old days . . .
I doubt that I would consider surgery myself. Glasses don't bother me very much.
Robert
I've since found an independent optomitrist in our town and , wow, what a difference! He really knows how to fit lenses, and he's a perfectionist. I keep my glasses on almost all of the time now. And I paid a bit extra to get nice Zeiss progressive lenses - worth every penny. The coatings stay clean and everything looks so clear. Almost like the old days . . .
I doubt that I would consider surgery myself. Glasses don't bother me very much.
Robert
hugivza
Well-known
RObert Budding said:
I'm with you Bob. have been wearing glasses since my uni days a long time ago, and not in a galaxy far away. With modern, multifocal, photochromatic, plastic lenses with light Ti frames I find glasses comfortable to wear and cover all of my visual needs. The summer sun here is pretty strong. I do not need glasses for distance vision, but wear multifocals to save me having to remember where I put them when I last took them off. I find no need to consider surgery - I find that with a cheap, multiframe albada finder I can use all lenses from 135 to 35 without squinting and scatching either the camera or the lens of my glasses when using my RF cameras (The Fed 2 is easily adjusted in any event).
I guess the real reason for not contemplating eye surgery is that for me personally, the level of risk is higher than I am prepared to accept, and I'm a scaredy cat anyway!
taffer
void
Good question Chris, I had been thinking on this myself.
kvanderlaag, indeed what you say is pretty scary (the eye hurting part). I've used contacts and I ended leaving them just because I couldn't stand the very very subtle effect of having them on my eyes (and they were almost unnoticeable), so having an eye hurting... I think I couldn't do with that.
A friend of mine at work had it done. She's doing well now, but she mentioned the pain sometimes, dry eyes, 6 months without driving, plus hideous night vision.
Also, that AS-IS surgery idea doesn't make me too comformable
Have you checked for other options ? AFAIK, there were some rigid contacts that were meant to be worn at night, and they pushed the eye lens back to 'normal' position to get rid of myopia. The idea was that they could be taken off when waking up, and you'd have correct vision for 18-20 hours.
I left contacts but must admit that the last ones I tried (soft) were the very closest thing to unnoticeable, so I could have gotten used to them, troble is I'm not patient at all...
Oscar
PS: Robert: "I doubt that I would consider surgery myself. Glasses don't bother me very much" --> Yep, your eyes are very very important, risking them without need is not everybody's cup of tea. Also there are some very very nice designs on glasses nowadays. Plus (and this is odd), my eyes looked like wide open everytime, and I didn't like that when looking myself in the mirror.
PS2: Also (and this is another question in fact), try to make some vision/eye exercises everyday, we just spend too many hours a day close focusing, any lens would have stiff infinity focus after that
kvanderlaag, indeed what you say is pretty scary (the eye hurting part). I've used contacts and I ended leaving them just because I couldn't stand the very very subtle effect of having them on my eyes (and they were almost unnoticeable), so having an eye hurting... I think I couldn't do with that.
A friend of mine at work had it done. She's doing well now, but she mentioned the pain sometimes, dry eyes, 6 months without driving, plus hideous night vision.
Also, that AS-IS surgery idea doesn't make me too comformable
Have you checked for other options ? AFAIK, there were some rigid contacts that were meant to be worn at night, and they pushed the eye lens back to 'normal' position to get rid of myopia. The idea was that they could be taken off when waking up, and you'd have correct vision for 18-20 hours.
I left contacts but must admit that the last ones I tried (soft) were the very closest thing to unnoticeable, so I could have gotten used to them, troble is I'm not patient at all...
Oscar
PS: Robert: "I doubt that I would consider surgery myself. Glasses don't bother me very much" --> Yep, your eyes are very very important, risking them without need is not everybody's cup of tea. Also there are some very very nice designs on glasses nowadays. Plus (and this is odd), my eyes looked like wide open everytime, and I didn't like that when looking myself in the mirror.
PS2: Also (and this is another question in fact), try to make some vision/eye exercises everyday, we just spend too many hours a day close focusing, any lens would have stiff infinity focus after that
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RObert Budding
D'oh!
I paired my lenses with a very light titanium frame - very comfortable. And they are so light thatthey don't even make marks on the bridge of my nose.
Another plus is being able to change your appearance whenever you buy new frames.
Robert
Another plus is being able to change your appearance whenever you buy new frames.
Robert
fgianni
Trainee Amateur
My wife is a doctor as well, and she made pretty clear that she does not think the gain is worth the risks.
So here I am, extremely short sighted (-6.5 per eye) and stuck with (thick) glasses, and contacts.
So here I am, extremely short sighted (-6.5 per eye) and stuck with (thick) glasses, and contacts.
hoot
green behind the ears
I used to know someone who'd had laser eye surgery done. His eye looked fine at first glance, but when I shone a flashlight through it, I could detect some cleaning marks on the outer cornea. This only affected the coating, but then I noticed a few small dust specs between the eye elements; there was slight haze on the retina and something resembling fungus. I was also worried about a few hairline scratches on the pupil, which however he said did not affect his vision.
Nevertheless, I took the eyeball apart, re-lubed the iris with synthetic damping grease (the surgeon had used whale oil, which was beginning to deteriorate) and blew out the dust with a pressured air duster. What I'd thought was fungus was actually a reflection of the small veins on the sclera. The haze was quickly cleaned off with Windex.
After putting everything back together, I can safely say that his eye is in near-mint condition, which is remarkable considering it is almost 40 years old and coatings back then were much softer than they are now. In any case, if you have this kind of surgery done, make sure to ask the surgeon to throw in a free CLA.
Nevertheless, I took the eyeball apart, re-lubed the iris with synthetic damping grease (the surgeon had used whale oil, which was beginning to deteriorate) and blew out the dust with a pressured air duster. What I'd thought was fungus was actually a reflection of the small veins on the sclera. The haze was quickly cleaned off with Windex.
After putting everything back together, I can safely say that his eye is in near-mint condition, which is remarkable considering it is almost 40 years old and coatings back then were much softer than they are now. In any case, if you have this kind of surgery done, make sure to ask the surgeon to throw in a free CLA.
oftheherd
Veteran
LOL hoot! ROFL