Wavefront Lasik

Well gang I am going in today at 3pm to get my eyes fixed..

Getting advanced wavefront lasik done on the VISX4 Star System with Eyetracker, by a board certified eye surgeon..

Guy is one of the best in my area..

his personal average for correction is 96% 20/20 or better over 4000 surgeries.......

Wish me luck will let you know how it goes...

I should be about 90% by tomorrow afternoon full recovery a bit longer.....

I cant wait to be rid of the ole specs....

Cool. Just make sure you take a painkiller after the surgery. After the local anesthetic wore off I was writhing in agony. It felt like someone had cut a flap into my eye and then burned it with a laser! Oh wait, that's what did happen. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

It also took me a long time to recover but I've got 20/20 now. Another guy at work got it done and he could see clear instantly.

Hey guys,

I've been considering this myself, but since it's irreversible I've been putting it off. I would definately be interested in every detail of your experience. Also, what was your vision before you had your surgery? I'm personally at a -4.5 and a -5.0. What could or should I expect after a surgery? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I've had the non-wavefront Lasik a few years ago. The problem is that I have large pupils, and their laser couldn't treat the entire area (I didn't know this until AFTERWARDS), so I get halos in darkened areas.

Make sure you get an accurate measurement of pupil size. Get a second measurement from an optician that's not related to the Lasik place so you'll get an unbiased answer. Then verify the maximum ablation diameter of that particular laser before having it done.

Darklight, good luck with the surgery & recovery!

Tiktok, before my surgery (26 months ago), my vision was around -6.5 and -7.0. My corneas were just a little too thin for cutting a regular flap, so they did an "epi-lasek" (note the "e" in lasek, I think there's a procedure spelled epi-lasik, too) - a different method of removing the top layer of the cornea so as to leave more of the middle layer for the laser to work with. It required wearing "bandage contacts" for 5 days afterward, but I've seen at least 20/20 (20/15 a few times) every exam since then. I see some halos with point light sources at night, but I also saw them when I used to wear contacts, so it isn't distracting to me. What you should expect will need to factor in much more than just the amount of correction needed - like astigmatism, corneal thickness, pupil size, etc. Most places around here offer a free consultation to see if you'd be a good candidate for the surgery - well worth the time & effort to visit a couple if they offer consultations in your area. I waited until 3 or 4 friends had the surgery for 2 years or longer to see if they had any complications or regrets - none did, so I went to that surgeon. My wife had regular lasik (same surgeon), and can now see around 20/30 (she has irregular astigmatism, and knew going in to it that the result probably wouldn't be 20/20).

And if you want to scare yourself out of it, check out www.lasikdisaster.com to see (no pun intended) what all can go wrong. Oh, and just before my surgery, another area surgeon had his license to practice revoked for performing lasik operations while under the influence of alcohol, or something like that.

- Dwayne

Good luck!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I know what you mean. Glasses definitly aren't fun..

Wow, I am continually amazed that people will let sombody BURN OFF PART OF THEIR CORNEA WITH A LASER!

One of my former co workers' mother is almost exactly my age. (Ok, DON"T say it....!) Her mother had Lasik surgery less than a year ago. She's still legally blind, can't drive, can't read, except large print books, has absolutely no night vision at all. She is SOL, for the rest of her life.

She'd pay anything to get her old eyes back, if she had any money. She lost her job, of course.

She's on the list for a dual cornea transplant, but she doesn't have medical insurance (no job...) and is running into all kinds of red tape trying to get Medicare to pay for it.

Ten to 15 years ago, people were getting radial keratonamy (Kerotonomy?) done, and a good percentage can no longer drive at night, due to the scar tissue allowing light to bounce around inside the cornea.

You only get two eyes, to last your whole life.

I have over 7 diopters of myopia, and 2+ diopters of minus astigmatism. Now that I'm well over the hill, I couldn't do the precise laboratory work, unless I could take off my glasses, put on safety glasses, and get my eyes about 4 inces away from an acrylamide gel that's only 0.2mm thick, between two sheets of glass, and slide a 8 channel pipettor into wells in the gel to load DNA into it.

In other words, if I had had Lasik surgery when I was younger, I'd would have had to quit my job about 7 or 8 years ago, and learn a whole new profession. Not that my job pays that well; it doesn't, at all.

But I've been doing it all my life, and I don't want to have to start over in the job market.

Sorry to be so negative; I certainly hope your surgery is a complete success, yeilding you the 20/10 vision I had in my right eye, and the 20/15 vision I had in my left eye, with a good pair of glasses. I used to compete in target shooting with my 1911 and my HK P9S Target Model 9mm and 45 ACP; people with 'only' 20/20 vision couldn't touch my scores.

I wouldn't gamble with my eyes at stake, no matter how good the odds. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Best of luck to you, of course!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Well its the morning after and I am doing ok as far as I can tell......I can read the ticker tape on Fox news from across the room on the 9 inch kitchen tv...

Hurt like hell last nite though....

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I wouldn't gamble with my eyes at stake, no matter how good the odds.

Best of luck to you, of course!!

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It's an assumed risk. The same risk you assume going for a drive, rock climbing, or many other activities in life. The risk of total failure is below 1%; while it exists, it's pretty rare.

Heck, people have complications from contacts all the time, and they've screwed up people's eyes pretty bad... at a higher rate than LASIK, too, even counting the early days of LASIK.

Nothing is perfectly safe. What criteria of risk do you accept for activities?

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Well its the morning after and I am doing ok as far as I can tell......I can read the ticker tape on Fox news from across the room on the 9 inch kitchen tv...

Hurt like hell last nite though....

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Yup, it sucks when the local anesthetic wears off, hence my earlier suggestion in the thread /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Enjoy your new, old eyes!

Just got back from doc followup I am at 20/20 right now both eyes......still a little hazy, he said I had a stronger than average reaction to the surgery, but the surgery itself was 100% and my flaps look perfect today...

Got some steroidal eye drops to use for a while and will go back in a week.

Outside I can really tell vision is great..... still a little light sensitive yet....I imagine in a week I will have forgotton all about it...

Just curious Darklight, what was your vision in diopters before the surgery?

Good luck, Darklight. Take good care of those new peepers!

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tiktok 22 said:
Just curious Darklight, what was your vision in diopters before the surgery?

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-1.5 -1.5.....

I believe this laser is good up to about +- 6...

I had the old Lasik before the wavefront technology. I do think the wavefront helps to minimize halos and such but most of the complications come from the flap that they have to cut. My vision before was -6.75 and -5.75. I had some slight complications from the flap cutting (corneal folds) and my night vision is pretty bad because of halos. Everything in life is a trade off, I'm not sure I would want to go back to wearing glasses because I'm very active and my glasses definitely interfered with playing sports like tennis. I also had my glasses destroyed by the 1994 earthquake so you can imagine how freaked out I was in the dark, broken glass everywhere and not being able to see. This turned out to be one of the main reasons I had the surgery, for the freedom and piece of mind that I wouldn't be helpless if I couldn't find my glasses or they were damaged. My eyes will never be as good as they were when I wore corrective lenses but all things considered it was the right decision for me.

Glad to hear you are doing reasonably well, and most important, that your vision is so good at a day after the proceedure.

Again, sorry about my highly negative post,but the thought of losing my vision is a major fear of mine.

I had a roommate in college who was blind; I imagine a lot of my fear comes from having seen how a blind person is so limited.

Glad everything is (well almost, I can only imagine the pain...) as near to perfect as possible. Really, I am.

Thanks Darklight. Good info here. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

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Joel said:
...I had some slight complications from the flap cutting (corneal folds) and my night vision is pretty bad because of halos.


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Are the halos caused by the corneal flapp or by other things? I have some eye drops that I can put into my eyes at night that cause the pupils to constrict a little bit, keeping them within the ablated zone and thus minimizing halos. The downside of the drops is that everything appears a little bit darker.

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PhotonWrangler said:
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Joel said:
...I had some slight complications from the flap cutting (corneal folds) and my night vision is pretty bad because of halos.


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Are the halos caused by the corneal flapp or by other things? I have some eye drops that I can put into my eyes at night that cause the pupils to constrict a little bit, keeping them within the ablated zone and thus minimizing halos. The downside of the drops is that everything appears a little bit darker.

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Actually the problem is from both. I tried the eye drops (both kinds) but they give me a headache. I just try not to drive at night much or have someone ellse do the driving.

Drops work if the surface of your eye is uneven. They smooth things out and form a liquid film briefly.

Another thing I liked was when I saw the wavefront correction picture that showed the ideal ablation vs actual possible mine matched up perfectly....what the machine would like to do and what your cornea will allow is sometimes two different things this is correct....