Lasik Surgery, Anyone?

[Loupey]

I'm curious how many of you have had this procedure and how it affected your photography.

I've worn glasses (nearsighted) since middle school and I feared having surgery since I am so visually oriented and didn't want any permanent damage to my eyes. About 5 years ago, I had it performed.

I recommended it only recently, as my shooting eye took a LONG time to get to 20/20. Funny as it was a gradual process with that eye. My left eye, on the other hand was 20/20 as soon as I left the doctor's office. The doctor explained that different people's eyes (and even different eyes of the same person - as in my case) react and heal from the surgery at different rates. Night vision sucks as my pupils dilate to about the maximum recommended diameter for this procedure. Therefore, I see blurry outlines of lightpoints at night. It was so bad just after the procedure that I had to drive with the interior lights on at night in order to get my pupils to contract just enough.

The only complaints I have now is that my eye takes some time to recover after an intense shooting session. The other complaint is that my close focusing ability is gone (like looking at coins, tying flies, etc) as focusing is too strained at these distances.

It's great not wearing glasses or contacts though. Any other experiences?

[Peter_AUS]

My wife went to a meeting about this and afterwards a question was asked of the Doctor who performs these who also wears glasses. His comment (and I know this doctor well) was, "He wouldn't have it".

[Lionheart]

I've thought about it a lot about 6 or 7 years ago. I'm practically blind without glasses or contacts (-5.5 diopters left eye, -3.5 right eye). But my opthamologist said wait till I need bifocals since one of the drawbacks of surgery is loss of close accomodation. After that it won't matter since I'd need reading glasses after the surgery anyway. Biggest reasons I won't do it is fear of a botch up and there goes my career as a dentist, plus I've got $5K worth of magnifying lupes that I wear for dentistry that have my prescription built in, that I really don't want to have replaced or repaired. I'm at a point now where my close accomodation has tripled its distance, and so now I might consider it, but fear and inconvenience is keeping me back (I'd probably lose a week of work, plus it takes 2-3 weeks for new scopes to arrive after having vision checked post operatively). But man it'd be great not to put on contacts just to wear my Maui Jim Titanium Sports on the slopes.:-)

[LeeIs]

I didn't have it done.

I know 2 people who had it and swear by it. I also have vision issues though minor. My glasses are very thin and I could go without them all of the time (though I do prefer them when I'm driving at night).

I thought about this very thing but thought, I don't think it's been around long enough for me to take the leap. I think I'll wait another 10+ years to hear about the long term effects of this procedure. Even though from what I heard thus far it's all positive.

[mjs1973]

I wear glasses and have never really given it a thought. My girlfriend had it done a little over a year ago and she loves it. She even told me that once we get her car paid off, and and some other things taken care of that I could have it done. Not sure where that came from as I have never said anything about wanting it done. I would rather have a couple nice L lenses than the surgery. I know a few others who have had it done and and they too love it and highly recomend it.

At times it would be nice not to have to deal with glasses, like when looking thru binoculars, and when riding my Harley on a sunny day. When I'm on the bike, I have to wear an old pair of glasses that are a lot sturdier than my regular glasses and hold up to the wind better. Then I have my perscription sunglasses for bright days. And I take my good glasses for when we stop somewhere. Taking 3 pairs of glasses on the bike is a pain, but still not a good enuogh reason for me to go under the lazer.

[Loupey]

Interesting. On the one hand, I assumed that photographers as a group may be more apt to have this surgery than the general population since glasses do get in the way with the viewfinder. My glasses were always getting scratched up. On the other hand, I figured photographers may be hesitant about having their main lens worked on.

After all these years and all the commercials you see nowadays, I assumed that it was pretty common now. Then again, I don't know any family and friends that have had it either.

I did it only after watching someone else go through a similiar procedure (my wife ). She was legally blind without contacts and it was so severe that she was not even a candidate for Lasik. With hers, they had to use a metal cutting tube to cut and pull back the top layer of the cornea, perform a different laser procedure, then slide the top cornea layer back over to serve as a protective healing barrier. Vision took about 5 days to gradually come up to 20/20 but she loved it.


Then again, I only jumped out of a perfectly good airplane AFTER my wife jumped first (that's me in my avatar holding on to the planes strut while waiting for the instructor to tell me to let go)

[adina]

I went in for the evaluation, and was going to do it. I have, however, freakishly thin corneas, and it can't be done on my eyes. I'm actually in like the bottom 3 % that he's ever seen.

Dr suggested eyedrops, in hopes that it would thicken my corneas over time (dry eye syndrome can make them thinner) but I suspect until they make drastic advances in the procedure, I"m out.