I was hoping to post this true story with a happy end; actually that is why I’m writing it!
Well let’s begin this with a traditional LASIK surgery that was performed about 25 day ago, where as a routine, everyone knows what to do and everything was ready to proceed as normal. The performance of the first eye was nice and smooth, took us just about 5 min to get it done but the second eye, something unexpected happen and took us about 17 min. why?
While we proceed with the creation of the flap in the second eye, I noticed something different, but I couldn’t really say what it was until someone in our surgical team asks, where is the flap? That’s right!
Every body was expecting a thick and nice flap with a hinge as usual. But unexpected or not, there you are with an unpredictable problem and so you have to act and fast.
Imagine been that patient who was listening everything, she immediately knew that something was wrong and therefore she asked, is everything alright? The answer was everything is under control “don’t worry” (even though that none of us really knew exactly where the flap was) after several eternal seconds we look at the microkeratome and there it was the flap completely stuck.
The good thing about an professional team work is that everyone know exactly what to do without talking, I guess this is something that comes with the years of experience because while the doctor and technologies were carefully taking care of the microkeratome with the flap, under a very powerful surgical microscope in order to create no damage to it, the assistant was irrigating the stroma in order to avoid dehydration.
I don’t know if you have seen a refractive eye surgery in the variety of our videos, but if you haven’t please do so because it will show you that thanks to those mark that were make in the very beginning of the procedure the surgeon can be guided and easily distinguish the position of the flap.
In the end the surgeon reposition the flap back on place right after the Excimer laser pulses treatment and then very carefully the eye was path, specific instructions were given to this patient and also the surgeon explain the situation right after the procedure, she was a little concern and to be honest with you we all were!. To make the long story short next day there she was (happy and satisfied) outcome was 20/20 -1 in that eye.
Let’s say that I am still studying the case, but apparently everything indicates that it was a mechanical problem. If you have any questions or comments you are more than welcome to do so any time!
Well for my experience with minor astigmatism is certainly something that can not be corrected with some Excimer laser because the computer program just won’t let us treat that amount of corneal tissue, “safety reason”. Anyways, over correction risk is higher when small amount of corneal tissue is involve on the treatment and maybe even more risky than your original or first procedure.
Let’s say that the lower the prescription to treat or the lower the amount of corneal tissue to remove, the higher is the risk for over correction.
“My advice” Discuss with your eye doctor your concerns and ask whether or not over correction risk increase in a possible enhancement.
It’s been 5 years since i have had my lasik procedure. it’s been great until early this year when i developed a -.25 astigmatism in my right eye. my left eye is just about as perfect as you can get (20/15 vision) and with both eyes i am 20/20. the astigmatism is really bothering me though. i am wanting to do an enhancement but i am not sure if they will let me with such a minor astigmatism. or at least, they say it is minor, but to me it’s a big difference when i wear my glasses when i am driving etc. do you think it’s possible to get an enhancement with a -.25, -.25 in my right eye?
I regret the experience you had with your LASIK surgery, but I need to emphasize the importance of two things that you mentioned in your story.
1) Patient education is critical. We need to learn as much as we can in order to do the right questions to our doctors. In your case sounds like you are experiencing Presbyopia, so maybe monovision was the best option for you.
2) Most of the patient with not very good outcome are saying that the doctor never told them about (something) which obviously proof poor communication between doctor and patient.
My recommendation for everyone that is considering LASIK is: Learn as much as you can about the procedure and no matter how silly you think your question is, just do it.
Having worn glasses for 30 years, I was eager to shed the glasses and having spoken with many people who have had Lasik, I finally made the decision myself. I would now pay considerable sums of money to reverse what I have done.
I walked into the Lasik OR with very good corrected vision. While I needed glasses for distance and had made the permanent move to bifocals, I was able to do everything I wanted to do. I walked out of the Lasik OR with overall worse vision and will, I fear, be making adjustments for the rest of my life to accommodate the surgery. My uncorrected distance vision is good right now. I can see things afar and drive without need for any glasses. There are times when I will appreciate being able to do things without glasses. However, my near vision has been virtually destroyed. I need reading glasses to eat my meals, unless I want to look at an unrecognizable plate of fuzzy food. Working in front of a computer and at my desk, I must appear like I am a bird constantly bobbing my head to be able to read things somewhat in focus. I have pairs of reading glasses all over the place. I had to change from a combination lock at the gym because I couldn’t read the numbers. I had to give up a digital watch because I couldn’t get my arm far enough away to read the time. My fears going into the procedure were the possiblity of dry eyes, halos and star bursts – problems I was assured were remote and likely to lessen with time. While my Dr. noted that at my age I would need reading glasses, I was never advised that the procedure would actually destroy my near vision.
Lasik is essentially a cosmetic procedure that helps people avoid the inconvenience and challenges in having to use glasses or contacts. Having Lasik doesn’t necessarily eliminate those challenges and, in my case, made them much more severe. The procedure is not cheap and having to deal with the potential complications makes the cost prohibitive. Anyone considering Lasik is well advised to ask how their vision could possibly be compromised. No matter what the risk factor is, you do not want to be the one dealing with complications. Search for “Lasik regrets” on the Internet and you will get past many of the websites from Lasik facilities touting their expensive procedures and actually get to read the rather depressing stories of people who paid to harm themselves.
Hi everyone, Here is my experience with lasik eye surgery.
I had been thinking about lasik for so long and Voila! I just had it done February 2010 and I can tell you It’s one of the best investement in my self I have done. The Doctor I Picked (after a good serch in my area) was wonderfull. Him and his Staff made sure I understood everything about the procedure and took care of all my needs/questions/requests…The surgery is definetely freaky but it goes by so quickly that you don’t have time to worry about it and the results are so amazing! It’s worth it all the way! In my case, I had miopia (can’t see far away) since highschool, it was very bad and I can tell you that a week after surgery (even if I’m still healing) I’m close to 100% perfect vision. I don’t think I’ve seen this good since I was 10 !
So if you are thinking about having it done but still have doubts, ask questions get answers and get it done, It’s Fantastic!
This is pretty interesting that there is a website that we can discuss Lasik and our experiences. I had Monovision Lasik on 4/6/07. It was a great experience for me.
Being very myopic I couldnt even see the computer w/o glasses or contacts. I was very curious about Lasik in general and began asking and researching for some time. I was tested and was recommended mono vision. The procedure was painless, took minutes to complete. The Dr and staff were very courteous and professional. I have been able to see close, intermediate and distance amazingly!! Now, it’s been almost 3yrs and the only thing is recently I have noticed is my eyes are more dry and sometimes at night, due to the dryness my vision gets blurry. I am now at the age that Presbyopia is taking place, so I am loosing alittle of my really fine closeness. But overall, I would certainly recommend Lasik !!
I was hoping to post this true story with a happy end; actually that is why I’m writing it!
Well let’s begin this with a traditional LASIK surgery that was performed about 25 day ago, where as a routine, everyone knows what to do and everything was ready to proceed as normal. The performance of the first eye was nice and smooth, took us just about 5 min to get it done but the second eye, something unexpected happen and took us about 17 min. why?
While we proceed with the creation of the flap in the second eye, I noticed something different, but I couldn’t really say what it was until someone in our surgical team asks, where is the flap? That’s right!
Every body was expecting a thick and nice flap with a hinge as usual. But unexpected or not, there you are with an unpredictable problem and so you have to act and fast.
Imagine been that patient who was listening everything, she immediately knew that something was wrong and therefore she asked, is everything alright? The answer was everything is under control “don’t worry” (even though that none of us really knew exactly where the flap was) after several eternal seconds we look at the microkeratome and there it was the flap completely stuck.
The good thing about an professional team work is that everyone know exactly what to do without talking, I guess this is something that comes with the years of experience because while the doctor and technologies were carefully taking care of the microkeratome with the flap, under a very powerful surgical microscope in order to create no damage to it, the assistant was irrigating the stroma in order to avoid dehydration.
I don’t know if you have seen a refractive eye surgery in the variety of our videos, but if you haven’t please do so because it will show you that thanks to those mark that were make in the very beginning of the procedure the surgeon can be guided and easily distinguish the position of the flap.
In the end the surgeon reposition the flap back on place right after the Excimer laser pulses treatment and then very carefully the eye was path, specific instructions were given to this patient and also the surgeon explain the situation right after the procedure, she was a little concern and to be honest with you we all were!. To make the long story short next day there she was (happy and satisfied) outcome was 20/20 -1 in that eye.
Let’s say that I am still studying the case, but apparently everything indicates that it was a mechanical problem. If you have any questions or comments you are more than welcome to do so any time!
Well for my experience with minor astigmatism is certainly something that can not be corrected with some Excimer laser because the computer program just won’t let us treat that amount of corneal tissue, “safety reason”. Anyways, over correction risk is higher when small amount of corneal tissue is involve on the treatment and maybe even more risky than your original or first procedure.
Let’s say that the lower the prescription to treat or the lower the amount of corneal tissue to remove, the higher is the risk for over correction.
“My advice” Discuss with your eye doctor your concerns and ask whether or not over correction risk increase in a possible enhancement.
It’s been 5 years since i have had my lasik procedure. it’s been great until early this year when i developed a -.25 astigmatism in my right eye. my left eye is just about as perfect as you can get (20/15 vision) and with both eyes i am 20/20. the astigmatism is really bothering me though. i am wanting to do an enhancement but i am not sure if they will let me with such a minor astigmatism. or at least, they say it is minor, but to me it’s a big difference when i wear my glasses when i am driving etc. do you think it’s possible to get an enhancement with a -.25, -.25 in my right eye?
I regret the experience you had with your LASIK surgery, but I need to emphasize the importance of two things that you mentioned in your story.
1) Patient education is critical. We need to learn as much as we can in order to do the right questions to our doctors. In your case sounds like you are experiencing Presbyopia, so maybe monovision was the best option for you.
2) Most of the patient with not very good outcome are saying that the doctor never told them about (something) which obviously proof poor communication between doctor and patient.
My recommendation for everyone that is considering LASIK is: Learn as much as you can about the procedure and no matter how silly you think your question is, just do it.
Having worn glasses for 30 years, I was eager to shed the glasses and having spoken with many people who have had Lasik, I finally made the decision myself. I would now pay considerable sums of money to reverse what I have done.
I walked into the Lasik OR with very good corrected vision. While I needed glasses for distance and had made the permanent move to bifocals, I was able to do everything I wanted to do. I walked out of the Lasik OR with overall worse vision and will, I fear, be making adjustments for the rest of my life to accommodate the surgery. My uncorrected distance vision is good right now. I can see things afar and drive without need for any glasses. There are times when I will appreciate being able to do things without glasses. However, my near vision has been virtually destroyed. I need reading glasses to eat my meals, unless I want to look at an unrecognizable plate of fuzzy food. Working in front of a computer and at my desk, I must appear like I am a bird constantly bobbing my head to be able to read things somewhat in focus. I have pairs of reading glasses all over the place. I had to change from a combination lock at the gym because I couldn’t read the numbers. I had to give up a digital watch because I couldn’t get my arm far enough away to read the time. My fears going into the procedure were the possiblity of dry eyes, halos and star bursts – problems I was assured were remote and likely to lessen with time. While my Dr. noted that at my age I would need reading glasses, I was never advised that the procedure would actually destroy my near vision.
Lasik is essentially a cosmetic procedure that helps people avoid the inconvenience and challenges in having to use glasses or contacts. Having Lasik doesn’t necessarily eliminate those challenges and, in my case, made them much more severe. The procedure is not cheap and having to deal with the potential complications makes the cost prohibitive. Anyone considering Lasik is well advised to ask how their vision could possibly be compromised. No matter what the risk factor is, you do not want to be the one dealing with complications. Search for “Lasik regrets” on the Internet and you will get past many of the websites from Lasik facilities touting their expensive procedures and actually get to read the rather depressing stories of people who paid to harm themselves.
Hi everyone, Here is my experience with lasik eye surgery.
I had been thinking about lasik for so long and Voila! I just had it done February 2010 and I can tell you It’s one of the best investement in my self I have done. The Doctor I Picked (after a good serch in my area) was wonderfull. Him and his Staff made sure I understood everything about the procedure and took care of all my needs/questions/requests…The surgery is definetely freaky but it goes by so quickly that you don’t have time to worry about it and the results are so amazing! It’s worth it all the way! In my case, I had miopia (can’t see far away) since highschool, it was very bad and I can tell you that a week after surgery (even if I’m still healing) I’m close to 100% perfect vision. I don’t think I’ve seen this good since I was 10 !
So if you are thinking about having it done but still have doubts, ask questions get answers and get it done, It’s Fantastic!
This is pretty interesting that there is a website that we can discuss Lasik and our experiences. I had Monovision Lasik on 4/6/07. It was a great experience for me.
Being very myopic I couldnt even see the computer w/o glasses or contacts. I was very curious about Lasik in general and began asking and researching for some time. I was tested and was recommended mono vision. The procedure was painless, took minutes to complete. The Dr and staff were very courteous and professional. I have been able to see close, intermediate and distance amazingly!! Now, it’s been almost 3yrs and the only thing is recently I have noticed is my eyes are more dry and sometimes at night, due to the dryness my vision gets blurry. I am now at the age that Presbyopia is taking place, so I am loosing alittle of my really fine closeness. But overall, I would certainly recommend Lasik !!