Laser eye treatment - who's done it?

I'm now 100% sure I will not be having laser eye surgery for my -4.25 myopia. I never got on with glasses, which I only started wearing as needed at 14 - I found they strained my eyes and the low FOV really got to me. I switched to contact lenses at 16 and it felt miraculous in comparison.

In recent years I was wondering about laser eye surgery as my tolerance for contact lenses was dropping. I was showing symptoms of giant papillary conjunctivitis, especially with extensive crusting in the morning, needing multiple lens cleanings throughout the day, and having to reduce my time wearing them from about 14 hours a day to 10-12 or so just to keep that status quo.

I'd always been a monthly contact lens wearer, which I assumed was the best choice for me. With the latest problems, I decided to experiment and bought a bunch of daily lenses and fortnightly lenses. After changing from monthly to fortnightly lenses, my symptoms above disappeared within days. I feel like I have my 16 year old eyes again :) I probably won't even try the dailies.

Turns out the monthly ones have high durability and moisture retention (good things!) but at the expense of low oxygen permeability. The fortnightly ones sacrifice the first two for much higher oxygen permeability. Rational to assume the dailies will be even more oxygen-allowing, but I'll just keep them for back up.

Simon42 said:
The 30 years of wearing glasses implies you're old enough or soon will be for presbyopia to start being a significant issue and even with laser surgery you'll be needing reading glasses some of the time.

That stage of life is another case where contacts are good as you can get multi-focal and even toric multi-focal with astigmatism correction, but if you don't get on with them then glasses are the order of the day until cataracts/eye issues means you need IOLs which can also be multifocal.
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I've seen the presbyopia issue demonstrated. My 20/20 vision eagle eyed father is now constantly pulling out reading glasses for close focusing, whereas my mum, who wore glasses almost constantly for short sightedness, now has her teenage eyesight back and no longer needs vision correction at all apparently.

Finally, there are also stories like from this guy:


And that of Jessica Starr - a US weather presenter who was apparently perfectly happy with her contacts but decided on laser eye surgery for convenience, which ended in suicide.

TLDR: I recommend experimenting with contact lenses - as many varieties / types as you can get your hands on until you find the fit for you, as the differences are apparently massive.
 
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tamzzy said:
I've just had mine today :D
LASIK + iDesign

My eyesight was pretty horrid... -6.25 with -3.5 astigmatism (right) and -4.5 with -4 astigmatism (left)
Have to say it's pretty liberating to see without glasses 24/7 and the most noticeable thing is the improved FOV when previously was literally limited to the size of the lens i picked for my glasses

Everything is still slightly blurry as it's only been about 7 hours post treatment
We shall see tomorrow lol (literally and figuratively :cry: )

Total damage = £5300
This includes pre-op assessment (needed 4x "dry eye checks"), both eyes done and the follow-ups at day 1, 1 month and 3 months
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Still thinking about this but couldn't bring myself to spend £5000. I hate wearing glasses but .....it's 5 grand. Was this something more than the "norm" or is this just the norm for a normal quality place?
 
Vexr said:
I've seen the presbyopia issue demonstrated. My 20/20 vision eagle eyed father is now constantly pulling out reading glasses for close focusing, whereas my mum, who wore glasses almost constantly for short sightedness, now has her teenage eyesight back and no longer needs vision correction at all apparently.
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If the myopia hasn't changed much then that's not correct as myopia isn't fixed by presbyopia. Presbyopia is simply a limit on the range of focusing closer due to lens hardening and weaker muscles.

If your mother has always been myopic then she would have always been able to see well up close and closer than when wearing (non varifocal) glasses or compared to someone with perfect vision when she was not wearing glasses. However being myopic means that you can still see closer than someone with 6/6 vision once presbyopia occurs and this can give useful close vision. However mid/distance will still be affected by the myopia.
 
Simon42 said:
If the myopia hasn't changed much then that's not correct as myopia isn't fixed by presbyopia. Presbyopia is simply a limit on the range of focusing closer due to lens hardening and weaker muscles.

If your mother has always been myopic then she would have always been able to see well up close and closer than when wearing (non varifocal) glasses or compared to someone with perfect vision when she was not wearing glasses. However being myopic means that you can still see closer than someone with 6/6 vision once presbyopia occurs and this can give useful close vision. However mid/distance will still be affected by the myopia.
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So what happens with presbyopia is the lens begins to harden as you mention. This has the effect of slightly countering myopia as you age. It will only work if your myopia is fairly low grade, and it will eventually get cancelled out — it just means you won't need readers for longer than most (say, into your 60s instead of 40s). But he is correct that your inability to see in the distance will improve somewhat while this process is ongoing.

Quite frankly, having 20/20 vision is worth it for the inconvenience of readers.
 
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Vexr said:
I'm now 100% sure I will not be having laser eye surgery for my -4.25 myopia. I never got on with glasses, which I only started wearing as needed at 14 - I found they strained my eyes and the low FOV really got to me. I switched to contact lenses at 16 and it felt miraculous in comparison.

In recent years I was wondering about laser eye surgery as my tolerance for contact lenses was dropping. I was showing symptoms of giant papillary conjunctivitis, especially with extensive crusting in the morning, needing multiple lens cleanings throughout the day, and having to reduce my time wearing them from about 14 hours a day to 10-12 or so just to keep that status quo.

I'd always been a monthly contact lens wearer, which I assumed was the best choice for me. With the latest problems, I decided to experiment and bought a bunch of daily lenses and fortnightly lenses. After changing from monthly to fortnightly lenses, my symptoms above disappeared within days. I feel like I have my 16 year old eyes again :) I probably won't even try the dailies.

Turns out the monthly ones have high durability and moisture retention (good things!) but at the expense of low oxygen permeability. The fortnightly ones sacrifice the first two for much higher oxygen permeability. Rational to assume the dailies will be even more oxygen-allowing, but I'll just keep them for back up.



I've seen the presbyopia issue demonstrated. My 20/20 vision eagle eyed father is now constantly pulling out reading glasses for close focusing, whereas my mum, who wore glasses almost constantly for short sightedness, now has her teenage eyesight back and no longer needs vision correction at all apparently.

Finally, there are also stories like from this guy:


And that of Jessica Starr - a US weather presenter who was apparently perfectly happy with her contacts but decided on laser eye surgery for convenience, which ended in suicide.

TLDR: I recommend experimenting with contact lenses - as many varieties / types as you can get your hands on until you find the fit for you, as the differences are apparently massive.
Click to expand...

I personally wouldn't recommend LASIK when things like TransPRK now exists - any vision correction which removes needing to touch the eyeball at all in the winner in my book. The main problem is the recovery period with PRK is lengthy compared to LASIK, which is more instant improvement.
 
I joined a group on facebook when i was considering getting my eyes lasered. There are people in constant pain because of these procedures. Not only that they have problems with glare and halos.
Nope, nope, nope and nope again.

I can see perfectly fine with glasses on and i have a fairly strong prescription at -5 and -7.
 
Bassmansam said:
I joined a group on facebook when i was considering getting my eyes lasered. There are people in constant pain because of these procedures. Not only that they have problems with glare and halos.
Nope, nope, nope and nope again.

I can see perfectly fine with glasses on and i have a fairly strong prescription at -5 and -7.
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When you go looking for bad outcomes you'll always find them. Nothing is without risk.

Would you drive if you went looking up people who got into big life-ruining accidents that weren't their fault in the slightest?
 
Crizzy said:
Same, I paid a little more at Optical Express 4 years ago this month. One of the best purchases I ever made and it still amazes me I can just simply 'see'.
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Yep, Optical Express is where I went too
Just went for a check-up today and still have a bit of inflammation post-op
I was personally seen by the Ophthalmologist who did the LASIK (perks of being another medic I guess lol)
Now told to use the prednisolone eye drops more often and due a re-check next week
 
Tephnos said:
When you go looking for bad outcomes you'll always find them. Nothing is without risk.

Would you drive if you went looking up people who got into big life-ruining accidents that weren't their fault in the slightest?
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hmm yea i see your point. I just don't think its worth the risk when I can see fine with specs on.
 
Tephnos said:
But he is correct that your inability to see in the distance will improve somewhat while this process is ongoing.
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Nope.

Presbyopia just means your lens cannot be compressed enough to focus as close as when younger it doesn’t affect distance.
 
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Dashik said:
Apparenty I cant as a lazy left eye means they wont take the risk. Nor would I right enough.
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I have a squint/lazy eye whatever you want to call it.

I read about some corrective surgery years back that can fix it, but apparently it only lasts a few years and the procedure can only be done 2-3 times max.

I think they change how the muscle is attached to the eye.

I guess they are worried the eye is going to wander during surgery? mine only moves if I open my mouth wide enough to put something in it.

It's not like they wander by their own? or are there different types of the same thing.

I wouldn't risk eye surgery anyway, I'd rather wear glasses if it came to it.
 
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Got mine done in 2009, best thing i ever did. I went for LASIK with wavefront, it was one of the more expensive treatments at the time, but all the others talked about halo effects etc. I would not have had it done if that was the only option.

There will always be horror stories with anything you want to do, but with your eyes, you have to seriously research whether you want to take take that risk.
 
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