Corrective eye surgery ? Yes or No ?

ali-t

Guinea wrote: »

Sorry....I literally did post and run. It always upsets me when people ask about laser treatment. I will try and be concise!

I had my eyes lasered in May 2009 through recommendation. I had always wanted to have it done but never bit the bullet! My friend had it done before me and said how brilliant it was and blah, blah, blah. I decided to act upon this and went for it. Had loads of consultations and actually did quite a bit of research. The day comes and I have the surgery. I did think that the surgeon had no patient love and was very abrupt! I was told that the next day I would be able to see clearly. The next day came and went and I couldn't. Yes, I could see BETTER but they had promised me 20:20 vision and it would be a very slight chance (it's never happened to anyone here before!!) that it wouldn't work properly. I then went through month after month of using drops/not being able to see properly in the dark (which I still can't)/leaking eyes/dry eyes/blurred vision...you name it, I had it!
Anyway...after months and months of people telling me the same thing that my eyes were fine and I DID infact have 20:20 vision, I asked to see a different optician who said that I DID have 20:20 vision, ALTHOUGH the laser treatment had not cleared up my astigmatism in one eye but have also given me astigmatism in the other eye! Because of the nature of my job I needed to either be able to see clearly to read things from a board OR wear glasses. As I was by then heavily pregnant and could not have the top-up laser treatment that had been offered until I had the baby and if I breastfed then couldn't have the top-up until I gave up feeding and for three months after that, I chose glasses! This takes things to January 2011! I am still wearing glasses some times, although am trying not to so that my eyes don't become dependant on them. I also tend not to go out in the evening as the glare from lights; etc. is almost unbearable.
In the new year I will be contacting them again insisting that they now top-up my eyes but with a different surgeon, although I am VERY nervous about doing it again as I remember the first time like it was yesterday. The burning eye smell is just nightmare inducing.
Since having my treatment I have found one other person with the same surgeon as me who is in the process of suing them and my friend's son who insisted on having the treatment done recently, although wouldn't listen to any warnings about the process or the surgeon is having the same problems as me.
THAT (in a nutshell!) is why I would not recomment having laser eye treatment!
P.S. I also haven't mentioned the pig headedness I have been up against with the people I had the treatment with and all the unanswered letters and phone calls.:(

Apart from the pregnancy that is pretty much my story.

The first time I had it my vision improved significantly -8 and -10 to around -1.5.

I then had to get a 2nd op as there was a wrinkle in my cornea in one eye

The final op (so far) was for an enhancement in the worst eye which was sitting at around -1.5. That op led to significant over correction which has left me with one eye long sighted and one eye short sighted so when I wear glasses (i.e. most of the time) I look like I have one eye bigger than the other.

As I mentioned in a previous post if I want another chance to get good vision I need to get an intra occular implant as my cornea is not stable enough to take more laser surgery.

Despite all of this I am not against laser eye surgery as it took me from very limited vision to being able to function without glasses, as long as I don't want to read, drive, watch tv or use a computer!!

Make sure you do research.

Guinea_2

ali-t wrote: »

Despite all of this I am not against laser eye surgery as it took me from very limited vision to being able to function without glasses, as long as I don't want to read, drive, watch tv or use a computer!!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:I completely understand this!!

Al1x

Guinea wrote: »

Sorry....I literally did post and run. It always upsets me when people ask about laser treatment. I will try and be concise!

I had my eyes lasered in May 2009 through recommendation. I had always wanted to have it done but never bit the bullet! My friend had it done before me and said how brilliant it was and blah, blah, blah. I decided to act upon this and went for it. Had loads of consultations and actually did quite a bit of research. The day comes and I have the surgery. I did think that the surgeon had no patient love and was very abrupt! I was told that the next day I would be able to see clearly. The next day came and went and I couldn't. Yes, I could see BETTER but they had promised me 20:20 vision and it would be a very slight chance (it's never happened to anyone here before!!) that it wouldn't work properly. I then went through month after month of using drops/not being able to see properly in the dark (which I still can't)/leaking eyes/dry eyes/blurred vision...you name it, I had it!
Anyway...after months and months of people telling me the same thing that my eyes were fine and I DID infact have 20:20 vision, I asked to see a different optician who said that I DID have 20:20 vision, ALTHOUGH the laser treatment had not cleared up my astigmatism in one eye but have also given me astigmatism in the other eye! Because of the nature of my job I needed to either be able to see clearly to read things from a board OR wear glasses. As I was by then heavily pregnant and could not have the top-up laser treatment that had been offered until I had the baby and if I breastfed then couldn't have the top-up until I gave up feeding and for three months after that, I chose glasses! This takes things to January 2011! I am still wearing glasses some times, although am trying not to so that my eyes don't become dependant on them. I also tend not to go out in the evening as the glare from lights; etc. is almost unbearable.
In the new year I will be contacting them again insisting that they now top-up my eyes but with a different surgeon, although I am VERY nervous about doing it again as I remember the first time like it was yesterday. The burning eye smell is just nightmare inducing.
Since having my treatment I have found one other person with the same surgeon as me who is in the process of suing them and my friend's son who insisted on having the treatment done recently, although wouldn't listen to any warnings about the process or the surgeon is having the same problems as me.
THAT (in a nutshell!) is why I would not recomment having laser eye treatment!
P.S. I also haven't mentioned the pig headedness I have been up against with the people I had the treatment with and all the unanswered letters and phone calls.:(

Do you mind me asking where you got the surgery done?

If my surgeon was abrupt and made me feel uncomfortable i would have stopped there and then. When i met my surgeon he was very nice and made sure i felt ready to go ahead.

Also I wasn't promised 20:20 vision (but really happy that i have got it)

richardlionheart

Had it done 7 months ago at age 45

( my left eye was/is Astigmatic ) and was always real pain with glasses,
but now i have perfect vision 20/10 and 20/16 :j

i get no night vision problems and i don't suffer from dry eyes.
I just love seeing the world with my own eyes :beer:

anways check these guys out:
https://www.opticalexpress.co.uk

kind regards
Rich

specsappeal

Both my Dh and I had it done on the same day with Optimax in Ipswich (free of charge as camera crews were there!). My DH ended up with perfect vision and raves about it to all and sundry.
I however had quite a few problems. Firstly, my eyes did not heal 'at the normal rate' so I had to keep going back every 2 weeks for a few months (and I had to keep using the blooming eyedrops which i ended up hating). I also did not end up with 20:20 vision as expected. However Optimax did say they would re-do my eyes but by that time i just couldn't face anything near my eyes (not because the treatment was painful as it wasn't but because of all the drops etc). I ended up still having to wear glasses (although at a lower prescription). My night vision (and my DH's for that matter) was absolutely terrible for about 3 years afterwards.
So my hubbys view is that he was 100% happy to have had it done and would recommend it. My view is that if I had known then what know now I most defineately would not have had it done. Had I actually paid for the treatment then I would have been very, very disappointed.
My optician told me that not many of his colleagues would have it done as long term there is potential for damage to the eyes which is only now coming to light.

LadyMorticia

When you say corrective eye surgery, do you mean laser eye surgery or an operation such as a squint operation? I've had three squint operations but no laser surgery, which is why I was wondering.

naughtybish

specsappeal wrote: »

My optician told me that not many of his colleagues would have it done as long term there is potential for damage to the eyes which is only now coming to light.

Because you heard that somewhere, does it make it true ?
smells like bu!! !!!!!! to me :rotfl:

the opticians i know that haven't had it done is because
they cannot afford it , they have to pay full price like everybody else.
unless they work for a eye surgery clinic they would receive
no discount.

eye correction is infact a simple procedure ,your statement implies
unlike having certain cataracts treated .
do you suggest people should leave those alone also ?

i have met some dummies in my time but ..

tidus

I know/associate with many Optometrists (sad huh....). The vast majority wear specs/contacts and I don't know a single one who has had refractive lazer surgery. Then again, you don't become an Optometrist if you hate wearing glasses/contacts.

I see more poor outcomes than good outcomes, although the good outcomes might just have ceased having eye examinations.

Things to remember -

They can't really treat the reading defect which becomes a problem at about 45, in other words you will need reading glasses at this age onwards.

The best corrected vision achieved is often slightly worse than it was before through your corrective lenses. I have found on many occasions that although the person has gone from -6 to virtually nil, they now can't read the bottom line as easily as they could before with the -6 on.

Night glare is common to the point of effecting nearly everyone.

Issues with lubrication are also very common, due to disturbance to the corneal nerves.

Make sure your prescription has been stable for a while before considering treatment as if it was changing before, it will just continue to change after.


Personally, I wouldn't touch it with someone else's bargepole. I like to see really clearly - not "within acceptable limits". I like not suffering with glare and halos at night. I like not having dry eyes.

brook2jack

I am a dentist. Most clinics will not operate on us because of how important excellent vision is to us , because of known side effects /complications.

naughtybish

brook2jack wrote: »

I am a dentist. Most clinics will not operate on us because of how important excellent vision is to us , because of known side effects /complications.

wait one moment ....
sniff ..., sniff ... , Moo ! :T




anyways you are just a dental nurse :rotfl:
and a flakey one at that