can we talk laser eye sight correction please? your sage wisdom if you care to share...

[NappiesGalore]

am considering.

re, whole idea... does anyone know anything bad about it? my dad says he read something negative about it in the grauniad once... but ive never seen it myself so dont know what the prob was...

re who to do it... there seem to be several (private) firms doing it... any ideas if anyone is any better or worse than anyone lese?

anything else i should/might like to know??

[NappiesGalore]

polite and patient bump

[next time i'll whinge ]

[WorkersforfreEdam]

Don't do it. And if you insist, deffo don't go to a big high street chain. You want an expert.

The figures on the incidence of complications aren't well established (or collected) but it could be 3 per cent. If you do have a complication, something that is described as 'minor' might affect you for the rest of your days - not everything can be corrected. For instance, you could be left unable to drive at night, or with permanent glare or haloes.

If you still want to go ahead, visit a number of surgeons, make sure you see the actual surgeon who will operate on you in each case, quiz them very carefully about their expertise in laser eye surgery specifically, how many ops they carry out every week and what their incidence of complications is for people with similar eyesight to you (no use seeing a table covering people with +10 if you are +2, may give a false impression of YOUR risk).

[hotbot]

i had laser surgery 15 yrs ago was very happy with the result, my eys were shockingly bad, all i wanted was a lower prescription for glasses as it turned out, i didnt have to wear specs for 4 yrs, and now only for reading , computer work etc. As workerfor... said make sure that an eye surgeon will be treating you, preferably one that also works for the nhs, you neednt worry about qulifications then, contrary to some opinion the nhs has very high standards. Also make sure that as part of the fee you get a decent amount of time for follow up checks.
also just becos you have seen a surgeon and investigated , doesnt mean you have to go thru with it.
hth.hb

[NappiesGalore]

THANK YOU

i cant tell you how much of relief it is to get some balancing info. the only things i ever hear are 'my mates dads sister had it and she loves it etc etc '

i just want to know its safe. and if its not, then im quite happy to go on with contacts and glasses, since im only slightly short sighted. last thing i want to do is make it worse!

right. so interview all surgeons and make sure they work for nhs also (agree standards are high there, and more trustworthy than some solely private quack)

as for not going to 'high street'... where else do i look? harley street? is this a london thing? am happy to go there if best treatment is there.

[hatwoman]

NG - dh had his done at Moorfield - cost about 3 or 4 times as much as the High Street but used a more sophisticated technique (don't ask for details... I have no idea), was done by a full-on surgeon rather than somone who only does eye laser surgery; good preparation and post-op checks. If you are prepared to pay top whack and you;re in London I am reasonably sure that Moorfield is where you want to look

[hatwoman]

and just for fun they make you wear goggles in bed

[MintyDixCharrington]

I have a friend who is a consultant at Moorfields eye hospital.

She won't let her dh have it done. She says that it just isn't safe enough - it is so dependent on the machinery let alone the person using it - and has seen far to many irreversible problems to consider letting him have it done.

Much as I love the idea of no longer needing contacts, there is no way I'd do it having spoken to her.

[millie99]

I always reckoned if it was so great how come there are so many opticians/eye specialists earing glasses?

[hatwoman]

I think though it's a very personal thing - it comes down to how much of a risk taker you are; how much you hate wearing lenses/glasses; how bad your eyesight is. reading your posts again NG I see you're only very slightly short-sighted. dh was pretty bad - couldn;t see to do anything without glasses. and hated lenses.

[NappiesGalore]

hatwoamn - thanks. makes sense to go to the top. is def the place i'll look if i decide to go further...

but minty! thats pretty damning isnt it? backs up the vague warning my father gave me about it...

good point millie!

hmmmmmmmm.... i dont think its looking likely tbh. id be gutted to do more damage than good.

ps-hatwoman; goggles in bed?? what, always??

[foxinsocks]

my mum and dad both had it done (they live abroad so not over here)

my dad's eyesight was shocking. He doesn't need glasses now (after the op) but they've told him his eyesight may deteriorate again in the next few years.

my mum's eyesight was not as bad as my dad's to start with but the op did not work at all and she still needs glasses.

[MintyDixCharrington]

lots of the consultants at moorfields do it privately
apparently you can make about £20,000 per day or something amazing, so they all do a day a week of zapping people's eyes
she would love to earn that sort of money so quickly but won't do it because she doesn't think it is safe. her husband is a little miffed about this! but it is admirable I think

[NappiesGalore]

whoa foxi, thats not the greatest is it?

round of applause for principled friend minty. she has my respect (not that it'll buy her a winter in bahamas, but hey ho )

[MintyDixCharrington]

she is even more amazing. she takes a month's unpaid leave off a year and goes to the far depths of pakistan and does corneal transplants. by the time she leaves hundreds of people who were blind, can see

humbling

[NappiesGalore]

god i wish i had a skill that useful. am so impressed. if i hadnt been such a pita as a teenager...

i could go over and help them plan their interiors, but somehow doesnt feel so worthy. really must train in something useful. (she said, starting gardening and spanish classes, and volunteering for the oxfam bookshop one day a week)

[chipmonkey]

I'm an optometrist and definitely wouldn't consider it for myself, for all the reasons Edam said! Also, there is no guarantee that your eyesight won't regress a bit and it can't always be repeated.
Another thing, Nappies, if you are not very shortsighted, it could work out to your disadvantage in your mid-40s when most people begin to need glasses for reading. Mildly shortsighted people don't have this problem, they just take off their glasses and read. Most laser eye surgeons get around this by lasering one eye only. But in practice I have found that a good number of people don't tolerate this very well and could still need glasses for night driving etc.
Also, it is now known that people who have naturally thin corneas are more susceptible to glaucoma in later life. Laser eye surgery works by thinning the cornea. I would have questions about whether this would increase the risk of glaucoma for people whose corneas have been artificially thinned, it is now too early to tell.

[NappiesGalore]

blardy hell.

thank you chipmonkey. and others. its been an eyeopening thread...

seriously, thanks. will put it out of mind and get on with it now, thanks.

[Anna8888]

I had severe myopia and astigmatism. I had laser surgery done five years ago with a highly recommended surgeon.

Very happy, no problems at all ever.

[Diplidophus]

I had mine doen about 5 years ago - never looked back.

Really pleased with the results but I hated wearing glasses and never got on with contacts.

[BadKitten]

Personally after having side effects from neccessary cataract surgery (like glare, poor night vision, halos, large floaters and some real complications that have left one eye in a big pickle) I really would urge you to think very long and hard.

At the moment I take it that when you wear glasses/contacts you have good vision? Think how life changing it would be to have vision problems that are not correctable - that you have to live with for the rest of your life. I know the risks are low but they were fairly low for me and my whole life is now affected.

[chipmonkey]

BadKitten That's very unlucky! Did you get an infection during surgery?

[BadKitten]

Chipmonkey - I was very fortunate to be offered multifocals on the nhs - different lens for each eye. One is better for distance (and bright daylight) the other is better for near and twilight/night vision. There has been a significant adaptation time with halos and glare and unfortunately I didn't get the intermediate vision I should get. Thats been a funny one as its ok in very good light but not when the sun goes behind a cloud. This was back in March that I had the surgeries.

Subsequently I developed pvds in both eyes with marked retinal changes (I have lattice degeneration anyway). Lots of flashes and floaters but fortunately no tears. It was quite scary for a while and the floaters I'm left with are very interfering at times.

Then I was diagnosed with PCO in one eye (the good reading/night vision one). I was referred for YAG. At the clinic I had a really really horrid experience where after getting me set up all of a sudden I heard a 'snap' which I don't know what it was. The lady made a noise, grabbed the contact lens out of my eye and rushed off to find my surgeon. My vision from that eye was very red and even more blurry than the drops make it. She came back and said they had decided it wasn't safe to continue - if I came back in 6 months they would see if it was safe then. Fortunately the vision in that eye cleared over a few hours to how it was before she started.

I don't know what happened - I'm very confused and concerned at the moment. I was so upset that I couldn't even go to my gp. I went yesterday and she doesnt have a letter from the clinic so she is now chasing it. My cataract surgeon has discharged me from his clinic (he did it stating I would be discharged after the YAG so clearly he doesnt know what happened) and I've booked into my own optician for a chat. The PCO seems to be affecting my reading vision and my night vision now. I had adapted somewhat to the halos and glare associated with multifocals but they are back with a vengeance. So I'm not the worlds happiest bunny at the moment.

[lilacclaire]

I have only read op.
I had mine done at Optimax in Glasgow about 6 years ago, it was the old type I had PRK as opposed to LASIK.
It was very traumistising but i am a pure wimp and it kinda freaked me out, it wasn't physically painful though, although my eyes were sore for a few days after, I think the lasik is a much less painful procedure from what i've heard.
My eyesight is 20/20 now though

[chipmonkey]

BadKitten, that sounds really odd! Very poor communication on the part of the clinic, too, that neither the surgeon nor your GP were informed as to what happened. Hope you get it sorted soon.