Laser eye surgery - experiences/thoughts/risks?

[MumofCandR]

I'm considering having laser eye surgery done. I have strong myopia and have done since I was 12 I'm now mid 40s. I have worn glasses all my life and am not considering this for aesthetic reasons, but for me the absolute bonus would be the feeling of freedom, being able to see in the shower, in the sea. Glasses not steaming up when wearing a mask, etc. Have you had laser eye surgery and what has been your experience/ would you recommend? My concern would be the small risk of complications and regretting not sticking with glasses as being able to see is so precious. AIBU to consider? What do I need to think about?

@bubble2000 she is doing her own research, she's asking on here!

Far away vision, brilliant (was shortsighted, so it’s great to be able to see the clouds in the sky).

Middle vision, it’s going. I think smartphone usage has a lot to answer for there.

Close up vision, lost a bit of my precision close-up sight when I had it done. That used to be microscopic with detail (great as an artist).

My eyes get dry & sore. They don’t like hot climates. Don’t need reading glasses yet (46). Had it done just over ten years ago.

So, there’s good & bad, I’d say. Like anything in life...

Best thing I ever did. I was -6.75. Wish I’d had it done years ago. It was expensive, but I wanted to go with one of the big names. My view was good eye surgery is not cheap and cheap eye surgery is not good. I didn’t want to go to a company I’d never heard of just because it was half the price, as if it went wrong I would have regretted not paying for “proper” surgery.
I’m the biggest wimp in the world yet I did it. I found it best not to think too much about what the surgeon was doing.

I know I will have to go back to glasses again only this time it'll be 2 bloody sets for near & distance

That sounds dreadful. Get varifocals, at least you won’t need two pairs.

My husband has had it done, also 3 good friends.

Without exception, they all say it has been life-changing and 'why didn't I do it sooner?'

I want to have it but I am squeamish about eyes.

I had it done in 2013 was - 4.00D large pupils meant i had LASERK not LASIK night driving was not great and i have dry eye problems to this day costing £25 a month in drops, was back amd forth to their clinic every week for 6 months before they basically told me to go to the nhs to be treated as the fold kept pulling free.
However my relatives had brilliant results but thry we t to harley street clinics and i went to a high street opticians so i guess you get what you pay for. But it was not cheap either way.

I wouldn’t have it done, personally. Presumably you can see very well in your glasses or contact lenses. It is possible that you could have complications with the procedure or with the healing that mean that a) you still cannot see well enough to not need glasses but b) due to irregular cornea shape from scarring or irregular healing, even when you wear the glasses to your new prescription, you cannot see as well as you could in your original glasses. It does happen.

Accidents during surgery can also happen - it’s a very delicate procedure especially when the flap is being cut, and although it’s very rare, sight-threatening incidents do occur occasionally. The fact that it’s rare will be no consolation if you are the 1 in 100,000!

I don’t know any eye care professionals who have had laser surgery themselves.

If considering multi focal lens implants as an alternative, they do usually seem to give good vision, but every person I’ve seen with them gets quite bad haloes when driving at night. Most people have haloes after lasik to a greater or lesser extent also.

@DivorcedAndDelighted

I had LASIK 16 years ago, got some minor complications including dry eyes for about a year and, at one point, a dislodged corneal flap when my toddler hit me i in the eye. Had a reaction to some of the drops. Had some halo-ing at night but tbh I used to get that with contacts and it didn't bother me at all - I don't get it any more. The eye surgery was still one of the best decisions of my life. For years I used to give silent thanks to the surgeon every morning. I still often think of him, and actually contacted his office last year to say thanks. I'm a health researcher now, though I wasn't then. I have kept an 'eye' on safety research and it's impressive. I know that many eye surgeons have had their own eyes fixed, as have many other healthcare professionals. I'd suggest:

• Go for a consultation with a specialist clinic or two, to get their realistic assessment of likely results for you as an individual. They know what they're talking about. You can't expect a general optician to be an expert in this.
• Look at experience and outcome stats for eyes in your prescription range. Clinics should publish stats by category. The surgeon's experience won't necessarily correlate with how impressive his job title is. Someone who is a consultant at an eye hospital specialising in eg trauma, cataracts, rare forms of blindness, may be brilliant in those areas but less experienced at laser vision correction than a surgeon who is not yet a consultant, but specialises in this. My surgeon had done over 10,000 LASIK procedures when he did mine. Last time I checked he was at 80,000 plus!!
• Once you're on the mailing list for a private clinic you may get offers when they have spare capacity. I got this from Optimax.

Age - I had mine done in my mid 30s & was told repeatedly that I would need reading glasses in my 40s. Well, I'm just turning 50 and I don't yet.
You may be advised to consider implantable contacts. A friend had these recently & was advised that anyone 50+ should go for them routinely.

• Don't wait forever "to see what the long term results are" - this has been around for years and there's plenty of data. A friend of mine had vision correction surgery in the 1980s. I was looking into it for about 5 years and my optician kept saying "oh, wait a few years, see what happens", and after 5 years I realised those goalposts were always moving. By the way, when I went to that optician for an independent check up 2 years after my surgery, she said she couldn't see any scarring or any sign that I'd had surgery, even on her highest magnification examination.

Thank you, this is helpful

I had lasik in 2008, without doubt the best money I have ever spent. No regrets at all. The only thing I would say, is given your age, you will need reading glasses in a few years time, as the lasik will treat the myopia only. But totally worth doing. Good luck.

Yes it's so telling the eye surgeon all wear glasses - they don't trust their own treatment - when asked they say " oh sadly myveyes aren't suitable'

Apologies for the daily mail link 🙈🙈🙈- was just wanting to put something up quickly!!!

As I said important to do own research and question do I need this unnecessary surgery when clearly the risks are there and if I am uuckyvthe impact is horrific

I had it done 9 years ago. Was over -6.5 with bad astigmatism in both eyes. It didn't work brilliantly for me, the most difficult being at night was offered to redo again but decided against it. Lasted without glasses for 5/6 years (I do think having kids made it worse) until a new neighbour was at an event and came to speak to me but I had no idea who she was as I only waved at her in passing and out of context I just couldn't see her! Went back to glasses again. It cost me 4k.
Pros- freedom of not wearing glasses and having my eyemakeup seen.
Cons- even at '20/20 ' vision my eyesight was never as good as it had been with glasses which was quite difficult. Recovery took a while. Night vision was just awful, now improved with glasses but will never be better than it is now. I actually missed my glasses, they were really part of my identity! (My husband prefers me with them too)
However, overall I would do it again for a few reasons. My prescription is now -3.5, means I can get the whole range of glasses(couldn't before to support the lenses), glasses are cheaper and if I hadn't tried I always would have wondered. I can still see okish without glasses (enough to drive apparently but absolutely no way I would).

Thank you all for the insights and personal experiences - I will definitely go to several good clinics and have a free consultation and then decide what to do. Thank you!

I had it done over 25 years ago when it only cost about £250 per eye, I was hugely shortsighted. Best £500 I ever spent.
I have the normal age deterioration now in my early 50’s so I do wear reading glasses, but the benefits from the last 25 years massively outweigh that. Nothing worse than falling asleep in contacts and having to prise them off your eyeballs!

@bubble2000

Yes it's so telling the eye surgeon all wear glasses - they don't trust their own treatment - when asked they say " oh sadly myveyes aren't suitable'

Apologies for the daily mail link 🙈🙈🙈- was just wanting to put something up quickly!!!

As I said important to do own research and question do I need this unnecessary surgery when clearly the risks are there and if I am uuckyvthe impact is horrific

That's one we can quickly lay to rest. There was a peer-reviewed study of Ophthalmologists who performed laser vision correction , asking if they had or would have the procedure themselves:

62.5 percent of refractive surgeons with refractive error amenable to treatment have already had laser vision correction, and 95 percent are completely, or at least mostly, satisfied with their outcomes.
This level of acceptance is around five times the prevalence of refractive surgery in the general population, far surpassing any other profession with the possible exception of the military.
We also found that the vast majority (over 90 percent) of the refractive surgeons we surveyed have performed or recommended LVC to one or more of their parents, spouses, siblings, and/or children.

Forgot to say, my prescription was -5 and the vision I've achieved after LASIK is better than I ever had with glasses or contacts. One eye is super - sharp and the other is 20:20. Glasses and contacts were not trouble - free for me; I'm very outdoorsy and practical, and my nose and ear shape mean that glasses were never very secure and constantly annoyed me. I used to get various problems with contact lenses eg sensitivity to some solutions, and had corneal abrasions on a few occasions due to things getting stuck under lenses. Also used to get this issue with dry patches on my eyes. I just don't get any trouble now. The surgery aftercare of eyedrops and artificial tears did get me into the habit of using good, preservative-free eye drops whenever I feel the slightest dryness, so that has probably helped. I doubt that surgery has "cured" my intermittent dry eyes, but it has helped me to manage it.
My surgery was 16 years ago last month

Best decision ever! Swimming, showers, exercise, driving at night, no monthly cost, so many things have made life better without contacts I love it.

It was however extremely painful for 24hrs. I'm glad they did both eyes at the same time or id not have gone back!

I had in done in 2013. I was back in glasses/contacts by 2020 sadly so it was £3k wasted for me. I was short sighted and am back to being short sighted.

Forgot to say I had mine at London vision clinic on Harley street and I chose them because their results with my prescription were impressive (-7 & -7 astigmatism and big pupils) . You pay for your first meeting (I think it was £500) but it is taken off the cost of surgery if you go ahead. I would recommend them completely, they were very honest about what my results could be best/worst case scenario. Hope that helps

Had it 3 years ago, best thing I’ve ever done. I was a -6 - 7 with a stigmatism and now I’ve 20/20 vision and I’m free from spending 400 quid a lense for both sunglasses and regular glasses on top of the cost of frames etc

Money worth spent.

I met my future wife in the waiting room for Lazik.

So what was supposed to be a couple of grand has cost me an absolute fortune.

@WalkingOnTheCracks

I met my future wife in the waiting room for Lazik.

So what was supposed to be a couple of grand has cost me an absolute fortune.

Brilliant - I did not expect to end up snorting with laughter on this thread

@catblanket

Always wondered about this. How do they do it? Are you awake? Doesn’t it hurt?

Have you seen the clockwork orange? and no, it doesn't hurt because they numb it beforehand, but you can smell your eye burning.

I fully understand why you're nervous OP but can only echo like most of the other posters that it was the best thing I've spent money on. Personally didn't have any side effects at all - one of my eyes was apparently mildly infected but they gave me stronger drops and it cleared up easily. It didn't hurt or anything.

I had mine done 15 years ago. I was approx -6 in both eyes and had got to the point where I got headaches wearing glasses (in spite of thinned lenses) and had blurred vision and sore eyes by the end of the day wearing contact lenses. It's been life changing. Getting up in the night with babies, beach/swimming and being able to see where the kids are... and just being able to live my life without headaches, blurred vision and hassle.

I'm now early 40s and know I will need reading glasses soon, but these years of perfect vision have been completely worth it.

However, I worked for surgeons (different specialty) at the time, and their advice was to have it done by surgeons who did far more complex things in their NHS practice. And to run a mile from anywhere/anyone where this was the most advanced thing they did. And who do not have a NHS practice. I had mine done by a Guy's and St Thomas' consultant who fixed botched procedures (amongst other things far more cutting edge) done by the high street clinics.

@bubble2000 No surgery is risk-free and tabloid newspapers don't typically run stories about successful operations…

DS had this procedure earlier this year and definitely falls in to the 'best thing I've ever done' camp. It's worked brilliantly even though there was an added concern in that he has had Type I diabetes for almost 20 years. He had it done primarily for professional purposes so was extremely motivated to follow all the rules for after-care in terms of applying drops and gels and so on, and not over-stretching his eyes for a few days.

He had it done at Moorfields (so it was expensive). I can also put to rest the idea that surgeons performing the procedure wouldn't have it themselves, that just is not true. DS's eye surgeon at Moorfields had had it done, and so had several of his colleagues.

I had LASIK in one eye and the older LASEK in the other eye as I had some issues with that eye that meant it wasn't suitable for LASIK. Recovery is more painful with LASEK but it only lasts a few days and it's still the best thing I've ever done.

The only cons are dry eyes (which I already had but it's now worse) and night driving is hard because I feel like the glare of headlights really affects me now.