Eye laser surgery

[June2009]

Heya, I looked into this a few years back when it "came out" and read lots of horror stories.
A few years on and I'm considering this again (maybe).
Has anyone here considered it, gone for it or decided against it? Thanks in advance!

Hi
I had laser eye surgery about 4 years ago, at the time it was a nightmare,
My eyes where really bad the first treatment was ok it hurts afterwards but only for a couple of days but i still needed glasses so you get upto 4 treatments for the 1 price until your eyes are as good as they can be.
On the 2nd treatment it hurt so much more then when me eyes where healing the flaps on the eye that the cut open didnt met when the healed and instead overlapped and they had to cut the excess overlapp off and sew the skin into place that was without doubt the most painful thing that has ever happened to me (and i have 4 kids all natural childbirth) it was awful for about 3/4 months altogether and i always swore i would never recommend it or allow my kids to have it done.
However now the pain is well in the past and having not long come back from an amazing trip to florida where the waterparks are amazing as for the first time i could actually see where i was walking and see the view from the top of the slides i now appreciate the fact that i went through it all .
In short is it worth it? should you have it done? to be fair the actual treatments not bad, main piece of advise for that have it done last appointment they have the only thing that helps for the first few hours is dark room and sleep so later the better
Good luck what ever you decide.

thanks ddgm, see I thought this kind of problem was way int he past and that the success was more like 100% nowadays (and 4 years ago does still kind of qualify as "nowadays" in my opinion.).
Oooh, waterparks though... I KNOW what you mean!

I considered surgery for a few years and last december decided to bite the bullet. I had Lasik done at Ultralase and have no regrets. My left eye still gets a little dry at times but nothing eye drops won't sort out. I wished I had done it earlier.

How short/long sighted are you?

My optician told me that for the vast majority of people it is fine, but you do lose the ability to perceive similar colours (he had a technical name for it which I can't remember), so spotting the edges of steps or th whie of an egg on a white plate for example.

He said for a lot of people they don't notice it, but if you do it's not correctable and feels quite unpleasant.

I can't convince myself to get it done after hearing that.

I've been advised against it because of my (pretty dire) prescription. Friends have had it and say it was fantastic and not too painful

i worked in optics for 10 years.

not all surgeons have the same success rates. you need to do your homework. ask for the individual surgeons success rates - and id never ever go to a large opticians for it doing - id go to an eye surgeon - id go through the hospital, ask your optician who your eye specialist is at your local hospital.

it does depend on your prescription and your eye which should be assessed prior to surgery.

not all eye surgeons are the same. do your homework!