laser eye surgery

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not sure if this belongs in this thread...

looking for recommendations/thoughts/experiences about this.

Have you had it done? if so where and how old were you? Are you happy with the result?

I turn 40 this year, wear glasses all the time (short-sighted, but not massively, -3.75) and have never found contact lenses that I'm really happy with, although I will wear them sometimes at the weekend/on rare occasions I go out of an evening. My eyes tend to be quite dry too which I think is often why I find contacts so uncomfortable.

Increasingly I dislike having to wear glasses. I'm feeling old and tired these days and I don't think they add anything to the way I look. The ones I have suit me, but I just don't like myself with them anymore. I'm tired of having them smudged/pulled/knocked off my face by my 2yo and 4.5yo DS. They're always crooked and getting in the way of bear hugs and horse play...!

I keep thinking about looking into eye surgery, but aside from the cost, things I worry about are:

the actual procedure - what if I blink?? or move my eye??
if I get it done in the next year or so, will I be too 'old' to really benefit from it? Should I have had it done years ago?
What are some of the drawbacks? I hear it can make your eyes dry, or make you long-sighted (as in age-related) sooner.

Anyway, just interested in other people's thoughts and experiences really. I know that this is a very first world privileged vain issue too...!

I don't trust it yet - and neither do any of my friends (we're obviously a risk adverse lot!), even though we could all afford it . Long term effects seem unknown. I am very interested in the lens replacement option as my dad had it (for medical reasons) and it's been amazing. To me it would be worth the extra expence.

I'm tempted but have reservations.
DF was almost blind with cataracts but the simple removal surgery was incredibly successful. I'm not sure it would've been if he'd had laser eye surgery previously.

It would so awful to go blind later in life and not be able to rectify it because of an elective procedure.

The type of surgery i had which involves no cutting of the eyes can be performed many times and leaves no scarring.

So I imagine if you thought you might need surgery for cateracts in the future this would be worth looking into.

Long term effects seem unknown.

I had mine done about 18 years ago. At that point, there were people who had had theirs done up 15 years previously, so there should now be information for about 30 years.

Had mine done about 5 years ago. It was/is life changing. Got it done in Liverpool by Ultralase- think they are somebody else now but the clinic is the same.

I didn't even have that high a prescription but didn't like wearing my glasses. I found it quite painful immediately afterwards - like somebody was rubbing an onion right on my eyeball. I just kept topping up with pain killers.
I remember going back home and looking at my carpet and thinking OMG I need to hoover! That's how good my eyesight was
I would defo do it again if needed!

By the way apart from mild dry eyes in the summer (this could be genetic as everybody in my family suffers from dry eyes) I don't have any other side effects. My night vision is perfect etc

30 years is a long time, but not long enough for me. If I had it done at 25, 30 years would only take it to 55 years old. I'd want a longer period than that for an elective surgery. Totally accept I'm risk adverse on this though.

Sorry - badly written post - hope you know what I'm going on about!

My husband had it done about 2 years ago. His eyesight was really bad, he was -6 in one eye and -4 in the other. Plus, being over 40, his close vision was deteriorating too.

It has changed his life. The procedure itself was fine but the immediate aftermath when the anaethestic drops wore off (and I am only talking about 2 hours or so) was intensely painful. He was in tears and beside himself with the pain!

He has better than 20:20 vision now and they did some sort of tweak that means he doesn't need correction for close vision either.

My friend (who is older) has just had lens replacement as she was told she was too old for laser (she is 52). I like the sound of this better as it was done under sedation - she doesn't remember a thing about it. I would be too scared to have my eyeball clamped in the laser procedure.

Ok, think I'm too old, would need to be the lens replacement, by the sounds of it.

Had mine done 15 years ago best thing ever - worth every penny

I have had lens replacement surgery after getting cataracts in my fifties. I am thrilled with the outcome, no
longer need glasses for anything. Highly recommend the Zeiss multi focal lenses. I had each eye done a week apart, with a general anaesthetic because I was nervous .

I had it done at Optical Express- was such a good decision. Their aftercare was really good as well actually- I recently got blurring in my eyes due to pregnancy and have had multiple appointments and loads of drops etc without having to pay any extra as I had the laser start of last year. (Just to clarify, was fully healed with perfect vision, pre preg blurring) Well worth doing if you have the spare cash.