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angryrobots posted:They gave me valium which had minimal effect. The script was for 2 pills, if there's a next time I'm taking both at once. drat, it's been a whole week? I went for LASIK a month ago, and due to a small scar on my right eye they had to abort. Left eye was already done so I'm now going 2 weeks without a contact in my right eye (which is really weird), and it's up in the air whether they'll retry the LASIK or just opt for PRK. I know the recovery period for PRK was painful vs. LASIK, didn't realize it affected your vision for so long - have you been unable to drive this whole time? How bad has it been vs. your previous uncorrected vision?
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Sep 29, 2016 21:44
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| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 15:36 |
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The eye that got LASIK was trouble free - I'm not sure how I'll adjust to PRK. I work at a computer all day, right now I'm using a patch over the uncorrected eye when at my desk (more comfortable than glasses with one lens for me) but I don't know how I'd do this for months. We'll see what he says on the 11th, I guess.
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Sep 30, 2016 02:34
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Wile E. Toyota posted:I went to my lasik consultation the other day, and I was all geared up to get the procedure. Then I saw people in here talking about how their close-up vision kinda sucks now. I don't want to spend a bunch of money and accept the risks of eye surgery if I'm just going to end up trading one pair of glasses for another. You will need reading glasses in your 40s regardless - the vast majority of people do. 23 is on the young side (though perfectly doable!), it may make sense to wait a year or two to make sure your vision is stable. angryrobots posted:I always wonder about the horror story people, if they followed their aftercare procedure according as instructed, and/or went to one of these budget lasik places I see advertised. IMO, it's kind of like reading bad reviews on a known good product...often the authors really come off sounding ill-informed. I did not go to a budget place, and I'm wondering the same about the recovery effects of PRK - I'm only having to get it done due to a tear in the flap of one eye that's a result of a corneal scar (that I don't think was communicated effectively to the LASIK doc). Will find out Tuesday what the next steps are - it's fully healed and I'll have gone 2 weeks without contacts so I could be eligible for PRK on Thursday but I need to get a very clear picture of the recovery process due to some work travel 10 days after that. LASIK on the successful eye was great, I was driving the next day.
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Oct 6, 2016 02:08
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angryrobots posted:Well it's very ymmv, but I was driving a little 10 days post op with prk in both eyes. It is definitely a lengthy recovery process. Technically I tested at 20/25 11 days after surgery, but my perception is that my vision is not nearly as sharp as with glasses (yet, hopefully) It doesn't require any driving at all, I can take a taxi to/from the airport. I'm more concerned with being on my feet, dealing with customers for 12 hours a day for a few days. Day 12 post op will likely be the worst for that, and I'll be home late on day 13. Sidenote: It's been over a week with no contact/no correction in my right eye now, and I'm noticing that I'm becoming cross dominant (ambi-dominant?) in my vision. Used to be right eye dominant but it's becoming more natural for me to rely primarily on my left eye. Weird.
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Oct 6, 2016 05:15
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Arcland posted:The first four hours are the worst. And than it's magically nbd. Also that smell was so strange. The worst...how? You had pain after LASIK?
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Nov 2, 2016 10:34
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Same. I had LASIK in my left eye and it was pain free - mild discomfort during the procedure, mostly due to the fact that I couldn't shut my eyes. I had to do PRK on my right eye and the pain during that recovery loving SUCKED. I'm lucky in that I healed fast so the pain was the same day, rather than a couple days later which is apparently normal. That was 5 days ago and I'm 20/30 in the right eye, and was 20/20 5 days after LASIK (60 days ago).
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Nov 2, 2016 11:07
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I'm still using them occasionally, but after the first couple weeks my doc said simply to use them if I need them.
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Nov 13, 2016 17:07
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How is it different from PRK, do you know?
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Nov 19, 2016 12:27
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My biggest issue, 1 month post-PRK in my right eye, is intermittent light phobia. This didn't happen at all after LASIK in my left eye. As an example, yesterday morning I went for a long walk with no issues - clear skies. 2 hours later, had to run a couple errands and had major issues for the first 10 minutes or so, almost had to pull over. Same sunglasses, same cloudless day. No idea what's causing it, but it's aggravating.
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Nov 21, 2016 20:21
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angryrobots posted:I was pretty light sensitive for a couple weeks. I have some Sunclouds that supposedly block 100% of UV and are polarized, that was the eye doc's first question as well.
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Nov 21, 2016 23:51
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Chillyrabbit posted:Jumping into Lasik with my eyes closed (pun intended). They should give you a sedative to take immediately following surgery - if I were you, I'd plan to dope myself up for as much of those 3 days as possible. One of those days will (almost certainly) be marked by significant discomfort. That's your cornea starting to regenerate from the PRK, since it is procedurally different from LASIK. First 24 hours, use the shields they give you, take a sedative, black out the room and try to sleep as much as possible. You will be tempted to rub your eyes, don't do it. When I had PRK done (right eye only, left eye was LASIK), I found myself hugely photophobic at first. It came and went - some days were fine, some days were rough, and there were a handful of times when it seemed to fluctuate throughout the day. That was gone within 30 days, which seems to be fairly typical - some people healed faster, some slower, some had more discomfort than others. As for activities - try to stay in dark-ish rooms as much as possible. Have friends over, play board games, but nothing that requires you to focus on close objects (no PC, no reading, etc for 3 days). Even TV wasn't really doable for me for the first week - and it's likely your vision will be blurry for some time, with some days better than others similar to the photophobia. I can tell you about my recovery, after-care, etc. if you want, but the biggest thing for activities is just to not depend on having 100% visual acuity, and not to focus on anything close up. And sleep as much as possible!
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Feb 28, 2017 05:10
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snowparty posted:If prk is anything like lasik you should be fine. Your vision will be mostly restored by then. The biggest thing is making sure you don't rub your eyes (as tempting as it will be) and make sure nothing gets in your eyes. They should give you some kind of protective lenses to cover them but if not you could always wear safety glasses. Just don't do anything too straining for the eyes such as playing video games too long or staring into the sun. PRK is not like LASIK in my experience, and I did both. LASIK was effectively healed overnight and I was 100% fine. PRK took about a month before my vision was corrected, and I had no discomfort in that eye. Edit: Don't get me wrong, the end result is fantastic for PRK and it is completely worth it. But don't sell it as if it's the same thing as LASIK, it's a different procedure and expectations should be set accordingly.
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Mar 5, 2017 01:42
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Expect it to fluctuate for a few weeks. There were days when my vision. Was great, but then a day or two later it would be blurry again. To be fair my uncorrected vision was much worse than yours, but it took about a month before it really stabilized, maybe a bit longer. Glad you got it done, good luck healing up!
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Mar 14, 2017 01:13
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How much post op treatment are they recommending? Edit: Consultation, not treatment.
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Apr 7, 2017 20:14
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ibntumart posted:The surgeon scrubs off with a small electric brush after you get some anesthetic eyedrops. Disconcerting, but painless. Painless at the moment. Wait until later...
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Apr 11, 2017 17:34
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angryrobots posted:What OTC eye drops did y'alls Drs recommend for long term use? I had it written down somewhere and can't find it. For me, Refresh Optive Preservative Free. The preservative free part is what's important, there are other brands that will also work. These come in single use containers and are considerably more expensive than regular saline rewetting drops. This is the specific product: http://www.refreshbrand.com/Products/optive-sensitive Edit: At first it was 2-3 times per day per eye. At this point it's on an as-needed basis (though once a day is recommended).
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May 16, 2017 08:59
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I would strongly recommend LASIK vs PRK. I did both, the heal time for PRK is much rougher
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Aug 6, 2017 04:35
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Mantle posted:Why did you have to do both and in what order? Other than the heal time, how was the effectiveness? LASIK on my left eye, PRK on my right. I did both because my cornea tore, and my doc decided to not try again. Effectiveness was roughly the same, maybe slightly higher for PRK, but he was a bit more focused that time since he'd already hosed the dog once. Having done both, I'd opt for LASIK in a heartbeat - the heal time for PRK was miserable.
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Aug 6, 2017 15:43
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Find a good LASIK doc, find out if you're a good candidate. Other than myself, I don't know anyone who's had a bad experience. When you get old, you will need reading glasses anyway so be ready for that.
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Aug 31, 2017 10:04
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Where are you?
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Nov 17, 2017 02:14
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Try the SF thread in LAN maybe? I have a couple friends out there but nobody's gotten LASIK that I know of.
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Nov 19, 2017 16:52
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Most places are pretty good these - having problems like I had are very rare. One thing to keep in mind when you talk to them is how pricing works - if they claim $400/eye or something stupid, it probably means follow up appointments are all paid for separately, a touch up might be paid for separately, etc.
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Nov 19, 2017 22:07
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Internet Explorer posted:Just in case anyone is curious, on my "still using too many eye drops" issue, I was able to reduce the amount of eye drops I was using down to 2-3 times per day. I think it was the fact that I had the non-preservative drops sitting in front of me pretty much all day and knowing that they needed to be used. I think I was using them too much and my eyes weren't making enough tears. This is an entirely personal thing. I got my surgery done in September and November of 2016 (don't ask) and was done with drops within like 2-3 months on each eye. I still get dry eye occasionally but that's natural. Another buddy of mine got LASIK done and was using drops for almost a year.
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Feb 11, 2018 17:40
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Seems a little longer than usual but if they're that busy or understaffed I understand it.
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Mar 24, 2018 00:06
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ChickenOfTomorrow posted:Just got evaluated for lasik today and i think i'm gonna do it. i... like how i look in glasses, though? Don't worry, at some point in your 50s you will almost certainly have to start wearing glasses again.
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Mar 30, 2018 07:05
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Dazerbeams posted:I got my free consultation and was a good fit for either lasik or prk, but they’d want to see me after a month of no contact wear (I sleep in mine so heavy user here). Money is a bit tight at the moment but I should have my ducks in a row by next year. I think I’m gonna go for it! I (and at least one other goon) had LASIK in one eye, PRK in the other. The original plan was LASIK in both eyes, but there were complications in one eye (flap tore), so the only real option was to let it heal and reevaluate. After reevaluating, the doctor decided it would be too risky to try LASIK again. LASIK is an overnight healing process. Literally, you will almost certainly be fine to drive and go to work the next day, barring complications. PRK has a highly variable healing process - for some people it's very fast, others can take awhile. For me, it was roughly a month before I was back to about 95% of normal, and probably 2 months to be 100%. The first 24 hours were very painful, gradually going down to just discomfort within 72 hours. It's hard to describe compared to, say, breaking a bone, but you can expect a ton of photo sensitivity, and sleeping for as long as possible immediately following surgery is highly recommended (the doctor will tell you this as well). For the next month it was different every day - some days it was only slightly blurry, other days the photo sensitivity was back and strong enough that even going outside without a patch was impossible. I drove very little during that period - there were lots of days where I simply didn't feel safe driving (luckily I worked from home so this was a nonissue). That said, my experience with PRK was apparently on the bad side. It's definitely a longer recovery, and don't let the doctor tell you it'll only be an extra day or two compared to LASIK - remember, they're effectively removing the outer layer of your cornea and reshaping it, rather than temporarily removing a flap. It's a much greater (and more exposed) surface area. Given my experience, I generally recommend LASIK over PRK if you're a good candidate for it. As for letting a fellow perform the surgery, I'd have questions. A lot of the procedure is automated, there isn't much for the doctor to do besides prep you for surgery and, in the case of LASIK, remove the flap. - a laser tracks your eye the entire time and shuts down if you flinch or look away. All of the parameters are preprogrammed, as you'll be taking numerous vision and ocular tests to measure everything possible. I'd ask if the fellow had ever performed LASIK/PRK before and if so, how many times. If not, how many times had they sat in on it. What kind of equipment is being used? If there's an error or issue, what's the followup - do you get another correction within a certain time period? Given you mentioned a 1k-2k difference I'm guessing all pre- and post-op visits are covered under one price. I'd probably do it if I were comfortable with the doctor, but that's me. A few other thoughts on it, though, from fellowship folks: My first experience performing LASIK surgery quote:That still means that there was a first patient, though. I remember her very well. Dr. Durrie had a deal where patients could choose to let the fellow in training do their procedure and pay a little less than if he was doing it. It was a good deal because they knew they were at one of the best places in the country, and Durrie would only let good things happen to their eyes. Part of that assurance was that he would only let me do a part of the procedure that I was comfortable with, then do that a bunch of times, before moving on to the next part within my skill set. For that first patient, that meant that I got to "drive the bus." Corneal and Refractive Surgery Fellowship Program quote:Fellows learn key practice management skills including marketing, insurance, billing, accounting, and patient flow logistics that are essential for those considering either private practice or clinic management. Weekly clinical reviews to discuss difficult and unusual cases, research study results, and new developments provide exposure to a wide range of topics and surgical challenges. Monthly working-lunch sessions give fellows an opportunity to make presentations to staff and glean pearls from the medical director and invited speakers. Upon completion of the program, it is expected that the fellow will be a well-rounded, confident and resourceful ophthalmologist who is able to manage the most challenging anterior segment cases. Note the key takeaways from both of those linked - the first one only got to press a pedal. The second one, the skills they tout first and foremost have nothing to do with refractive surgery and everything to do with managing a practice. If you do a search you'll find a bunch of people asking this same question, both as a patient and as someone considering a fellowship. If your case is routine, you'll likely save some money and be none the worse for wear. If you've had issues with your eyes in the past, consider it far more carefully. Just my 2 cents, anyway!
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Apr 27, 2018 21:19
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Ride The Gravitron posted:I'm looking into lasik now that I can afford it. What's this about not being able to smoke weed. to reiterate, I very rarely smoke but I was told to just hold off for awhile to not exacerbate the more common side effects.
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May 11, 2018 10:32
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Hope it goes well, with any luck you'll be seeing 20/20 tomorrow.
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Jun 2, 2018 00:29
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| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 15:36 |
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Dry eyes after LASIK are extremely common, especially for the first month or so. You should be using drops at least once a day for now, generally preservative free drops that come in single use containers. Are you doing that?
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Jun 9, 2018 17:17
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