TELL me about LASIK!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > TELL me about LASIK!

JGTheSpy: Jul 31, 2002; Excuse me, but if I could have a moment of your time, I'd like to explain why you're not actually enjoying that game that you're enjoying. You see, I am in fact an expert. At games. I know, it's impressive.

mpyro posted:

For those that had PRK done, how long was your healing time?

About a week to feel completely normal. Four days to actually be able to function. I had them both done a week apart and I went to a bar the night after I got the second eye done. It wasn't heaven but I was fine with sunglasses and frequent eyedrops.

The first day is absolutely miserable and you'll want to be asleep for as much of it as possible. Hopefully you get good pain meds. The second day is pretty bad too plus you'll probably sleep so much the first day that you won't be able to sleep much on day two. That means you'll be awake all day but unable to do anything that requires vision. By day three I could watch TV in small bursts while wearing sunglasses and on day four I was able to sit in front of my TV all day. You will look disgusting at least through the third day so if you're easily embarrassed, you'll probably want to stay home.

Even on the first day when I was leaking waterfalls of tears into my oatmeal at Denny's I didn't regret getting PRK over LASIK though. None of the doctors could give me a valid reason to get LASIK instead of PRK so I went against all of their recommendations and went with PRK. A couple days of pain is worth not having permanent eyeball weirdness.

# ¿ May 26, 2010 07:41

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 15:09

JGTheSpy: Jul 31, 2002; Excuse me, but if I could have a moment of your time, I'd like to explain why you're not actually enjoying that game that you're enjoying. You see, I am in fact an expert. At games. I know, it's impressive.

I just had my final check-up today. It has been four months since I got PRK with the custom laser. They said my eyes are pretty much completely healed. I'd say I'm around 20/25 although I can read the 20 line with some lucky blinks and a bit of squinting. I'd be perfectly happy if my vision stays right here, which I'm guessing it will since it hasn't really changed in three months. I have no dryness or halos or anything bad at all.

That was the best fuckload of money I've ever spent.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2010 00:05

JGTheSpy: Jul 31, 2002; Excuse me, but if I could have a moment of your time, I'd like to explain why you're not actually enjoying that game that you're enjoying. You see, I am in fact an expert. At games. I know, it's impressive.

It's easy not to look away. They'll probably have you stare at a little green or red light while they do their thing. You only have to do it for a minute or so and they go in little bursts with the grinder thing if you move your eye around too much. It's really easy to concentrate on staring at the light though because you know the whole thing is going to be over very quickly.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2010 05:05

JGTheSpy: Jul 31, 2002; Excuse me, but if I could have a moment of your time, I'd like to explain why you're not actually enjoying that game that you're enjoying. You see, I am in fact an expert. At games. I know, it's impressive.

Well, personally, I didn't want to have a flap or flap scar for the rest of my life. The likelihood of it ever being an issue is extremely slim but I could deal with a couple days of pain for the comfort of never having to think about that. My doctor really wanted to do both eyes separately so I had to deal with the pain and recovery twice and I still wouldn't have gone with the flap. It was also about $500 cheaper for me although that's not the case everywhere. The hardest part was getting the doctors to stop trying to talk me out of PRK but they couldn't come up with a single valid reason to do LASIK over PRK so I never changed my mind.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2010 17:56

JGTheSpy: Jul 31, 2002; Excuse me, but if I could have a moment of your time, I'd like to explain why you're not actually enjoying that game that you're enjoying. You see, I am in fact an expert. At games. I know, it's impressive.

Praesil posted:

Let me rephrase the question:

Other than flap vs no flap, and PRK having a longer recovery time, are there any differences besides cost?

No.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2010 18:29

JGTheSpy: Jul 31, 2002; Excuse me, but if I could have a moment of your time, I'd like to explain why you're not actually enjoying that game that you're enjoying. You see, I am in fact an expert. At games. I know, it's impressive.

Put it in Your Mouf posted:

That's all gone, except I can't loving cut onions. I used to be completely unaffected, now I better be wearing waterproof mascara.

Yeah that's just about the only thing I miss about not wearing contacts.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2010 20:55

JGTheSpy: Jul 31, 2002; Excuse me, but if I could have a moment of your time, I'd like to explain why you're not actually enjoying that game that you're enjoying. You see, I am in fact an expert. At games. I know, it's impressive.

DreadCthulhu posted:

Talk me out of this?

No. I like you too much to do that.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2010 22:07

JGTheSpy: Jul 31, 2002; Excuse me, but if I could have a moment of your time, I'd like to explain why you're not actually enjoying that game that you're enjoying. You see, I am in fact an expert. At games. I know, it's impressive.

DreadCthulhu posted:

Do you go insane from having your eyes open for 20 minutes without being able to blink? I know they numb them up, but is it still incredibly irritating?

It's more like 3 minutes and no you don't really notice it.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2010 23:58

JGTheSpy: Jul 31, 2002; Excuse me, but if I could have a moment of your time, I'd like to explain why you're not actually enjoying that game that you're enjoying. You see, I am in fact an expert. At games. I know, it's impressive.

immakiku posted:

Question about pro:

The only benefit I've read on google that lasik has over prk is the shorter recovery time (2 days vs 2 weeks). Is that really it? How do you account for the difference in popularity that LASIK enjoys? Considering that prk doesn't involve the visceral idea of having part of your eye slightly dislocated forever?

I guess I can't do LASIK anyway because being able to do martial arts is important to me, but I want to see if there's some other reason people don't like prk..

I'm a little late here but I don't believe there is any downside to PRK other than healing time. I grilled numerous people working at the clinic and they all kept pushing me to get LASIK but not a single one could tell me why. They all just said, "because your corneas are good enough for LASIK" or told me it would hurt less. I'm guessing most people get LASIK because the doctors push it so hard and I think they push it hard because it costs more. Either that or they really care about healing time

I got PRK and I wouldn't go back and get LASIK. The first two days were absolutely miserable and the two after that were pretty uncomfortable but that was about it. It was a bit of a pain to take care of with the eye shields and the baby shampoo and all that but I didn't mind being inconvenienced for two weeks knowing I'd have flapless eyeballs that can see clearly for the rest of my life.

Edit: I suppose PRK may have a higher rate of complications which would explain why no one would answer my questions properly. That's something you can ask your doctor about.

JGTheSpy fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Jun 24, 2011

# ¿ Jun 24, 2011 19:29

JGTheSpy: Jul 31, 2002; Excuse me, but if I could have a moment of your time, I'd like to explain why you're not actually enjoying that game that you're enjoying. You see, I am in fact an expert. At games. I know, it's impressive.

insidius posted:

To any of you that have had it done do you ever occasionally miss your glasses? I am still in the period where I can not get it done because of my shifting script but it led me to thinking about how I would feel of my old rituals dieing.

The two year replacement, picking frames, waking up every morning and trying to remember where I put my glasses when I was woken up in the middle of the night, that sort of thing.

Nobody misses those things? I guess I sort of wonder because I have worn glasses for pretty much as long as I could form a thought in my tiny brain and it almost feels like I would be giving a part of who I am away.

Hell no.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2011 04:22

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 15:09

JGTheSpy: Jul 31, 2002; Excuse me, but if I could have a moment of your time, I'd like to explain why you're not actually enjoying that game that you're enjoying. You see, I am in fact an expert. At games. I know, it's impressive.

Harmburger posted:

Is anyone knowledgeable about US military eye surgery? I was told by my recruiter that there's a chance I could get "free LASIK". I'm concerned about the flap and after reading the thread, would prefer PRK or LASEK. Is it possible he should have said "free vision correction surgery including but not limited to LASIK"? Or is LASIK the only option for US military members?

I don't know if it has changed, but PRK was the ONLY option for military members a couple years ago. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to get PRK.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2011 02:07

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > TELL me about LASIK!