I am 21, and my vision has always sucked. It has been stable for the last 2 years.
I am thinking about financing eye surgery. Yes, debt is a bad thing, but I spend $400-$500 dollars a year on eye-exams, contacts, and contact solution. Not to mention how bad it sucks having such bad vision.
Opinions?
[quote]DOHCrazy wrote:
I am 21, and my vision has always sucked. It has been stable for the last 2 years.
I am thinking about financing eye surgery. Yes, debt is a bad thing, but I spend $400-$500 dollars a year on eye-exams, contacts, and contact solution. Not to mention how bad it sucks having such bad vision.
Opinions?[/quote]
I’m considering LASEK/PRK in the near future (well, several months down the track when I have a uni break). It’s always good getting lifter/healthy people feedback as I expect that recovery stats may be different than general sedentary older people.
There’ve been a few threads up in the past.
For the record, I’m an ‘ideal’ LASIK candidate, but am still leaning towards LASEK/PRK - I’d like to have other more experienced/knowledgable peoples viewpoints on this though.
I had PRK done last summer. Can’t believe I waited as long as I did and wish I’d had it done a long time ago. I’d been wearing glasses for 16-17 years and everyone around me, seemingly, was having some form of laser vision correction done.
I had it done in the late-afternoon/early evening one day and, walking out of the clinic, my vision was instantly better. However, it was quickly downhill from there and by the time I got home, the pain was pretty much excruciating and I couldn’t see a thing, mainly on account of the non-stop tearing, extreme sensitivity to light and unwillingness/inability to open my eyes. It felt like sand paper or something similar was rubbing against them. That lasted about four days or so, though each day was a little better than the next. I think by day five or six I was feeling pretty much recovered.
I opted for PRK because the thought of having my cornea sliced worried me. I know that, statistically, the chances of something going wrong are low but one possible complication is blindness, if there is optic nerve damage in creating the flap, and that doesn’t exist with PRK where the top layer of the cornea, the epithelium, is removed. The trade off was a slightly longer healing time (a week) but the risk, however small, wasn’t something I was willing to take.
Like I said, I wish I’d done it years ago. No regrets. My vision’s better than 20/20. I got mine done here in Canada and the place I went offers “Wavefront Technology”, essentially a mapping of your eye so that the procedure can be customized specifically to you. It was an additional $750, on top of the already $4000 it was costing to get both eyes done but the difference is like Blu-Ray/1080p definition.
I had PRK done while in the Army. The big perk of doing it through the military was I didn’t have to pay for it. Now my vision kicks ass and I have absolutely no regrets, I would definately do it again. I did this with a few other soldiers and we all had pretty much the same positive experience.
After the surgery I was bed ridden for about half a week (my eyes were super senstive) and had some irritation and sensitivity for maybe 3 weeks or so afterwards. I’d have some dryness and sometimes eye pain that would occasionally flair up, but those episodes became less and less frequent over the course of about a year.
I’d say if you’re gonna do it do it earlier rather then later, enjoy the awesomeness while you’re younger. Make yourself aware of the risks involved and do your research on your docs and on which surgery you’d perfer. It seems like the trade off is PRK has longer recovery, but with more reliable results. Granted, I had my surgery about 3 years back and some of that might have changed by now. Either way, good luck.
I had LASIK on my right eye and PRk on my left eye. They cover your eyes with gauze and two plastic shells and say to leave it on for 24 hours after surgery. I did just that. Luckily, I had my family to guide me everywhere and I made sure I didn’t open my eyes for 24 hours after surgery. When I finally took off my gauze and the shells to open my eyes, everything was a bit blurry, but after a few blinks, I could instantly see the difference. I could see the Rocky Mountains as clear as day. I could see the fence in the back yard and the grain in the wood. I too wondered why I took so long to receive the surgery. It’s been the great choice I’ve made.
A few timew, I get a halo type effect. There would be a halo around lights and I’d have to blink a few times to correct my vision. It’s been 3 years and it’s been worth it. The surgeon and doctor said I’d have to wear reading glasses when I get older. That’s fine with me, I’ve been wanting to see afar for a long time. Now I can drive at night with confidence. I drive with yellow plain glasses to ease the light. My eye’s are sensitive to bright lights though. That’s one difference I’ve felt after the surgery. So I wear sunglasses of course.
Just weigh the pro’s and con’s of having to wear reading glasses or not when you get older. Given, your effects my vary because they depend upon the individual. But I never had any pain on neither one of my eyes. My surgery was performed by a doctor who was trained by the one who invented the surgery. So I get the best of the best.
Good luck with your choices.
LCB
Have you had the tests done on your eyes yet to see if your a candidate. I know they do it for free at my eye care clinic. You only have to pay for it if you go through with the procedure.
Thanks to shit genetics though my eyes aren’t even good enough for lasik. I have to get intraocular lens replacement(pretty much cataract surgery for someone without catracts), if i want to get out of ever wearing glasses ever again. With this surgery they remove your cornea and replace it with an artificial one. The good think is you never have to worry about cataracts or your eyesight getting worse as you get older. Modern Cataract Surgery - YouTube
shits freaky
Don’t think I’m gonna do it since I’m still considering joining the army when I get out of college. Maybe they’ll have a invasive option by then anyway.
Best of Luck with your decision
I had Lasik a little over a month ago. It cost me $2700. I went from not being able to read the big “E” (yeah I was really blind) to 20/15 now. As a firefighter it was a pain in the ass for me to rush putting in my contacts when we got calls at night so lasik allows me to respond faster. It was worth every penny. Some of the restrictions they put you on in the weeks following the surgery are kind of a drag, but you can lift 3 days afterward. If you have any other questions feel free to ask, and Ill do what I can to help.
[quote]hachi wrote:
Have you had the tests done on your eyes yet to see if your a candidate. I know they do it for free at my eye care clinic. You only have to pay for it if you go through with the procedure.
Thanks to shit genetics though my eyes aren’t even good enough for lasik. I have to get intraocular lens replacement(pretty much cataract surgery for someone without catracts), if i want to get out of ever wearing glasses ever again. With this surgery they remove your cornea and replace it with an artificial one. The good think is you never have to worry about cataracts or your eyesight getting worse as you get older. Modern Cataract Surgery - YouTube
shits freaky
Don’t think I’m gonna do it since I’m still considering joining the army when I get out of college. Maybe they’ll have a invasive option by then anyway.
Best of Luck with your decision
[/quote]
Are you talking about Intraocular Lens Implants (IOL)? My eye doctor actually recommended IOL to me instead of PRK, he said it was newer, less chance of complications, and if there were any problems, they could easily take out the lens implants and you have your old vision back.
I had it a month ago or so…i gotta say its pretty amazing to go to bed and be able to read the damn alarm clock. The first couple nights I still would have to think twice like i forgot to take my contacts out…sadly with anything in life you take it for granted and don’t even think about it.
From what i’ve read the surgery has one of the highest success rates of any surgery. Prepare to take about 3 days off of lifting and a week off of any sports…
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
hachi wrote:
Have you had the tests done on your eyes yet to see if your a candidate. I know they do it for free at my eye care clinic. You only have to pay for it if you go through with the procedure.
Thanks to shit genetics though my eyes aren’t even good enough for lasik. I have to get intraocular lens replacement(pretty much cataract surgery for someone without catracts), if i want to get out of ever wearing glasses ever again. With this surgery they remove your cornea and replace it with an artificial one. The good think is you never have to worry about cataracts or your eyesight getting worse as you get older. Modern Cataract Surgery - YouTube
shits freaky
Don’t think I’m gonna do it since I’m still considering joining the army when I get out of college. Maybe they’ll have a invasive option by then anyway.
Best of Luck with your decision
Are you talking about Intraocular Lens Implants (IOL)? My eye doctor actually recommended IOL to me instead of PRK, he said it was newer, less chance of complications, and if there were any problems, they could easily take out the lens implants and you have your old vision back. [/quote]
Yes I’m talking about IOL. I thought they took the cornea out and replaced it. Maybe I miss understood my doctor. I talked to a recruiter and asked if I could join after IOL, and he said they’d had an enlisted person join with it. He then said he’s not sure about officers though. I emailed the army in their help section and they said having something liked an IOL placed in your eye would disqualify you. Maybe I’ll have to talk to an officer recruiter and see if it’s possible to get it waived. thanks.
that?
I had PRK and it is great. One week of suffering for a lifetime of good vision? Easily worth it. The guy I went to is solid too, each eye is mapped and then plugged into a computer. You then look at a single point of light and the lazer does the cutting in like 5 seconds. Mine was $899 per eye. It’s dirt cheap.
V
[quote]Vegita wrote:
I had PRK and it is great. One week of suffering for a lifetime of good vision? Easily worth it. The guy I went to is solid too, each eye is mapped and then plugged into a computer. You then look at a single point of light and the lazer does the cutting in like 5 seconds. Mine was $899 per eye. It’s dirt cheap.
V[/quote]
Wow, for $900 an eye, I could pay cash.
[quote]Vegita wrote:
I had PRK and it is great. One week of suffering for a lifetime of good vision? Easily worth it. The guy I went to is solid too, each eye is mapped and then plugged into a computer. You then look at a single point of light and the lazer does the cutting in like 5 seconds. Mine was $899 per eye. It’s dirt cheap.
V[/quote]
Ouch
I paid 5000 EUR for both eyes, thats 7000 USD.
I had custom wavefront PRK done in July of this year. The downside of PRK is that there is a significant amount of heal up time, though my doc gave me numbing drops, put a contact in place on both of my eyes, and gave me a script for some codeine so unlike others I didn’t notice any real pain. I could have gone for lasik, but because I had astigmatism which gave me about a 0.1% chance of developing a bulge which is essentially an eye hernia.
Astigmatism basically means that the strength of the eye where they laser is not uniform so the weak areas have a tendency to bulge. With PRK, the chance of this complication is 0.000001% because the procedure involves laser shaping the outside of the eye rather than cutting a flap (reducing the strength of the eye temporarily) and laser shaping the inside. I just had my 3 month checkup earlier in Oct.
I’m rated at 20/10 vision now. With PRK, you won’t see the best possible correction for 6 months or more so my vision may get even slightly better at this point.
I would highly recommend getting either lasik or PRK. It has changed my life dramatically. I’m an avid mountain biker and no longer having to worry about my glasses is fantastic. My only regret is that I didn’t get the surgery earlier in life. Good luck!