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-- LASIK eye surgery...
LASIK eye surgery...
There might be a thread on this somewhere already, but I didn't find one in the search.
So I've been wearing glasses for the last ten years. My most recent pair are quite fashionable (Ray Ban) and glasses do suit me, but they're still glasses. And they're horribly expensive. I have some kind of recently discovered astigmatism that requires a "prism" in my glasses to help me focus better, along with the common near sightedness. Even with the 2 for 1 deal I got two years ago, it was still over 500 dollars. At the moment, I do not have benefits at work (one day, but not now) so the eye surgery at circa $500 an eye seems like a sound investment.
I'm sure those of us that wear spectacles have considered the LASIK correction surgery at some point or another. A few years ago I didn't consider it to be appropriate for me because the idea of lasers zapping into my eyes with irreversible results freaked me right out, but it seems fairly established these days and I have only heard positive things from the few people I've talked to who have had it done.
Has anybody here had it done? I'm familiar with some of the risks, but any additional info would be appreciated.
500 sounds really low to be honest dude. My doc said that like everything in life you get what you pay for. She told me there was a place at Yonge and Eglinton that charged about 2k per eye. she refused to openly recommend any other facility.
I guess I would just say this, dont fuck around with your vision. It is one of those things you dont want to have come bite you in the ass in future.
I will try and get the name of the Surgeon for you.
I've heard that it can cost upwards of 5 grand. That would be cost prohibitive to me (and to most people I would imagine). The $500 per eye figure I threw out there is based on what I heard from a friend who is also considering the surgery so he can stop spending hundreds of dollars a year on contacts. My cousin had hers done while teaching English in South Korea and it was less than $1500 US 5 years ago. Her vision is impeccable now.
Does anybody know if employee benefit plans would apply to this surgery? One day I'll eventually crack into that Ontario teacher's union and get sweet ass vision care, but I'd rather ditch the glasses before I'm 30!
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| Originally posted by Sentinal |
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| Originally posted by Invasionmix I know a few people who paid about 500 an eye and had no problems with it. It's people like you who think "it's my eyes and I want to be safe" are the ones paying 2000 an eye or are covered under benefits that they don't care how much it costs. I'm sure if those places that charges 500 messes up it would be all over the news and closed down. |
I had it done 9 years ago at TLC at Yonge and York Mills. Cost me about $5000 back then, but is definitely the best $ I have ever spent. Absolutely do it. Life is so much better without glasses!
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| Originally posted by Invasionmix I know a few people who paid about 500 an eye and had no problems with it. It's people like you who think "it's my eyes and I want to be safe" are the ones paying 2000 an eye or are covered under benefits that they don't care how much it costs. I'm sure if those places that charges 500 messes up it would be all over the news and closed down. |
$500 an eye is the price I've heard, and as with you, I've heard only good things. I've considered it myself many times but just never gotten around to doing the requisite research to convince myself that it's safe and will last reasonably long.
I think someone on TA actually got it done in the past year, but I don't remember who. Hopefully he's reading this.
http://thelasikreport.com/TheLasikReport_April2008.pdf
http://www.lasikcomplications.com/risks.htm
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| Originally posted by rabbitjoker http://www.lasikcomplications.com/risks.htm |
I had LASIK done in Edmonton @ LASIK MD on April 2nd 2009.
I did not plan it, I was walking by the store, and decided to go in and ask if they had an available consultation, which they did. I went through the consultation where they do a bunch of tests (they MIGHT dialate your pupils, but only in the case of strong prescriptions - they didn't do mine). After the consultation, they give you the price if the surgery, financing options, etc.
The way it works (at least with LASIK MD) is, the stronger your prescription, the more expensive it is. The $490-550/eye you see quoted in the newspaper is for a person who has a basic prescription of -1.00 in both eyes, with no astigmatisms, or any other issues. In the consultation they said I had larger than average pupils (large pupils cause halos) and thinner than average corneas (if they are too thin, they will won't be able to make a flap). But they were apparantly well with in the acceptable range.
My eyes were:
L=-2.5
R=-2.0 but with an astigmatism, so total power = -2.50
LASIK MD offers two types of basic treatment, the standard LASIK and something called Custom Wavefront, which is supposedly newer and better. The difference as I understood it, was that standard the standard LASIK laser cuts away your cornea in 0.2mm dots, where as the Custom Wavefront does it in 0.1mm dots, so it is supposed to be more accurate, and then they can blend the shaping better.
As any smart business person does, they try to sell you insurance as well, which gives free touch-ups if certain things happen etc... I read all the fine print, and like a lot of optional insurance, its just a good way for them to make money.
So for the basic LASIK (With no insurance) the total cost before tax was around $1800, and the Custom Wavefront (the custom wavefront includes all the insurance, and you cant get rid of it - so basically they will re-do it for free for your lifetime if you dont have 20/20, but again, lots of legal mumbo-jumbo) was quoted at $3300.
I went for the custom wavefront, solely for the improved laser. Obviously they were selling a more expensive service to me, but it was supposed to decrease the chance of halos, and improve the chance of perfect vision at the end of it all.
So I went in and had the surgery, I am sure they make a killing of this, as every 15 minutes they do somebody. Your time with the surgeon is basically "Hi, Im Dr. XXXX, how are you feeling? Good? Great! Any Questions? No? Ok then, lets go". The procedure is quick, and it is not painful, although it is certainly not comfortable, as I'm sure you can see in the videos on youtube. The worst part is, you can smell the laser burning your cornea. Nothing like the smell of burnt cornea to wake you up! After the procedure, everything is slightly blurry and they make you sit down in a dark room for an hour and wait, so they can check and see that everything is ok. In this time the numbing eye drops they put in for the surgery wear off, and your eyes start to really hurt. For me it felt like I had sand in my eye and was blinking, only I wasn't blinking. My eyes felt very scratchy. Afterwards they check your flap, and your vision, put in some more numbing drops and tell you to go home and sleep if you can. You have to go and buy some eye drops (~$60) and wear the provided sunglasses for two days. However, here was when I was really happy, I walked home (only 5 mins) but walking down the street I could see so crisp and clear down the street, it was incredible. Things I couldn't see sharply with my glasses were in perfect focus. When you get home no TV, Reading, Computer, nothing, nothing that causes strain on the eye for at least 24-48 hours. I went home and lay on the couch, and tried to sleep - I could not. That evening wasn't very nice - my eyes were sore, and my gf had to do everything for me, and my eyes were sore. At night you have to tape covers on your eyes so that you dont rub them while sleeping.
The day after you have to go back for a 24 hour appointment, and they just check you up again and send you on your way. I spent the next three days doing nothing, lying down, talking on the phone in a dark room with sunglasses on and taking my eye drops every hour. This was above and beyond the recommended procedure, but i wanted to make sure my eyes were rested. However, the few times I did look out the window, the farthest buildings were in perfect focus. So from day 1, my eyes have been for the most part perfect.
When looking outside at night in the first few days, I could definatly see halos - big ones, however every day they got better and better, and I would say after the first week were largely gone, or at least to the point that I couldn't notice it. Since the surgery my eye sight has been perfect (as far as I can tell) every day except for two or three when I let my eyes get too dry (more on that later). The only time I have trouble with my vision is in low contrast lighting. For example, once the sun has gone down, and everything is dim, but the street lights aren't on yet, and I am driving, if a car with bi-xenons approaches, I can't even see what kind of car is coming. Also, I have noticed in general, that when outdoors, my eyesight is much better than when in indoors. Not a lot, but noticeably so.
The only side effect that I have really noticed is dryness. For the first 3 weeks, every day I woke up, and my eyes have been terribly dry, to the point where it hurts to open them. The first thing I do when i get up, is instead of reaching over for my glasses, I reach over for lubricating eye drops and do my eyes. For the first week, it was really bad, I had to put drops in every 15-30 minutes. However i attribute most of this to living in Edmonton in April - Very Very dry. For Easter a week later, I went to Victoria, and the problem got way better, I was down to 4 drops a day, instead of twice an hour. I went back to Edmonton, and it got worse again, back to every hour or so. Now I am in Abu Dhabi, and in an Air conditioned office every day, and I would say I put drops in every 2 hours. I have had two friends who also had LASIK, and they both had this problem for 4 months, at which point it went away. I have been noticing an improvement, and at the moment it doesnt bother me too much, as when i used to wear contacts, i would get very very dry eyes anyway. If the problem is not gone by 3-5 months, I will be annoyed.
Overall I have been very happy with the procedure. The dryness will hopefully go away, and my vision is excellent. I am also only 1.5 months post-surgery, and they said that it will take 3-4 months for your eyes to fully heal, and what your vision is at 3-4 months, is the way it will stay, so I still have a ~2 months to go.
If you have any more questions, I will be happy to answer.
For years and years I had terrible eyesight (I'm now 23 yrs old, I had the surgery when I was 22) and had worn glasses/contacs. My eyesight was horrible: it was basically -8.00 in both eyes (e.g. when I'd get up to use the washroom in the middle of the night I'd make my way out of my room via touch, not sight). Last April I decided to have laser eye surgery in hopes that I'd finally be free of corrective lenses. Because of my extreme nearsightedness I was given a 1 in 5 chance that my eyes would regress (i.e., my vision would deteriorate over time). Unfortunately, about 3 months after my surgery I woke up one more morning and noticed that my vision had become blurrier...my eyes had started regressing. Fast-forward to the present time (one year after my surgery), my eyesight has stabilized: it is not as good as it was right after surgery but I am able to do almost anything without corrective lenses; I do, however, wear glasses for driving at night and watching movies/TV. I am eligible to have a second surgery (at no cost since my plan included lifetime vision care coverage) whenever I decide to correct the regression: I am told that in 95% of cases the second surgery fixes the vision perfectly and there is no further regression. I have not yet had the second surgery because (and I say this as someone who has undergone various major surgeries) I am too scared to do so. The procedure hurts, period; it is a scary experience.
In a nutshell, there are two kinds of laser eye surgery. The first is LASIK: a small incision is made on the top of the eye, a flap is created and flipped to one side, the eyeball is shot with a laser, and the flap is repositioned. The second is PRK: for patients with very poor eyesight and/or smaller than average corneas (both described my condition), instead of creating a flap the top layer of the eye is scraped off completely (usually with a motorized tool), the eyeball is shot with a laser, contac lenses are placed on the eyes, and the patient returns three days later to have the contacs removed. Although the entire procedure takes less than five minutes, the scraping of the corneas was--for that split second in each eye--quite uncomfortable. Also, the tool used to keep the eyes in place involves placing a lot of pressure on the eyes. I am told that the LASIK procedure is actually a little more painful than PRK (no, I did not mistake the one for the other). However, the recovery period for LASIK is rather quick and painless (e.g. a few days to a week before the patient can resume normal activities). The recovery period for PRK is much longer and more painful: for almost three entire days after my surgery my eyes stung like crazy (e.g. like having shampoo in your eyes) and I surrounded myself in total darkness as I was quite sensitive to light. I did (i.e., could do) nothing but sleep and listen to audio-books/music.
Other things to consider? The vision, even once it has stabilized, is not perfect: every so often your eyesight (usually in one eye or the other) will become a little blurry and it gets quite annoying over time. Also, you are required to constantly use special eye drops: the drops cost $20 per bottle and still to this day I'm using two or three bottles per week. Also, your eyes get very dry after sleeping. Finally, cost: because I had the world's best laser (would you want anything else for your eyes?) my surgery cost approx. $4000 (no help from insurance company).
All things considered, I would recommend the surgery (especially if one is getting LASIK rather than PRK as the latter involves much more healing pain and recovery time). Don't rule out the possibility, though, that you may have to have a second surgery and/or still wear corrective lenses for certain activities. 90% of the time I can see quite well; the vision isn't perfect, but it sure beats wearing those annoying contac lenses!
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| Originally posted by Sentinal I guess it is all based on your personal risk tolerence, and as Vince said whether or not you have benefits. But for eye surgery the benefits are usually the same as what a person would get for their glasses / contacts per year. I know my plan with Sun Life is 500 a year. |
Working there one of my pet peeves is seeing it as one word.
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| Originally posted by She_Fitz Sentinal.. you have a very generous vision package to get $500 a year. That is the best I have heard. |
. I'm a government employee. We have a very generous benefits package.
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| Originally posted by She_Fitz Surgery is typically covered the same as glasses and the same maximum is applied. |
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| Originally posted by rabbitjoker I have heard that some insurance companies will not pay future benefits if the vision-care benefit is used for LASIK/PRK. So... you get the LASIK, insurance pays for part of it, 2 years later you need some sort of vision correction and insurance company will refuse. Due to the benefit being used to pay for the LASIK and the new correction requirement being a result of an elective surgery (you forgo future claims under the vision-care benefit by using it to pay for LASIK/PRK). |
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| Originally posted by She_Fitz If it is specifically written into your contract. I can think of maybe one like that off the top of my head. Some also have a 48 month clause where you can't claim vision expenses within the 48 months after surgery. Since most plans only cover up to what they would have paid for glasses any way they don't limit. |
Good to know. Best to call one's insurance provider for details.
If you have astigmatism, and prescriptions over 4 and over (nearsight), then the $500 is out the window.
I know a girl that had recently had it done. About $2k per eye IIRC. She went to a couple of places, and basically, you do get what you pay for. With astigmatism, you REALLY want someone who has been there and done that for a doctor.
You only have 2 eyes... This is why I'm still wearing glasses and lenses...
Here's the old TA Lasik thread LASIK thread - have you had it?
A friend had Lasik done a few years ago, both eyes are good now but he might have twitched one eye during the procedure he had to go back a couple of times over the next 2 years to get it adjusted.
Another friend had the older PRK (laser-only, nothing touches the eye) procedure done over 10 years ago (before Lasik was common) - he's happy with the results but he notes a minor visual defect at night (rings around street lights etc) but he doesn't consider it significant. His recovery time was several days and very painful, which is a big reason why Lasik is more popular than PRK.
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