[mpksuhas]

Originally Posted by amitsingh08

Dear friends

Having read entire thread, I'm well aware of risks, but am still considering taking my chances.

Here is my request for an honest, no-holds-barred response.

For those who've had lasik done for over 1 year, is there anyone who never faced any of these:
1. Continued eye dryness, but can be easily resolved with some drops
OR
2. Halo around bright lights e.g. car headlights
OR
3. Occasional starbursts/sparks

I wont ask about reading glassed after 40, I dont think that's caused by Lasik, maybe natural eye degeneration

Thanks
Amit

Hi Amit,
One of my friend has done a Lasik around 5years back. As per her eyes have become bit sensitive to dust after operation. She complains of getting itchy eyes after travelling on bike for a while.
Regarding your questions no 2 and 3 I too have read about that as possible risks to the operation, but no one I know has complained of that yet.

[Neil.Bhujbal]

On 10th of July got up to discover straight lines/objects appearing curved & disturbance lines like those on old TV sets moving from left side of the RIGHT eye to center of the RIGHT eye & then vanishing.(all this only when i see through my right eye & ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF RETINAL DETACHMENT)

Wore my specs,it was still there,wore my lenses & it was still there.Went to get my number checked but couldnt since i had wore lenses.(wearing lens causes the eye to set itself differently for hours even after removing them)

The next day got the number checked & heck my right eye number had shot up from (-3.5 sph,-0.75 cyl,170 axis) to (-5 sph,-1 cyl,170 axis).The specs/lenses arrived on 12 th & i still continued to see the same things.

Went to a doc on 14th,they discovered a RETINAL DETACHMENT,recommended some other doc who was a specialist,went to him,he too said the same & i was operated the same day.

Had a 'patti" on my eye for two days,removed it on the third day.The eye lid remained closed for 2 weeks due to the swelling.Now its completely open but still looks small when compared with my left eye.Doc says it will still take 3,4 months to heal completely including the vision.

Problems Solved -

1) The disturbance lines like those on old TV set have gone.
But i do see them ones in a while but this time they are from right side of the RIGHT eye and vanish way before reaching to the center of the eye.

2) I had felt like a half curtain pulled on my right eye (half vision lost/blacked out) just few mins before the surgery but its gone now. I can see things kept at wide angles with my right eye alone.

Problems i continue to face -

1) The lines & edges of objects still appear curved & the vision is a little blurred. (The blurriness has improved with time)

-> Doc says - Quality of image is not the priority,the main concern is there should be no blackening out of vision.Things will improve with time.There is a possibility of another detachment but everything looks fine as of now.

2) Flashing lights (another symptom of retinal detachment). Started facing this few days ago.
These lights dont actually flash but are like Xerox machine lights.They just travel from right side of the eye to left or up to down in any direction and then vanish.

-> Doc says - He thoroughly checked my retina the second time after i told him about the lights & asked me since when i was seeing them. But again he says the retina looks well attached as of now.

3) Black dot - When looking straight at the wall or window i see a small black dot on the floor. When i try to look at it ,it vanishes.

-> Doc says- You actually should see many such dots including floaters.

Will be getting my left eye checked on Thursday.If the doc sees a small hole/weakness which could lead to detachment i will undergo a simple laser surgery to prevent it.

Any people who have had a retinal detachment or know someone who has had one are requested to especially share the post surgery problems.

[lohithrao]

One of my friend has all these issues, i guess about 5years back he had got it done.

He has stopped riding/driving thanks to the second point.

Itching issue had got so bad that he used to be away from work days together and had become a regular issue.

Originally Posted by amitsingh08

Dear friends

Having read entire thread, I'm well aware of risks, but am still considering taking my chances.

Here is my request for an honest, no-holds-barred response.

For those who've had lasik done for over 1 year, is there anyone who never faced any of these:
1. Continued eye dryness, but can be easily resolved with some drops
OR
2. Halo around bright lights e.g. car headlights
OR
3. Occasional starbursts/sparks

I wont ask about reading glassed after 40, I dont think that's caused by Lasik, maybe natural eye degeneration

Thanks
Amit

[deky]

Reviving an old thread!!

My wife got Lasik done 3 days back. The surgery itself was not painfull but she suffered a lot for the first 12 hrs.

She is recovering well now and as per her she has got 95% of her eyesight back. She can see things clearly and is very happy to find her freedom from lenses and glasses

Regards

[Wolfheart]

Hey guys,

I'm sick of wearing glasses and contact lenses. I'm seriously considering a lasik vision correction. Does one have post surgery discomfort or difficulty in the swimming pool or the sea (esp.while swimming underwater)? Can you continue to lift weights at the gym etc? I've read on a few websites that the corneal flap never heals completely and there is a risk of detachment while running, swimming or lifting weights? Is this true?

[dre@ms]

10-12 pages back, some members were discussing about the complication called kerataconous. But no input on the fix for it. Can some one throw some light on it, as my wife has recently undergone a operation for the same and wanted to know if it is correct or not. And the operation name was collagen cross-linking. Vasan eye care did suggest Laser operation but we didnt encourage it.

[CliffHanger]

Originally Posted by Wolfheart

Hey guys,

I'm sick of wearing glasses and contact lenses. I'm seriously considering a lasik vision correction. Does one have post surgery discomfort or difficulty in the swimming pool or the sea (esp.while swimming underwater)? Can you continue to lift weights at the gym etc? I've read on a few websites that the corneal flap never heals completely and there is a risk of detachment while running, swimming or lifting weights? Is this true?

WH,

If you could go 2 or 3 pages back, you can find my detailed post on my experience with Lasik. Before undergoing Lasik, even I was seriosly looking for some solution for my short sight. Now it's going to be almost 2years since I took Lasik. At this moment, I would like to say it's worth the risk. I've been going to gym since 10yrs, I lift heavy weights and do other routine stuffs. I don't think Lasik has induced any side effects on my eyes dues to these activities. Let me know if you need any other details.

Thanks
Cliff

[noopster]

I read through Sam's entire narration- fascinating as usual- and some of the others as well. Thought I shaould post my own experience here since it may help some considering LASIK.

I have worn glasses since I was 14. In fact I knew long before then that my vision was far from perfect. My right eye had perfect vision to start with and my left eye was myopic and I had a mild case of amblyopia ("lazy eye") which meant that my right eye was compensating and doing the bulk of the work. When I was in Class IX I finally had to admit to myself that I couldn't read the board properly from the third bench. So Mom took me to an eye doctor who tested me using the eye chart and pronounced the inevitable: I had -0.5 in my right (good) eye and an incredible -4.5 in the other. Even the doctor did a double take but I knew he wasn't mistaken. The good doctor then proceeded to take my poor Mom to task right in front of me. He said something like: the kids don't know better but surely you educated parents should? I remember feeling very bad for my Mom right then. My parents worked hard, saved diligently and didn't spend on anything unless absolutely necessary. Annual eye tests for the kids were a luxury we could ill afford.

(My sister came along with us that day and gleefully read every line on the eye chart. She had perfect vision, 6X6 possibly 6X5. This state of affairs continued till maybe about a month ago when she announced that she has finally got her first pair of prescription specs. My first question was: myopia or presbyopia? (she's almost 40) When she replied myopia, I laughed loudly on the phone for about a minute, then apologised).

Day One of wearing glasses felt like somebody had drawn outlines aroud everything in the world overnight. It felt wonderful to behold the world as God had intended it to be seen but in my awkward adolescence all I could think about was that everybody was laughing at me (they weren't; in fact even now people tell me I look much better with my glasses on). But soon one got used to the cat calls of "battery" and "dhaapnia" (Bombay slang can be cruel) and the chunky plastic frames soon became a part of my personality.

In college I graduated to carbon fibre frames: much lighter and more attractive. I flirted with GP (semi soft) lenses for a brief period but about 3 months into wearing them, one got dislodged in a local train and the agony was too much for me (I hate things in my eye even now). My Mom was worried that this may recur during my XII board exams and that was enough of an excuse for me (secretly I was relieved because the oldies had spent 2200/- on the contacts and I was worried they'd insist I keep wearing them).

My power kept increasing through college. By the turn of the millennium when I was around 25, my power read:

R: -4.5 sph, -2.25 cyl
L: -7.0 sph, -5.5 cyl

That's pretty scary stuff. Let me put it this way: the first five minutes of the morning when I woke up till I found my glasses and put them on were a blur to me. Literally.

I've always read a lot and since I was in a tech company by then my computer usage had also gone up drastically. At this point, someone in my family suggested LASIK. I'd heard about this procedure supposedly invented by some Russian doctors who went around the world in a ship curing the bad eyes of thousands across the world but the romantic story was almost always jarred by the caveat: its long term effects are unknown. For a long while I believed that this meant I would necesarily grow blind by the time I turned 60 and my only experience of my grandchildren would be shadowy ghosts and muted cries (I have a big fear of going deaf as well, thanks to Mom who lost her hearing in one ear very young). Then one day out of the blue my best friend, a surgeon himself, got himself LASIKed.

He was a "battery" for a lot longer than I'd been- from around age 8 I think- and one day got fed up and went and did it. His power was a lot lower than mine- around 3 in each eye if I recall correctly. Residual power was nil. To this day he doesn't wear glasses.

When we met up, I asked him the thing that had been haunting me for years: would I go blind in my od age? He replied, without skipping a beat, nobody knows what the effects of LASIK will be in 20 years. But you can bet that in 20 years, IF there are some bad effects, they'd have invented a way to get rid of those as well.

That was a pretty strong recommendation for me and I immediately set up an appointment with Dr. Kumar Doctor in Andheri (his clinic is near the station but he operates a little further down, near the first Shopper's Stop). Dr. Kumar as he is known (his father also practices with him and first names are easier to distinguish) was very brisk and professional and also very honest. he did a few tests and then told me that my corneal thickness was probably not enough to guarantee a full cure. He asked me if I was OK with that. I looked him straight in the eye and said, "I hate the feeling of helplessness I experience when I wake up in the morning. If that goes away, I have no problem wearing glasses for the rest of my life." He smiled in satisfaction and pronounced that I was doing the procedure for exactly the right reason and that any residual number would ensure that I would be able to function MUCH better than I was right then.

I remember the actual procedure quite vividly: it happened really fast (must have been over in 20 minutes tops) and all I had to do was look towards the ceiling and focus on a red dot. My good eye was first and I felt something akin to a pin prick and then the red dot got progressively clearer. My bad eye followed and it seemed to take a much longer time this time and the red dot kind of went off-centre and out of focus towards the end. That was my first sign that something hadn't quite gone right- or maybe it's something my imagination cooked up later. Anyway I rested in a hospital bed for a brief time then the doctor came in, announced that it was a success, gave me my villian goggle and "anda" eye-covers and told me to go home.

Dad had given up driving by then (bad eyesight due to diabetes) and we took an autorickshaw home. I could see everything since I just had the goggles on and was amazed at how clear everything seemed. It was like the first day I had worn glasses 12 years ago only clearer. After we got home, swapped the goggles for the andas and didn't do much for the bext 3-4 days. It was sheer agony: I wanted to rub my eyes and get all the crud out but the good doctor had said not to touch them or risk getting my old number back (I think it's something he tells his child patients and forgot that I was 25! )

A couple of days later my eyesight settled into what it had never been (and hasn't been ever since): perfectly normal. I would wake up in the morning and stare lovingly at the clock face that had for years been a blob of grey and yellow and had somehow morphed into this beautiful vision: a pair of black and red hands on a white dial surrounded by a yellow ring. Sometimes I'd push my glasses up my nose only to remember with a laugh that they weren't there!

I went without glasses for about 3 months. Soon I began to realise that what the doctor had told e had come true: I still retained some residual power in my left eye. A check in his clinic confirmed this: I had -1.5 sph in my erstwhile bad eye, while the good one was near perfect. miraculousy the cylindrical power (that causes astigmatism, rsulting in blurry vision) was gone in both eyes. By then I'd resumed driving and was facing some problems reading signs on the left of the road, so I insisted upon corrective glasses (Doc was disappointed but I assured him that I was happy). His assistant tried to interest me in "touching up" the remaining power but I couldn't bear the thought of voluntarily putting myself through all that suffering just for vanity's sake, so I let it go.

Thus I became a "dhaapnia" again. In the 10+ years that have passed since then my power has increased but not by the leaps and bounds that it had in my younger years. In fact it remained steady for a long time, only recently increasing again. Today I am at -2.0 and -1.25 sph with marginal cylindrical corrections in each eye. I can do most things without my glasses except driving and watching TV. If my kid gets a tad too boisterous all I do is take my glasses off and continue having fun. I can swim and actually recognise the people around me. All thanks to LASIK.

And the negative effects? I'd been warned repeatedly about auras and shadows but have never experienced these myself. Periodic dryness of the eyes is a problem but nothing that a few drops of Refresh Aquagel Tears don't solve. It is worst in cold dry climates like Pune in winter. The two years we spent in warm, humid Singapore I never had a problem. I have no problems with night vision or colour sensitivity either.

Overall? I thank the day my doctor-friend decided to get his eyes LASIKed himself because that's what gave me the courage to proceed (am pretty risk averse otherwise). I think the moment I appreciated my new-found (almost) perfect vision was a couple of summers ago when my wife and I went scuba diving in Bali. 15 metres under the surface, holding hands, with only fish and the sounds of the sea for company, I thanked the doctors and the technology that had made this magic possible. I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending this to anyone else as well. You are in the best person to judge whether it will be good for you. All the best!

[Ragul]

Originally Posted by lohithrao

One of my friend has all these issues, i guess about 5years back he had got it done.

He has stopped riding/driving thanks to the second point.

Itching issue had got so bad that he used to be away from work days together and had become a regular issue.

Thanks god I saw this thread in the nick of time! Just when the seed of the idea was born in my mind .. dont want to risk that 2% chance even.

I will stay with glasses, not much only 0.75 ...

Thanks guys!

[GSMINC]

Well, I was just wondering if any new technological advancements have come now, may be a new brand like Lasik.
i have always wanted to go in for this but never got down to it, but now my wife is pestering me, but I drive on highways a lot, for long hours, 12-14 hour drives & I just cant imagine the side-effects on me if something goes wrong.
My love for driving far outweighs a life without spectacles.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by GSMINC

Well, I was just wondering if any new technological advancements have come now, may be a new brand like Lasik.
i have always wanted to go in for this but never got down to it, but now my wife is pestering me, but I drive on highways a lot, for long hours, 12-14 hour drives & I just cant imagine the side-effects on me if something goes wrong.
My love for driving far outweighs a life without spectacles.

It's just not the question of driving - everything you experience in life is through your eyes!!

I would never do any voluntary surgery of any part of my body - forget my eyes.

Even if there is no immediate problems, there may be problems after 20 years - who knows?

Go through this forum - D'Eyealogues before making decisions - as with all online forums, you have more people with problems than with success - that's obvious - people without issues will not take the time effort to post. This may be only very small percentage of people who have had problems - but my opinion is why risk it for voluntary surgery.

I have also posted other links in the thread, many pages back.

[noopster]

I appreciate that elective surgery is not a choice to taken lightly. In fact for @Ragul with -0.75 power it is not even an option (if you find an opthal willing to do it, run for cover).

But for people like me and others who've posted here with significanty high power who used to find it difficult to manage without glasses even momentarily, LASIK came as a boon. The relief at not being dependent on your glasses anymore cannot be described in words. The risks have gone down significantly over the years- in fact even cataract surgeries are performed with lasers for the most part now.

Hope my post and other first and experiences narrated here help people make educated decisions for themselves.

[humyum]

Originally Posted by noopster

I appreciate that elective surgery is not a choice to taken lightly. In fact for @Ragul with -0.75 power it is not even an option (if you find an opthal willing to do it, run for cover).

But for people like me and others who've posted here with significanty high power who used to find it difficult to manage without glasses even momentarily, LASIK came as a boon. The relief at not being dependent on your glasses anymore cannot be described in words. The risks have gone down significantly over the years- in fact even cataract surgeries are performed with lasers for the most part now.

Hope my post and other first and experiences narrated here help people make educated decisions for themselves.

Totally TOtally agree. 0.75 is not even worth a surgery. You are chilling mate.

For people who have high powers, life is through a window. Can't swim in peace, can't enjoy rains in peace.

I am between a cross road for getting LASIK done. I have minus 5 in both eyes which is stable since 4 years now, got used to it but life is not easy. I need an out from this 'window' mission asap. Lens are too uncomfortable and require too much of taking care.

I have 4 months in India to get this taken care of after which I again go back to UK. Any ratings of good LASIK clinics in Mumbai ? Also there is a surgery called 'Eagle Vision' which gives you more than normal vision, Any idea where that is done in Mumbai ?

Link to what I am talking about-->
Safety and accuracy in LASIK with the WaveLight 500HZ Wavefront Technology | Lasik & Laser Eye Surgery Guide, Cost, Risk

[Wolfheart]

@Cliff: Thanks for the reply.

I've read that wavefront guided lasik reduces the chances of post op side effects like dry eyes, halos etc. Is this true? Does wavefront help you get better than 20/20 vision?

[joslicx]

Originally Posted by Wolfheart

@Cliff: Thanks for the reply.

I've read that wavefront guided lasik reduces the chances of post op side effects like dry eyes, halos etc. Is this true? Does wavefront help you get better than 20/20 vision?

I've had wavefront guided lasik done 5+ years back (called zoptix if i remember correctly). So far am satisfied with the way things are. I had more than -4 power in my eyes (was using glasses for more than 8 years). Was desperately wanting to get rid of glasses as they were a nuisance while playing Tennis and swimming was a problem without glasses, not to mention had stopped playing cricket as once a ball hit my glasses inadvertantly and fortunately for me the shattered glasses didnt go in the eye!

Anyway as far as I am concerned, I can do all things now as a normal person. I drive (night time also), I swim, I play tennis and all (less of a cricket buff now), there are no problems as such. It feels good to have your "eyes" back. Sometimes I do have dry eyes but it has become less of a problem and is quite manageable. Being an engineer I sit before a PC at least 12 hrs daily, at times at very long strethes. About 5% of such times I do feel that eyes feel very tired.

Do I think it was worth it? You Bet it was! "reclaimed my life" to borrow from that tata ad