If you read my 35 in year 35 post, you know getting LASIK eye surgery is one of this year’s goals. So I pumped up my Flexible Spending Account and made the LASIK work-up appointment. See you later, saline solution. Sayonara, toric lenses. Let’s DO this.
At the appointment, the receptionist gave me a thick packet of information, which was good to have, because the doctor was late. He proceeded to examine my eyes. It was pretty much a normal eye exam: a lot of chart reading, a lot of “Is this better? Or worse? Better? What about now?” Then he put in some drops and checked my eyeball pressure and pupil size. Last, he measured my corneas’ thickness.
“Hmm,” he said, looking concerned. “I’m going to call the surgeon.”
I have high-degree myopia and astigmatism. My right eye is -9 and lefty is -7.5. I started glasses when I was six, and switched to contacts at 11, because I have no peripheral vision with glasses. Also, my eyes appear very tiny and unpretty behind thick curving walls of prescription glass.
I don’t MIND contacts, but they can be a pain in the ass. If I ever decide to do cross-country ultralight bike touring or escape from a house burglar in the night, it would be nice to be able to see. My poor vision is almost a part of my identity, but recently I had the realization that it doesn’t have to be. It’s not even that expensive to change. A couple grand. Far less than the cost of 10 years of contacts. And how great would it be to be able to see when I wake up in the morning?
After being on hold for a few minutes, the doctor dropped the news. “You’re not a candidate for LASIK. Your corneas are too thin.”
However, he said, I might be a candidate for PRK, the brutal older brother to LASIK. Where LASIK makes a neat flap in the cornea, PRK removes it completely, using a “blunt instrument.” The surgery is more painful and has a longer recovery time (two weeks as opposed to a couple days). On the plus side, it’s the same price as LASIK ($799 per eye) and some people say its results are better.
I don’t know if I WANT to cut my corneas off with a blunt instrument. I want to be able to see without contacts. But AT WHAT PRICE?
I just had LASIK a month ago, a few days before Christmas. Where are you going? Dr. Cerise at Eye Associates in Metairie did mine.
For the most part, it’s good (and I was told throughout that I was a good candidate for surgery), but even before LASIK I had problems with dryness (which is part of the reason the contacts have been bothering me the last few years), but LASIK tends to create dryness anyway and now the dryness is an issue. My vision isn’t as sharp as it was with contacts right now – I have another follow up in a few weeks. Basically the dryness could be the reason for the lack of sharpness, or it’s possible they could have under-corrected slightly, but until the dryness goes away they can’t know for sure. I feel like I’m that weird 1% – literally everyone I polled and talked to before going into this had great things to say about it. And I’m mostly happy, but boy if I wouldn’t like to have that extra sharpness back.
(And I can totally sympathize with no peripheral vision with glasses – I was at -6 & -6.5)
I’m seeing Dr. Singer of Singer-Haley Vision Center in Metairie. You are the first person I’ve talked to who has had complications…so I’m really glad to hear from someone who had a less-than-ideal experience. That sucks to lose the sharpness. Do you think your vision will improve with time? I’ve heard it can take a while to get the final result.
Yeah, everything I’d read beforehand, and what the doctor told me before surgery, was that the vision usually fluctuates some during the first few weeks and then stabilizes anyway. And right now I do have some days that are sharper than others. I’ve been trying to put a TON of eye drops in lately – there’s a second procedure they can do to help with the dryness if the eye drops don’t work, but the idea of it kind of freaks me out. (Something about adding an extra tear duct or something? I don’t totally understand…)
Dryness or no, less sharpness or no, at least I don’t have to worry about a Twilight Zone end-of-the-world situation or running from zombies and losing my glasses & running out of contacts situation anymore…
SEE? These are the thoughts that plague me, too. Or if I time-traveled to a time without glasses and was just blind. I hope you don’t need a second procedure. Sounds rough.
interesting that you are thinking about that! makes me interested too since we’ve always been the blind sisters. turns out ryan’s dad got that back in the day. the procedure worked out fine for him.. he only had to get reading glasses a year ago or so.
Yes! It would be a change. Also apparently our dad might have glaucoma. We could ALL be blind.
So sorry about you not being a candidate for LASIK. It seems like everyone gets it! Maybe it’s like when you say you have Kleenex in your purse, but it’s really White Cloud facial tissues. They get PRK but say they had LASIK.
Maybe, but I suspect they’re REALLY getting LASIK. Just because the recovery time is so much shorter with LASIK. It would be hard to confuse the two.
Yep I had the same thing happen to me at haleys office . Your the only other person that has ever said the words “corneas are thin” besides the people that repeat it after I’ve told my about why I can’t get Lasik. I’m totally gonna get eaten if a sharknado happens in the middle of the night.
I feel your thin cornea pain.