Wow. Sounds great. I imagine it costs a bit – but for your eyesight to get that much better, no doubt it is very worth it.

maybe if I am a good girl and save up all of my allowance, I too can one day chuck my glasses.

I’m with tracy m. Due to some unfortunate childhood incidents, I basically freak when someone or something comes close to my eyes. I can’t even handle trying to put contact lenses in. Like tracy, my eyes start to water and my anxiety level begins to rise, even thinking about it.

I’d love to get this done, but as far as I can tell, they’d have to give me some serious drugs to get through it, and they don’t do that.

My wife had her eyes fixed in the DC area recently, and she had a similarly great experience. It is a lot of money, but we figured the procedure would be cheaper the sooner we did it, since it would allow her to save time and money sooner on her contacts and maintenance.
I think it’s possible to use money from a medical flexible spending account to pay for these procedures.

Do these procedures arrest deteriating vision? Will laser-perfected vision need retrimming in 15 years?

For those really interested in the gory details, here’s a blow by blow

Before the operation

When I made the appointment about a month before-hand, they told me to stop wearing my disposable contacts at least one week before the eyeball exam appointment, which was set for Tuesday, July 18th. The surgery was tentatively scheduled for Friday, July 20th, provided that everything in the eyeball exam indicated that I was a good candidate for LASIK.

The Tuesday, July 20th, I went to the doctor’s office to have an eyeball exam. They made a map of my eyeballs, dilated my pupils, showed me all the eyeball charts to verify my prescription, measured the size of my pupils, gave me a glaucoma tests, and did a few other things. They told me that I was a good candidate. They gave me anti-biotic drops to use 4 times daily until the day of the surgery. Before I left, they gave me a packet containing all the documents that they’d want me to sign before I had the surgery so I could read them at my leisure before I signed them. They told me to come back Friday morning at 10:30 AM.

The morning of the operation

Friday morning, July 20th, I caught a cab to get to the doctor’s office for my 10:30 AM appointment. When I arrived, there were a few other people there to get surgery. I sat with one of the doctor’s assistants, signed the release forms, and paid for the procedure.

At 11:00 AM, they invited me to sit alone in this quite room with a very comfortable chair and a fountain. They called this, “The relaxation room.” It worked. It was very relaxing. I sat there for about 30 minutes. A woman came in, introduced herself as the laser technician, gave me some Xanax, and gave me a blue surgical cap to cover my hair. (For those with eyeball anxiety, my guess is that one could get 2 Xanax if she feared that anxiety would be a big problem.)

At 11:30 AM, I went into the room where they do the procedure, where I saw my eyeball doctor, who I’ve known for close to 10 years now.

The operation

First, they cut the flap. My doctor uses a laser to cut the flap, so I’m describing the procedure that uses an Intralase machine, not the kind that uses a disposable razor blade.

I sat down in a reclining position (same as a fully-reclined dentist chair). They gave me a Nerf football to hold during the procedure. For each eyeball, the doctor did the following:

• He applied some anesthetizing eyeball drops.
• He touched the top of my eyeball with a plastic circular thing to mark it.
• He placed a rectangular plastic thing over the top surface of my eyeball, so that it covered the cornea.
• He turned on the plastic thing, so that applied suction to my eyeball, keeping it from moving while the doctor cut the flap. Once the suction was applied, my vision went black, and I could not see anything in that eyeball.
• He turned the laser one, and it went to work for about 30 seconds, making a buzzing sound.
• The doctor released the suction and removed the plastic thing from my eyeball, and my vision returned.

This procedure left my eyeballs seeing things kind of hazy as though there were petroleum jelly in them.

Once they finished cutting the flap in both eyeballs, I sat up, and they helped me to the machine that vaporizes the corneal stroma tissue to actually fix my vision. The doctor and the laser technician then performed the following steps for each eyeball:

• The laser technician put a brace around my eyelids to keep them open. At this point, something was putting saline solution into my eyeballs, because I could not blink, but my eyeballs never felt dry, and I could feel saline dripping out of my eyeballs down the side of my face.
• The doctor lifted the flap on the top of my eyeball with a metal instrument. At this point, my eyeball was numb, so I could not feel it on my eyeball, but I saw it happening and felt my eyeball being pushed on with the tissue around the eyeball — a very strange sensation. Once the doctor lifted the flap, my vision went completely blurry.
• They positioned the laser machine over my eyeball. There was a sparse red light that covers the entire field of vision and a green blinking LED in the center. The doctor told me to look at the green light, and then they turned the machine on for exactly 22 seconds. The laser technician counted down, telling me how much time was left (“half way there,” “five seconds left,” etc.).
• The doctor moved the laser machine away, replaced the flap over my eyeball, and brushed it with a swab.

When both eyeballs were done, I sat up and put down the Nerf football. The doctor pointed to a clock on the wall and asked me if I could read the time. I could read it without squinting. It was 11:50 AM. Before the operation, I wouldn’t have been able to read it without my glasses or contacts.

The doctor took me into another room where he could look at my eyeballs with a magnifying glass. When he finished reiterating the instructions that I’d received in writing, he said that he’d see me in the next morning.

The doctor was really great, but there’s no getting around the fact that much of the procedure is just plain unpleasant. Thankfully, the unpleasant part amounts to only about 10 minutes. And it’s really not that bad. It’s not like the procedure is actually painful.

Immediately following the procedure, my eyeballs burned very badly — as though I’d touched them directly to the surface of the sun. It hurt to blink, and they teared like crazy. So I sat in the doctor’s office with my eyeballs closed, until one of the assistants told me that the cab I’d arranged to drive me home had arrived.

After the operation

The instructions said to go to sleep for 4 to 6 hours when I got home, but my eyeballs hurt too badly to sleep. So I took some NyQIL and some percocet, and that did the trick. When I woke up about 6 hours later, my eyeballs felt fine.

The first day, I wore sunglasses all day to protect my eyeballs (as instructed).

The next day, Saturday morning, July 21st, I drove myself the follow-up appointment, and the doctor told me that I now have 20/20 vision.

My eyeballs hurt again Sunday morning, probably because I spent much of Saturday reading, and I was supposed to go light on that kind of thing the first few days. But since then, it’s been a breeze.

I’ve got 3 drops that I’ve used 4 times daily over the past week: a topical steroid to prevent inflammation, a preventative anti-biotic, and an artificial tears solution. Also, for the past week, I’ve worn eyeball-shields to bed (provided by the doctor) to keep me from rubbing my eyeballs while I sleep.

So what does it cost?

Prices vary very, very wildly, as do the prices to replace your lenses (as you get ‘old eyes’ and cataracts).

My understanding is that if you currently need bifocals (such as due to presbyopia, “old eyes”) that Lasik surgery will not totally eliminate your need for glasses. You then have to choose which sight you want, far or near, and the doctor operates for that focal length, and then you need glasses for the opposite.

A bifocal-wearing desk jockey may choose to get surgery to correct his near vision, then wear glasses for far vision.

A bifocal-wearing pilot may choose to get surgery to correct his far vision, and then wear glasses for near vision, such as half-glasses or “readers”.

I needed “readers” when I hit forty, and the off-the-shelf kind worked for a while. But then my left and right eyes needed different correction, plus I needed bi-focals, so I had to finally bite the bullet and get prescription glasses.

If any of you get bifocals, go for the “no line” bifocals which have a continuous transition or gradient between near and far vision. Your eyes and neck-tilt will then learn to automatically adjust. I like them much better than the binary on/off nature of the half-glass “readers”, or the sharp near-versus-far division of traditional bifocals.

DKL, how bad were your eyes before you had this done? I’ve been scared because I’m very near-sighted.

Thanks DKL, I’m about -5.75 in one eye and 8.25 in the other eye, so extremely near sighted. I was told ten years ago to wait for better techniques to develop for very near sighted folks, so maybe it’s time to check.

For those wondering about the cost, mine for both eyes was $3000 (about 18 months ago, in Boise at Restore Vision Center), with free lifetime touchups. My sis and her husband went in together to get theirs done, and my BIL negotiated a lower price.

I was so nearsighted and had such astigmatism that I doubted that my eyes could really be fixed. I don’t go into as much detail as DKL does, but my experience is recorded here:

http://idahospud.wordpress.com/2007/06/17/i-am-a-disciple-of-the-temple-of-lasik/