Laser eye surgery

Ever had it? Do you know anyone who has had it/will have it?

I'm seriously considering doing it soon, now that I'm covered under my parents until I'm 26 and now that I'm 20, which means my eyes should be done developing. I'm nearly legally blind and I'm getting frustrated with needing contacts and glasses. My eyes hurt once and a while from my contacts, which means I need a day or two as a break, but if I wear my glasses to work, I get a migraine since I stare at the computer all day at my desk while reviewing orders. Grrrrrrr.

I'm SO SCARED.

I first started asking around when I was about your age. Most legit places then wouldn't seriously consider anyone for surgery until after 23 or so. Your eyes do stop growing around 18-20, but from what I was told, they like to put a few years of buffer to be absolutely sure, because if it's done even a little too soon, you may end up slightly near-sighted, which wastes the whole procedure. Regular eye-exams will help them see when your eyes stop growing, so they might be willing to go a little lower.

I don't know anyone who's had it, but I'm considering getting it. I have no real extra money right now with law school, but I could see myself getting the surgery around when I graduate.

When I went to get a prescription for contacts my doctor told me that he wouldn't even consider it for me until I was 25. I want to do it, but he says I'd need reading glasses afterward. =\

I know my eyesight has stabilized, as I've had the same glasses for two years and they're still just as good for me now. So I may go see. I might have to wait a while though, as you guys said. =O

It's well worth it though you'll get your share of 'omg people will go blind' stories. It and orthodontics are probably the best investment you can make on your body.

(I plan to get it later)

I've known a few people who had it. They have to wear uberthick dark sunglasses anywhere bright for near to a month and then their eyes never bothered them again.

I want to do it because my eyes are absolute crap but I can't even put eyedrops in my eyes without freaking out.

My eyes are only crap when I'm drunk. dammit no wonder I can't ever see!

I would love to get laser eye surgery done in the near future...

I hate wearing contacts after an incident a few years back...

But I'm content with wearing glasses and usually skip wearing them at times....

But be warned, because its for distance, I wouldn't be able to recognize anyone so no one should be offended if I don't notice them...

I'd probably never get laser eye surgery even though I have horrendous vision (I have bad cases of both myopia and astigmatism) because the idea of laser eye surgery scares the jebus out of me.

Luckily for me, I actually like wearing glasses.

For now I'm more than happy with using contacts, I'd love to wear glasses from time to time too, but I don't since I'm near-sighted enough for my eyes to appear smaller.. and it just looks silly - at least to me xD

As for laser surgery.. I've thought about it, but I wouldn't be able to get the money for it any time soon anyway, and I'm not sure I'd dare to do it. The result might not be a good one, y'know.

My mum, boss and work colleagues have all had it done and all rave about the wonders of it. However I would agree that you should wait until you're closer to 23 than 20 as it is a procedure that you don't want to rush into early - the main reason people rave on about it is because they weren't 20 when they go it done and the risks are much lower as you age.

I'm hoping to get it done when I have the cash, but when I did have the cash at the age of 22 I decided against it based on advice from opticians who make money out of getting the procedure done. They had nothing to gain by telling me to not get it done until I was 23, but they told me anyway - this, to me, means that they is genuine reason behind not getting it done early and it's not just about eye stability.

It should also be noted that while I can still see what I consider to be fantastically with my old glasses, my eyes have still adjusted mildly over the past four years. Not to the point that it would cause a problem with laser eye surgery, but it does show that just because you don't notice anything doesn't mean that your eyes aren't still changing.

Of course, the best thing to do would be to seek advice from professionals to find out if there is any reason you should wait until you are 23 in your particular case. Personally, I would first seek an appointment with your optometrist and request information on your eyes that you can pass on to laser eye surgeries to see if it is in your best interests. That way you will get the advice of an optician as well as a surgeon, and you also have the information to go online to optician forums in order to find out impartial advice from other opticians/surgeons, too.

EDIT: The fact that you get migraines from staring at a screen when wearing glasses is something you should bring up to your optometrist first, though - because if you're wearing the correct perscription glasses then you should not get that problem regardless of whether you wear contacts, glasses or have laser surgery. It could be that your screen is not suitable for you, the screen settings are not suitable to you, you may need to make a point to leave your PC for a while every now and then, or it could be something else altogether that is causing the problem aside from your eyes. But if you are correct in saying that your glasses are fine then I would certainly say it's a sign that there is something wrong that will not be fixed by laser eye surgery.

To summarise: Go to your opticians about your screen/migraine problem as soon as you can, and mention that you are interested in advice regarding laser eye surgery.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

(SOME BORING LONG POST)

To summarise: Go to your opticians about your screen/migraine problem as soon as you can, and mention that you are interested in advice regarding laser eye surgery.

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Ya, it is best to get advice from the professionals! :bigsmile:

Even though my eyes are practically worthless, I'm too much of a coward to do it. I only use my glasses at home, and when I'm at the movies. I guess I don't like how they look on me, so I never wear them in public. But they will suffice.

Laser eye surgery looks cool, calm and clean on the adverts you see on TV, but the actual procedure isn't pretty at all.

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Originally Posted by Old Manus

Laser eye surgery looks cool, calm and clean on the adverts you see on TV, but the actual procedure isn't pretty at all.

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So this is the kind of video that make you play with yourself. :bigsmile:

Only if they're your eyes, sweetheart

smurf laser surgery, I'm just going to get my some replacement eyes.

Edit: Oh my god that video is horrendous. After he sticks the flap back he needs to sweep down but he can't oh god it's bugging my OCD so bad

oh my smurfing god after watching that I will happily wear glasses forever

I wanted to get it because of the convenience of having a laser eye surgery place close by and also just so I have the option of wearing glasses for fashion rather than necessity. But I have this thing about touching my eye. I don't like touching my eye -- which is why I don't wear contacts, and I don't like other people touching them either so I don't see how the heck I would ever be able to get laser eye surgery. Even so, I have heard horror stories about it. I think I would only do it if I had money to pay for the one celebrities have used.

EDIT: Also your computer screen should have anti-glare if you wear glasses. You should never buy monitors or laptops without it. It may also be helpful to wear anti-glare glasses. These work well too if you take pictures and wanna keep your glasses on.

I guess I'm a little biased, since I love my glasses. :p

Even if my vision were to suddenly correct, I think I'd probably still wear them, just pop the lenses out or something :D

I've had it 15 years ago, my mom has had it 18 years ago. I had always been careless with contacts and got my eyes scratched once by using them for way too long. And I was worse with glasses, losing them and getting them scratched often. So I wanted a way to see better, w/o the hassle of contacts or the unflattering (to me) style of glasses.

I was awake during the surgery and didn't feel a thing. But having a bright light aimed at your eye (which you can't close because the doc puts some thingie holding your eyelids) and the doctor poking at it is a bit nerve wracking.

The day after I had it the doctor took of the bandage and I could see much better than with contacts or glasses. Our eyes see all 360 degrees, while contacts and glasses only make "clear" the stuff in front of you with some limited lateral vision. Was amazing.

But it hurt like having a huge grain of sand in your eye that you can't get off. Ouch! Took some sleeping pills and woke up the next day much better. After 3 days the pain was gone but the sensitivity to light lingered for a year, not a month. Obviously was much worse in the first month but even a year after coming out of the house to a bright day was blinding.

Another funny thing is that you don't see well all the time, in the first couple of months. Your eye muscles are so used to squint that they still contract like you need to squint to see.. except now you don't and everything gets out of focus. Usually that happened in the morning and I spent 10-20 minutes seeing all blurry, then slowly have all things coming into focus.

Both my mom and I can see very well in the distance until today but also got worse closeup vision. Not to read books, closer stuff. I have a much harder time putting a thread in a needle than I had before surgery and it has gotten worse over the years. But then us old geezers get to need reading glasses eventually (my mom does) so who can say it was the surgery ?

Also, if you have this surgery you can not summit the Everest :p The low pressure there wreaks havoc with your muscles and retina and your eyes get very blurry. Astronauts would probably have some weird effects too, on low grav settings. So if you dream of doing those things, stick to glasses.

Other than that, it has been wonderful to see all things at all angles and side vision, without needing any kind of hassle with stuff I'm bound to lose or forget to clean. And you can lose your eye to badly cared for contact lenses so to me the risk was well worth it.

My left eye has a 20/20 vision, but my right eye has a -5.5 rate of hyperopia, and they said the technology wasn't advanced enough to perform such a surgery :(

I would love to have eye surgery (seriously, everytime someone says laser eye surgery it makes me think their either putting lasers in your eyes, or operating with lasers from their eyes...) but my eyes are still changing (I'm 25! :( ) so got to wait.
I'm like -8 in each eye... suuuucks

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Originally Posted by Renmiri

I've had it 15 years ago, my mom has had it 18 years ago. I had always been careless with contacts and got my eyes scratched once by using them for way too long. And I was worse with glasses, losing them and getting them scratched often. So I wanted a way to see better, w/o the hassle of contacts or the unflattering (to me) style of glasses.

I was awake during the surgery and didn't feel a thing. But having a bright light aimed at your eye (which you can't close because the doc puts some thingie holding your eyelids) and the doctor poking at it is a bit nerve wracking.

The day after I had it the doctor took of the bandage and I could see much better than with contacts or glasses. Our eyes see all 360 degrees, while contacts and glasses only make "clear" the stuff in front of you with some limited lateral vision. Was amazing.

But it hurt like having a huge grain of sand in your eye that you can't get off. Ouch! Took some sleeping pills and woke up the next day much better. After 3 days the pain was gone but the sensitivity to light lingered for a year, not a month. Obviously was much worse in the first month but even a year after coming out of the house to a bright day was blinding.

Another funny thing is that you don't see well all the time, in the first couple of months. Your eye muscles are so used to squint that they still contract like you need to squint to see.. except now you don't and everything gets out of focus. Usually that happened in the morning and I spent 10-20 minutes seeing all blurry, then slowly have all things coming into focus.

Both my mom and I can see very well in the distance until today but also got worse closeup vision. Not to read books, closer stuff. I have a much harder time putting a thread in a needle than I had before surgery and it has gotten worse over the years. But then us old geezers get to need reading glasses eventually (my mom does) so who can say it was the surgery ?

Also, if you have this surgery you can not summit the Everest :p The low pressure there wreaks havoc with your muscles and retina and your eyes get very blurry. Astronauts would probably have some weird effects too, on low grav settings. So if you dream of doing those things, stick to glasses.

Other than that, it has been wonderful to see all things at all angles and side vision, without needing any kind of hassle with stuff I'm bound to lose or forget to clean. And you can lose your eye to badly cared for contact lenses so to me the risk was well worth it.

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It should be noted that things have improved a lot over the past 15 years. My mum got her eye surgery done about ten years ago, and she had a similar experience to yourself. However, the guy who sits opposite me at work got his eye surgery done one day and drove home something like two hours later - he just couldn't stare at bright lights on the day, but otherwise was fine. Seriously! So crazy, driving home afterwards. Couldn't believe it's gone that far. Of course, there are a few different procedures, so yeah.

I'd be too terrified to get laser eye surgery. Aside from being scared from it, I've heard horror stories - my mom's friend had it done and her left eye's vision was blurred and worse to see out of when she was done, and they weren't able to correct it for a couple of months.

It just does not seem appealing. And I really love glasses - they're cute. I'll stick with my tainted eyes.

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

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Originally Posted by Renmiri

I've had it 15 years ago, my mom has had it 18 years ago. I had always been careless with contacts and got my eyes scratched once by using them for way too long. And I was worse with glasses, losing them and getting them scratched often. So I wanted a way to see better, w/o the hassle of contacts or the unflattering (to me) style of glasses.

I was awake during the surgery and didn't feel a thing. But having a bright light aimed at your eye (which you can't close because the doc puts some thingie holding your eyelids) and the doctor poking at it is a bit nerve wracking.

The day after I had it the doctor took of the bandage and I could see much better than with contacts or glasses. Our eyes see all 360 degrees, while contacts and glasses only make "clear" the stuff in front of you with some limited lateral vision. Was amazing.

But it hurt like having a huge grain of sand in your eye that you can't get off. Ouch! Took some sleeping pills and woke up the next day much better. After 3 days the pain was gone but the sensitivity to light lingered for a year, not a month. Obviously was much worse in the first month but even a year after coming out of the house to a bright day was blinding.

Another funny thing is that you don't see well all the time, in the first couple of months. Your eye muscles are so used to squint that they still contract like you need to squint to see.. except now you don't and everything gets out of focus. Usually that happened in the morning and I spent 10-20 minutes seeing all blurry, then slowly have all things coming into focus.

Both my mom and I can see very well in the distance until today but also got worse closeup vision. Not to read books, closer stuff. I have a much harder time putting a thread in a needle than I had before surgery and it has gotten worse over the years. But then us old geezers get to need reading glasses eventually (my mom does) so who can say it was the surgery ?

Also, if you have this surgery you can not summit the Everest :p The low pressure there wreaks havoc with your muscles and retina and your eyes get very blurry. Astronauts would probably have some weird effects too, on low grav settings. So if you dream of doing those things, stick to glasses.

Other than that, it has been wonderful to see all things at all angles and side vision, without needing any kind of hassle with stuff I'm bound to lose or forget to clean. And you can lose your eye to badly cared for contact lenses so to me the risk was well worth it.

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It should be noted that things have improved a lot over the past 15 years. My mum got her eye surgery done about ten years ago, and she had a similar experience to yourself. However, the guy who sits opposite me at work got his eye surgery done one day and drove home something like two hours later - he just couldn't stare at bright lights on the day, but otherwise was fine. Seriously! So crazy, driving home afterwards. Couldn't believe it's gone that far. Of course, there are a few different procedures, so yeah.

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I'm at work so i can't youtubesterspace, but is there any contact with the eye during the surgery? Is it strictly laser pew pew or do they have to fiddle with the eye? Can they put me in a comatose state so I don't panic like a lunatic?

That depends on procedure used.

Understanding laser eye surgery and the risks - Laser eye surgery - Food and health - Which? Advice

There's no way I'm having this surgery until it actually gives you laser eyes.

You mean X-ray vision so that you can peep through clothes. :mymelbert:

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Originally Posted by Christmas

You mean X-ray vision so that you can peep through clothes. :mymelbert:

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In most incarnations of 'wishing', getting x-ray vision gives you the ability to see a person's bones and organs, but not their naked bodies.

In a story of Superman, he was able to see that a friend of his was getting cancer, but couldn't do anything about it [and it's superman ffs - he can do anything]. I think it was a fanfic, because no writer of Superman is that good.

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Originally Posted by Peegee

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

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Originally Posted by Renmiri

I've had it 15 years ago

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It should be noted that things have improved a lot over the past 15 years. My mum got her eye surgery done about ten years ago, and she had a similar experience to yourself. However, the guy who sits opposite me at work got his eye surgery done one day and drove home something like two hours later - he just couldn't stare at bright lights on the day, but otherwise was fine. Seriously! So crazy, driving home afterwards. Couldn't believe it's gone that far. Of course, there are a few different procedures, so yeah.

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I'm at work so i can't youtubesterspace, but is there any contact with the eye during the surgery? Is it strictly laser pew pew or do they have to fiddle with the eye? Can they put me in a comatose state so I don't panic like a lunatic?

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Well, you can't see the laser but you feel the doctor putzing about.. is like the dentist, you feel no pain but you feel some touch. But you can't close your eyelids. TBH what bothered me most was the bright light, is like staring at a light bulb 1 ft from you and not being able to look away or blink. The whole thing took like 30 minutes.

OMG

Did you die???? :(:cry::cry::cry:

no see, I have decent eyesight

oh man was that a burn did i do it right?

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Originally Posted by Peegee

OMG

Did you die???? :(:cry::cry::cry:

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Yes, that is why I am a Death Knight on WoW

:p:p:p

Nah, but just remembering that bright light searing through my brain gets me nervous. :cool:

I'm too un-nearsighted to get laser eye surgery. They say it'll be a waste of my time. Really irritating because I still feel like a mole without contacts or glasses.

My dad had it done about 18-20 months ago. It was fine. He was sensitive to light for the first day, and his eyes kept watering for like two days but after that everything was fineeee.