Any negative LASIK updates?

Finally a candidate for laser corrective eye surgery and have seen through searches here that most have gone with LASIK over PRK even with the risk of damage to the flap made during a nasty fall. Doctor said I'm a great candidate for LASIK and could choose PRK if I was worried about the risk. Wondering if anyone here has any bad experiences with LASIK and boarding/skiing/barefooting or wished they went with PRK. Would love some updated decisions before my final consultation this week. Price isn't really a factor, have had the money saved for a while, just going with what I feel most comfortable with.

More than 10 years of lasik for me and never had a problem.

I had Wavefront LASIK a little over a year ago and I love it. If I were you, I would wait until the season is over that way you don't lose 2 months of riding since you're not supposed to wakeboard until the flap heals. If you faceplant and take a gush of water under your eyelids, you could do a lot of damage if the flap isn't healed. Schedule it toward the end of the season. But LASIK is definitely worth it. I was seeing 20/50 in one eye and 20/60 in the other and the following day for the post op I was seeing 20/15 in both eyes.

My wife had Lasik three years ago and the only regret she has is not doing it sooner. She has perfect vision now and loves being able to be on the water with no RX glasses or contacts in. I was a bit skeptic at first but she has nothing but good to say about it. When she did hers they did 0% financing for 24 months so that made it a no brainer and it was a few weeks before she felt like getting out much, but after that everything was good. Just follow the Docs orders, like Jason said above you could do some major damage if you try to come back too early.

Had mine done 15 years ago wished I could have done it sooner. I did not board at the time so can't speak about that but some things to keep in mind.
Driving at night sucked for me lasted about 6 months or so. It's hard to remember not to rub your eyes. Get a good pair of sunglasses I am super light sensitive I use them religiously now. Every thing else is great and I am so glad I did it.

My wife had it done about 10yrs ago also an no problems. Wish she would have gotten done sooner

I also did the wave Lasik about 8-9 years ago - best thing ever. Especially for being out on the water. I used to hate swimming and not able to open my eyes or take out my contacts first. Totally wish I had done it sooner.

Recovery I was told is much faster with Lasik than PRK so that was a big factor. I was a little sore/sensitive the first day but pretty good to go after that. I concur with the driving at night (you get the stars or halos around lights) but it's not that bad nor dangerous, more annoying. Squint at night next time you are out and you will see what I mean. I also became a little more sensitive to sunshine but it's a great excuse to stock up on cool sunglasses!

Awesome! Totally recommend it!

I started wearing glasses when I was in the second grade - 1987 - age 7-8.

I got into contacts when I was 12.

I had PRK done when I was 22 (2002) because I couldn't do LASIK due to not having enough cornea.

Just before surgery I was like a -7.50 prescription. My glasses were nuclear weapons.

I went from worse than 20/400 to 20/18!

I got 8.5 years out of it. I am 32 now and back in glasses/contacts at around -2.5 prescription. I loved not having glasses for that time. It cost me $2600 for both eyes when I had it done. So I basically paid around $300 a year for it.

I would do it again but I can't due to not having enough material (cornea thickness).




Have one eye done first. That way if the doc screws up you'll still have one to shoot with!

Jeff

Lasik is great i had it at 20 ... 6 years ago. Now i think my left eye has regressed to about 20/40 but my right eye is still perfect 20/20. I would do it again in a heartbeat. but plan on it wearing off every 10 years or so.

I'm going into my 3rd year of ophthalmology residency and ive been a wakeboarder for over 15 years now so I think I can give you a pretty accurate opinion. I really do not think the falls in wakeboarding have enough of an impact to rupture a LASIK flap BUT PRK is going to be the much more stable procedure if it is really a concern. PRK is going to be painful for 4-7 days solely because we scrape the corneal epithelium but when it's healed, the long term side effects are minimal and definitely less than LASIK. For me the main deciding factor is what the patients prescription is. If you are floating anywhere from a -4.50 and up, you are going to be flirting with the complications we see in LASIK because of how much of the cornea is removed. Also once the corneal epithelium has healed from PRK you can be right back on the water vs a much longer downtime from LASIK. PRK is very painful following surgery for those few days. Also once PRK is done the surgeon cannot go back and tweak the procedure if you are unhappy with the outcome. LASIK can be tweaked and adjusted much more easily to patient satisfaction. So in a nutshell when I make the decision for the patient, it is 1) the strength of their prescription and 2) pain tolerance/downtime. Both are great procedures and you can't make a wrong choice. you can email me kylelinsey@me.com if you have a specific questions

PS I'm in a similar ballpark as Jeff where my script floats around a -5.75 and have not been able to pull the trigger on PRK. I'm happy wearing contacts and have no problems riding in them. There are some procedures they are doing in Europe that are pretty cool but won't be available for 5-10 years in the states. They also do a modified LASIK procedure in Canada using a process called corneal crosslinking to help secure down the flap that is pretty exciting (called LASIK Plus).

How does age enter into the equation. I am 49 and my vision started to slip about 5 years ago. I only wear readers now but I know my far sight is declined.

At 49 you are hitting a problem area because you are becoming presbyopic which means you need a near and far script in your glasses and not to further freak you out but you are only 10-15 years away from needing cataract surgery which is also completely corrective. So your question is, why not get LASIK done now and just have my cataracts done in 15 years. The answer is that the flap causes a spherical aberration making calculating the proper implant power very tricky and not accurate. Relative to corneal thickness, there is no difference if you are 15 or 50 so it is really what you are expecting out of the surgery. You will get 10 years of good vision and then it may start to decline. The surgery being done out of the country is using stromal inlays which will correct both the distant and near vision and can be removed, replaced etc and not effect future cataract surgery. We are actually in the works of opening a clinic in the Bahamas that people can come and have the procedure.

So I may get 10 years then a decline in vision,which does not seem too different from the previous posts. However, is the decline linear in that my decline starts from a corrected vision and continues to decline at the same rate? Continuing my slide from my current condition may put me further down the road where a correction now may take 15+ years to put me back to where I am now. If this how it works?

You will be completely stable for at least 10 years and hopefully 10 more. IF you start forming a cataract in your 60s you will notice the visual changes but it isn't a linear thing until then. I only say the 60s based on the fact that we are wakeboarders and get more UV exposure than the average person. If I were you I would definitely go ahead with the procedure but only to correct your distance vision.

Did the wavefront in December after the season. Have to be out of contacts for over two weeks and no water for three months after the procedure. Other than that, should have done it years ago. I watched several videos online before which made me more comfortable with the procedure especially when the flap is flipped and everything goes blurry. A few minutes later and you can actually see. I had some dry eye side effects but my eyes were less red than when I wore contacts.

11 years ago (age 22), wavefront. Best money I ever spent.

From the mobile

Wavefront-guided LASIK is the type of LASIK to go with. instead of just whacking down the cornea, wavefront guided LASIK customizes to the patients cornea.