What types of issues? I understand there are a wide range of issues that would exclude a person from being a good candidate (ie, persistent dry eye, uncontrolled diabetes, age, other eye conditions). But any good surgeon would clearly explain that to a patient and not recommend the surgery if it wasn’t ideal.
In my case, the only possible complication was dry eyes prior to surgery. If it wasn’t resolved, then would be canceled.
but fortunately was mitigated with over the counter and some prescription eye drops applied liberally.
I too was skeptical but I think the key is finding a good surgeon with a looong history of doing these surgeries.
I was something like -8, -9.5 before getting LASIK at about 21.
My eyes couldn’t focus beyond a reading distance afterwards. No lens could get me to a legal driving eyesight.
Surgeon had no idea why. He re-lifted the flaps afterwards and flushed beneath them on the hunch that it might be from slight ripples. Horrible experience, didn’t fix it.
Hard contacts worked, but a second surgeon advised against having anything in my eye while we figured it out.
After about a year, it healed enough that eyeglasses could refract me to good vision again.
So I still wear glasses, but my vision is much better without them. (-2ish range these days.) Pretty awful experience, but I like glasses and it was a big improvement from where I was before.
Shit that’s terrible. Wonder if your eye was still undergoing changes. 21 is relatively young.
My surgeon requested vision history from my referring optometrist. And did his own work up at the office. Took 2-3 months of follow ups and “adjustments” (ie, prescribing eye drops to fix dry eyes) to ensure vision was stable and dry eyes wouldn’t impact outcome.
I think there was some guidance around waiting 2–3 years since your prescription changed, which I met—though that's obviously imperfect.
There was never any clear cause/effect. My best guess is that it was from being super tense during the surgery. I found it extremely uncomfortable and intense to be fully conscious, knowing it would be bad news if I moved my eyes during the procedure. (They're holding a flap of your eyeball open during it, etc—super fun.)
Would have requested a little higher dose of Valium if I could do it over again. :) And maybe crossed a border to a high-volume specialty shop instead of my local ophthalmologist.
In many cases (nearing 40%) people end up with worse vision after some number of years. A very high percentage end up with significant problems such as really bad astigmatism. Severe issues such as near blindness, detached corneas, etc are also way too common. There are several good YouTube videos on the subject.
And anecdotally, half of the people who I know that got it done 10+ years ago have had their eyesight regress back to the way it was before or worse.
I honestly don’t know how lasik is allowed to persist with such high risk of complications.
I can’t keep my eyes open for the glaucoma test. I’m pretty sure that LASIK Would be impossible for me (unless they have A Clockwork Orange–style devices holding the eyelids open).
> (unless they have A Clockwork Orange–style devices holding the eyelids open).
That’s how it works yes.
Remember the Space Quest zombie?
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtY3nJ2WptU/VUt7x1dPTQI/AAAAAAAAC...
I’m not sure if it’s the exact device depicted in that film. But the lids are forcibly held in an open state during surgery while you hold your head still on a table and focus on a green light.