Laser Eye Surgery

[Anonymous]

So after my last ride that gave me the shits because I couldn’t see because my goggles were fogged up and then when I took my goggles off my glasses fogged up and then I must have dropped my bike 50 times because I couldn’t see which made me look like an absolutely crap rider, I booked in for laser eye surgery.

I am booked in for December 16th and I wanted to know if anyone out there has had it done and if they were positive or negative experiences.

I know 2 people that have had it done. One thought it was the absolutely greatest thing on earth and the other has permanent damage caused because they accidentally sliced off her whole cornea. She now can’t even get glasses to give her sharp vision because she has such bad eyesight. She wears special designed contacts which cost her an absolute fortune.

I am really interested in hearing anyones experiences with this surgery.

[MalMember]

Donna had her eyes done a while back and she is happy with the procedure. One eye had a huge improvement, nearly perfect vision and the other one was only about 50% better. Still she is happy not to have to wear glasses now.

I can pm you her number if you want to chat to her about it.

[Jason GreenMember]

It depends on your prescription are you wearing a high minus rx or a bifocal or progressive most of the time patients are happy with the outcome but there is always a risk involved when you are dealing with laser surgery you really need to have faith in your opthalmologist how much is it going to cost you?$2000 0r $3000 compared to your current specs $600 even after surgery you still might need to wear specs

[dennis da menaceMember]

ill be interested to know how it goes KD, Sammy has been mulling over the idea for a while now.

[PaulMember]

I looked into it for myself but the problem was that although laser surgery may correct my vision, my script is always changing every 2-3 years this will continue after the surgery so in about 5-10 years I would need glasses again, or another laser surgery.

So I didn’t bother.

[Dwayne OMember]

I have heard the same as Beemer suggested, you really are better to be sure your eyes aren`t getting much worse, fairly stable vision, Or the need may arise to have it again!!!

More Cost is not good, so check that side of things first if you haven`t done so already.
My father had it done years ago with excellent results, mt last tennis partner, Sarah had it done 6 months ago & also excellent results
Both these people are in the older age bracket thpugh, so their cases could differ from yours slightly,,,

I am no expert, just my experiences with people that have had it & been very happy with results

GOOD LUCK

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for your input.

Mal yes if you can PM me Donna’s number that would be great.

XRTrailHack – I don’t know what sort of prescription mine is but I do not wear bifocals. I do know that when I saw the opthamologist he said that I should have no problems with the surgery. My friend when she went and saw him was told up front that the first surgery would probably not be enough and 1 eye would probably need 2 goes at it. This is the same guy doing mine. Yes I was concerned about the risk. If you ask my optometrist the risks are very low now however I am sceptical about that statement. I did talk to the Dr whose doing it though and he said that out of the 5000 surgeries that he has done none have gone wrong (I hope I am not the 1st one though).

Menace – will let you know how it pans out in a couple of weeks time

Wikd – I was told when I was about 20 when I asked about it that I couldn’t get it done until my eye sight stabilised which would be around 30. Sure enough around 28-29 I noticed that my prescription didn’t change and then at my last eye test which was 32 it was still the same therefore I hope it is OK.

Eagle – Yes I am hoping for the same thing but with my luck lately maybe it’s a bad idea. Anyway too late for that. The Dr that is doing it has a special on at the moment which is 50% off. I am only paying $2,500. The optometrist told me that the Dr has now paid off his expensive equipment and is happy to give the discounts that he can to give more people the opportunity to have it done. If I need to have it done again for either eye it will be another $500.

Wearing glasses sucks so I hope that I don’t have to wear them afterwards but I guess I should just keep in mind that that is a possibility.

Thanks everyone for you information. It is really helpful.

[mickMember]

you know tiger woods has had it done too……bloody works well for him ..doesn’t it…

then again he didn’t see the fire hydrant maybe if it was white and had dimples maybe..

[Dwayne OMember]

Dunno,
He saw more chicks it seems :laugh:
Might not be so good for him now

[Anonymous]

Kylie, I know what you mean about wearing glasses. They are a big pain. They fog up under goggles so even if you can keep your goggles fog free the glasses will still fog.

I went to get checked for laser surgery and was told my pupils are unusually round so even if I had the surgery I would still need glasses for reading. I wear graduated lenses.

So I went in another direction. I got contact lenses for riding. They are great for that purpose and I can see clearly with them down to about 1 meter. So I can just see my speedo when riding or driving. Cannot read with them though. So I achieved the same result as laser surgery by just using contact lenses.

Good luck with your with your surgery.

old al.

[Anonymous]

Yes Old Al I considered that route as well. I actually went and got some contacts a few months ago but I found that they really irritated my eyes so I gave up.

When I was younger I used to wear contacts all of the time and I did get really scratchy eyes. When I went to the optometrist to get them looked at they put the yellow dye in my eyes and said that the contacts had scratched the crap out of my eyes. So I don’t think that my eyes are meant to have contacts in them.

A friend of mine was actually telling me the other day that there is a new type of contact lense out (it may not be so new but I hadn’t heard of it before) that actually reshapes your eye whilst you wear them. So you wear it for I think 1 day and then the next 2 days you can see fine. But then on the 3rd day you go blind again so you put your contact lenses back in. This would have been an option for me if I didn’t get so irritated with the contacts.

Well I am booked in for the 16th anyway so I’ll just have to see how it goes.

[Jason GreenMember]

I spoke to one of the guys @ work tonight and he said that laser surgery has come a long way since its first concept so don’t worry too much you just need to know that as with any surgery there is always risks involved but 99.9% of the time patients are very happy with the result

[Bruce CurtisMember]

Was diagnosed with cancer in both eyes in my early twenties, left eye done with old fashioned scalpel and cathode cauterise 100% vision restored, right eye done a month later with the (then ) new fangled laser, operation went well, dikwad surgeon forgot to look at my chart and stitched my lense in with dissolving iodine stitches, and I’m highly intolerant of iodine result loss of 90% of my right vision and temporary full blindness for a few weeks until my brain reconfigured.

The 68 yr old opthimologist retired 2 ops later, Laser itself was far superior and I’m hoping that real soon my right eye scarring will be rectified in the next 12 months with a laser, so even with that experience I’LL DO IT AGAIN.

Look after your eyes people cause it has really affected my life in general and my riding in particular, sperception of distance and field of vision and all that, can’t see into shadows or out of shadows and constantly used to hit things with my right shoulder, including other bikes and trees.

Bruce Cee

[Anonymous]

Thanks Xrtrailhack that makes me feel a little more confident.

Bruce, wow, what an experience it was for you. My Dad once got a piece of steel in his eye and had to have surgery by a specialist to have it removed. Before it was done he gave the whole story and they looked in his eye to see where the piece of steel was.

Then a little while later whilst he is laying there ready to get it done, the Dr comes in puts a needle in (?) or around the eye, I’m not sure exactly where but Dad said it really hurt, to get the piece of steel out and the Doctor couldn’t find it. That’s when Dad said it was in his other eye. So poor Dad then had to have a needle put in or around his other eye because the Doctor stuffed up and went for the wrong eye.

I hope they get my eyes right.

[john morganMember]

my wife had it done just 2 weeks ago. she was tested the following day ,which is usual process and had 20/20 vision. She has never had this and is over the moon.
had it done in sydney ,cost a little more but they used the latest gear and surgeon was confident of what he could do and what could be done.we went to sydney after newcastle people made us worry with their prognosis on longsighted treatments.
all went well, I got to watch thru window and watched the closeups on a tv screen. facinating to watch.

As for when you get older and eyes start to fade again, you can either wear glasses,had eyes re lazered of cornea thickness allows , or there is experiment at moment which should be mainstream within a couple of years where basically they place a corrective lense in front of the cornea after cutting a flap.like an internal contact lense.

the reaction I saw on mywife when she started reading every bit of fine print she could find that night, it was worthwhile.

hope all goes well.

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