<p>A question here. My eyes are really not so bad—have to wear glasses to drive or watch TV, but do fine around the house without. I was told that I wouldn’t be a candidate for LASIK anyway as I have dry eye syndrome. A friend who had the procedure now has chronic dry eye which Dr. said is a side effect of the procedure.</p>
<p>Anyway, my question, I have early cataracts (age 51). If you have the cataract surgery, don’t they put in lenses and give you “correct” vision at that time?</p>
<p>mkm…yes, you are correct. They do put in lenses and correct your vision that way in cataract surgery.</p>
<p>The cataract surgery can do amazing things to correct your vision.</p>
<p>Alwaysamom–
Maybe this is a “requirement” of the companies like Cibavision selling contact lenses? ;)</p>
<p>
If you have to have surgery to restore or save eyesight, that is one thing. Lasik is elective surgery. Can’t you see the difference between choosing to play the game of Russian Roulette and not playing at all?</p>
<p>The benefits of Lasik do not outweigh the risk that you could be the one who gets the bullet. Life with glasses is not that bad. In fact, wearing glasses may be better for your eyes because you have a protective barrier in front of them preventing objects from hitting your eyes. If you have not had something hit you in the eye unexpectedly, you probably don’t have kids.</p>
<p>Razorsharp, I was responding to your comment that you would not entrust your eyes to a human being. You did not discern elective vs. necessary treatments. Further, you then went on to just mention routine eye exams. The point is, that HUMAN doctors must diagnose and treat you. </p>
<p>By the way, with any medical procedure, one must research it and understand the odds of success and any complications. I wouldn’t call it Russian Roulette. For some folks, the odds with Lasik are excellent. My husband had Lasik. I know countless people who have had Lasik, all with excellent results. I wish I could have Lasik. I believe fully in it. I won’t be having it due other factors that put me at risk, but if that were not my profile, I’d do it.</p>
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<p>I was the last one in my family that had LASIK surgery. Before LASIK, I have been wearing contact lens for a long time, I had no problem with contact lens, never had eye infections. But even with contact lens I could not see near nor far. So it’s not Russian Roulette, considering without this surgery I was blind as a bat.</p>
<p>I actually had it a couples months ago and the result to me was amazing. I’m not wearing glasses anymore, I had my surgery with a leading eye surgeon. Anyway it’s right price shouldn’t be the major determining factor when choosing a surgeon. The least expensive surgeon is not always the best choice – you want to find a surgeon who provides you with the best overall value. Ideally, you want a surgeon who not only has the finest technology, but also a wealth of experience, a dedicated staff, all at a great price.I can see now 20/20 without any help and my glasses is in the box now ( i just hate wearing those oldie thick glasses)</p>
<p>“life with glasses is not that bad.”</p>
<p>That depends. In my case, I was extremely nearsighted and could no longer wear contacts. With glasses, I had no peripheral vision, and kept almost hitting people as I was backing my car out of parking spaces. That was the main reason that I decided to have Lasik: I greatly feared literally killing someone while backing out of a parking space.</p>
<p>Fortunately, my surgery went very well, and I’m glad to say that I am no longer having near misses in parking lots. Overall, my driving also has improved. I think that’s because I have better depth perception, too.</p>
<p>I was extremely nearsighted (I needed glasses for everything except eating and reading and for those two activities I had to take my glasses off.) I could not wear contacts (I had tried them, had a severe reaction to the cleaning solution, and after a year of pain and agony I was ineligible to try again even with preservative-free solution.) I HATED wearing glasses but I was also deathly afraid of eye (or any other kind) of surgery. </p>
<p>After a number of friends and relatives had successful LASIK with a well-respected doctor in a hospital out-patient surgical center (I’m wary of the in-office, assembly-line operations that advertise!) I broke down and had the surgery in May 2003. </p>
<p>BEST THING I EVER DID! Although I recently began wearing glasses when I drive at night, and I sometimes wear drug store magnifiers to read when the type is small or my eyes are tired, I love the freedom of not wearing glasses.</p>
<p>I paid $1850 per eye (they only did one eye so I now have one near-sighted eye and one far sighted - I can’t tell when I’m looking at anything but I did flunk my driver’s eye test when I renewed my license - those machines are NOT set up for such corrections!)</p>
<p>I’m reviving this thread, as S just called that he wants lasik surgery. He explained that the cost depends on technique used. For the corrective part, he will definitely go with laser. It costs $1000 more to do the cut with laser rather than mechanical cut. The mechanical cut may cause a little more discomfort, but he wonders if it is worth this to save $1000.</p>
<p>This is all foreign to me. Any advice will be appreciated. thanks</p>
<p>^^^ Watch out, bookworm. This thread seems to be getting a lot of spam advertising. If a post shows up with a link to a specific Dr. or program, and the poster has no other posts, ignore the poster and report it to the mods.</p>
<p>thanks, jym.</p>
<p>I just looked back to see if anyone discussed mechanical cut or laser cut.</p>
<p>S2 has LASIK (laser cut) on Dec. 20th. It went very well. He just had his one month check-up last week and is seeing 20/20 now. He is so happy he did it.</p>
<p>I am the OP, and have not contributed because it probably won’t happen this year for our D. She was not able to get in and get the evaluation done before the open enrollment period was over, so we didn’t set aside the money for FSA. We will re-evaluate it next summer for a possible procedure the following year.</p>
<p>And yea, I’ve definitely gotten the feeling that there’s been a few spammers here.</p>
<p>I had LASIK done 10 years ago, but my eyesight was not nearly as bad as your D’s. I love my results, 20/15 eyesight - and it’s been extremely stable for 10 years now. I highly recommend it, if she is a viable candidate.</p>
<p>(bonus, the prices have dropped substantially since my surgery)</p>
<p>I didn’t read all the posts here, so this may have been mentioned already. But just this past Sunday, there was a big article in our local paper about how Lasik surgery has caused some people to go into a deep depression, resulting in many suicide attempts-- some successful. The gist of the article was that some people who are prone to anxiety or depression should not have it done. If there are any problems-- and for many, the results are weird vision issues and terrible pain-- they get very depressed. The article focused on several people, one of whom was in such pain, that she didn’t want to live anymore. They put her on suicide watch in a mental hospital. She was fitted with some special goggles and some medicine- or something- and seems to be doing better now, but still . . . I was shocked. I’ve never read anything about it before, but it’s pretty common.</p>
<p>Again, sorry if this was discussed previously; I only read the last page of posts.</p>
<p>I had Lasik back in 2000 done by a top surgeon and have been very, very pleased with the results. I was considered a “perfect candidate” for Lasik. H had it done a couple of years ago (different surgeon) and wished he hadn’t. His eyes get very, very dry and he constantly has to put eye drops. He swears he saw better with glasses. He does appreciate not wearing glasses when he is skiing or hiking (no fogged up glasses to deal with). He complained a lot in the beginning, but he got used to it eventually (acceptance stage, I guess?).</p>
<p>Article on Lasik and depression is below. I’m glad I didn’t see this before having my Lasik last year. I’ve had a lifelong history of depression, which has been resolved by my being on medication the last 3 years. If I’d read the below, I probably wouldn’t have had the surgery, which went very well and literally transformed my life in that after wearing glasses since age 2, I now can see clearly all of the time.</p>
<p>"RALEIGH, N.C. - Patients who undergo vision-correcting laser eye surgery sign a release form with an extensive list of risks, but some researchers and former patients say a potential complication is not mentioned: depression that can lead to suicide.</p>
<p>In response to patient complaints, the Food and Drug Administration plans to convene a large, national study to examine the relationship of LASIK complications and quality of life, including psychological problems such as depression.</p>
<p>Malvina Eydelman, an ophthalmologist with the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, wrote in an e-mail that the scant clinical data available “failed to suggest significant problems following LASIK surgery…”</p>
<p>aser eye surgeons who treat patients with complications say they do come across cases of depression, but they don’t think LASIK complications are the root cause. They say patients who exhibit depression after the procedure were likely depressed or psychologically troubled beforehand.</p>
<p>“There’s no cause and effect,” said Dr. Steven Schallhorn, the former head of the Navy Refractive Surgery Center in San Diego and an expert on permanent visual distortions from LASIK.</p>
<p>Christine Sindt, an optometrist and associate professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, has encountered the psychological effects that patients experience when they have trouble seeing.</p>
<p>“Depression is a problem for any patient with a chronic vision problem,” she said. But in the case of post-LASIK patients, she said, the depression is compounded by remorse.</p>
<p>“It’s not just that they lose vision,” she said. “They paid somebody [who] took their vision away.”</p>
<p>Dr. Alan Carlson, a laser eye surgeon at the Duke Eye Center in Durham, built his career on correcting the vision of patients at high risk of complications. He said people at risk of depression or anxiety are generally not good candidates for LASIK. He compared them to patients who become depressed after undergoing cosmetic surgery…"</p>
<p>[LASIK</a> failure toll can be high – chicagotribune.com](<a href=“http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-lasik_25feb25,0,7016699.story]LASIK”>http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-lasik_25feb25,0,7016699.story)</p>
<p>regarding the article, I would suspect these same people would be prone to depression and anxiety no matter what chronic health issue they have. This study focused on LASIK; if they did one studying people with chronic eye issues, chronic pain, loss of hearing, etc. the results would probably be the same.</p>
<p>I just saw this thread and felt that I also have to add that the ophthalmologists I know, many from some of the most respected reasearch institutes in the world, will not have the procedure.</p>