My LASIK Experience Part 1

Making the Choice

      I have been thinking about doing Lasik for many years now.  Ever since I was in the third grade I've needed corrective lenses.  Well actually, when I was in the third grade I thought glasses were the coolest thing ever and lied on my eye exam so I would get them (I did feel guilty about that later and confessed, but I fear the damage was already done and while I would have eventually needed glasses anyways, I had hastened the time table!). 
    Since then, my eye sight has been getting progressively worse, but I didn't mind too much.  I had to use glasses or contacts to see no matter what, so it didn't matter if my eye sight was negative 2.75 or negative 5.75 (which is where it's at now).  What I do care about is I tend to wake up in the middle of the night feeling slightly confused and not being able to see tends to freak me out in these instances.  For a long time I wore night and day contacts and that was blissful!  30 days of uninterrupted vision.  Unfortunately, a couple years ago I went to a doctor by a place of previous employment who was lack luster.  They were trying to market themselves at rich trendy people (which is a double strikeout for me), while providing sub quality merchandise.  It was a miserable year for my eyes as the contacts just never seemed to fit quite right.
    Thus, for the past 2 to 3 years I have been unable to wear my night and day contacts.  This year, I finally decided that it was time to get serious about checking out Lasik.  My eye sight was stable and I had the choice of either shelling out for contacts year after year, or make an upfront investment for hopefully 20ish years of not needing glasses (well after 15ish years I'll have to start getting reading glasses I'm sure, but such is the fate of age).
    It was time to bust out google.

 Choosing a Doctor

    The first couple of places I contacted where places I had heard advertised on the radio.  People like Key-Whitman, Kleiman/Evangelista, and Boothe.  Key-Whitman was good, but they require you to come back every year for an eye exam that won't be covered by your vision insurance in order to keep their "lifetime warranty" on your eyes.  Kleiman/Evangelista were good, but too expensive (in the over 3K range), Boothe... well not many people had anything bad to say about the surgery itself, but everyone did say he was a bit of a jerk and when things did go wrong he would avoid you and send you to someone else.  He was very much in it for getting people in and out and gone.
    After a bit of google searching, I found two more options South Western Medical Center (which I ended up not contacting so can't provide any information on) and Dr. Tylock.  After a pleasant talk with one of their finance people, I decided to come in for a "free" exam.  Free in the Lasik industry, for the record, means $150.  They get away with calling it free because if you decide to get Lasik from them, then the cost of the exam is applied to the cost of the surgery. Of course, that means that if you don't want it from them then you're out $150.  It seems underhanded to me, but everyone I called had this exact same setup, so at least it was underhanded across the board!

The Exam

     The exam was a rather quick affair.  I came in and waited for a bit, was taken to a back waiting area and then in quick succession had some photos of my eyes taken, had an eye exam to confirm my prescription, had my pupils dilated, some bright lights to check out the insides of my now dilated eyes, another eye exam, my eyes number, and a cell sample taken from the surface of them.  Then I was charged for the exam, set up a time for the surgery, was given a pair of sunglasses and Amy drove me home.
     Funny story about them dilating my eyes.  The guy said, "Okay, we're going to put these drops in your eyes and they will burn a little" at which point he came in to put the drops in my eyes.  I stopped him and said "Wait, if they're going to burn, why are we putting them in my eyes?"
     He looked a little shocked at this, like "no one has ever asked me this before, they just let me do it".  What he actually said was "We need to dilate your eyes".  Now call me crazy, but that's not actually an explanation.  That is telling me what the burning drops do, but not telling me why we need to do them.  I could tell I was really messing with his flow though and let him do it.  For the record, my eyes burn worse when I get a bit of shampoo in them.  I also found out later, from another guy, that the reason for it was the dilated pupils let them see the inside of my eye better.
     Another one of these moments happened when a doctor said "Okay we're going to put these drops in your eye that will numb them".  Why on earth they would immediately start to move after saying these things without waiting for confirmation from the patient is beyond me.  I stopped this guy again and asked "Why are we numbing my eyes?  Are you going to be poking them?"  There was an uncomfortable silence that yelled "yes" Before he gave a noncommittal answer. 
     Later when he brought the poking stick out and moved towards me without so much as a how-do-you-do? I stopped  him again and said "what is this now?"  I tell you, questions really catch these guys off guard!  I finally did get a straight answer though.  The poky stick was actually a swab stick and it was to take a sample of the cells on the surface of my eye in much the same way as a doctor swabs your tonsils to check for tonsillitis. 

The Aftertaste

    All things said, the exam was a very pleasant experience.  Despite them being floored by me asking a question, they were extremely friendly, they were clearly paying attention to how I was feeling the whole time and it was obvious that had I been freaking out they would have taken the time to work with me rather than strapping down my wrists and moving this along.  At the end of it, we talked to a guy to schedule my Lasik (which is today in a couple hours!) and he was very nice.  There were no high pressure gimmicks, no pressure to get it done.  The most he did was when I was trying to decide if I could do this today, he said, "if you like, you can schedule it for today and then call us to cancel it if you change your mind".  To follow up on this they actually called me yesterday to confirm that today was going to work out and just to make sure we didn't need to change things.
     Having dealt with very push salesmen in the past (and even at some of the Lasik places I called), I was extremely impressed with their professionalism.  Rather than say I felt I was at a car lot, I felt like I was at a doctors office where he was saying "this is an optional procedure, we can schedule it if you want it, but it's ultimately up to you"

Hopefully in a couple days I can write how the surgery itself went and hopeful it will have been as pleasant as the exam.

My LASIK Experience Part 1