The Followup
A friend of mine just messaged me wanting to know everything about my (intra)LASIK experience and I realized that I never did a follow up post. I'm 10 days shy from my 6th month anniversary of LASIK and still completely loving it. Here's the run down of my post-op experience follow by some general advice for people thinking about getting.1) My vision is slightly better than 20/20 - It's not 20/15 or anything like that, but when I do the eye test, I can read past the 20/20 line.
2) My vision feels (but isn't) slightly worse at night time - This was an odd adjustment for me. I've always had *really* good night vision. LASIK actually increased the amount of light entering my eyes (a common side effect). At night time this has the unfortunate side affect of creating halos around light sources which gives the impression of your vision being worse. It also had made it slightly harder to read street signs at night time, but not significantly so.
3) Expect to spend another $100 in eye-drops - For the first 2 months you need to use special eye drops which don't have preservatives in them. So instead of being able to buy the cheap bottle that you stick in a pocket, you have to buy these little tubes that get about 3 uses before you need the next tube. Keeping your eyes hydrated helps it heal correctly. If you let them get dry... well you know how your contacts crinkle up when they get dry? Imagine that little flap they cut in your eye doing that. Plus it helps to keep things sterile. I went through 3 boxes of the disposable drops and two bottles (once it was no longer necessary to use the kind without preservatives) in the past 6 months. I might need an eye drop when I stay up too late every couple of weeks, but once I got past month 4 my eyes stopped feeling so dry.
4) I still forget I don't wear contacts anymore - No I don't poke my eye trying to get them out, I'll just be sitting there and go "oh yeah, this is just what my vision is now.
5) My vision has remained stable - This might be a factor of age, but my vision had remained at the same level for the past couple of years and had only slightly gotten worse the past couple of years before that. Lord willing, I will enjoy this level of eye sight until I start going far sighted with in my older years.
Overall summary: I've been thoroughly satisfied with LASIK, it was well worth the money for my particular circumstances. If my vision was only slightly bad (say -2.00 or better) I don't think it would have been worthwhile, however, it's been a long time since my vision was only -2.00 so I might be underestimating how bad it is. I also wouldn't get if my eyesight was still changing every year. Additionally, women have the further consideration that your eyesight can change during a pregnancy. It's not too common from what I hear, but it's still something to think about.
General advice to anyone getting it:
1) Shop around. Most of the LASIK docs I talked to would do a price match of a competitors provided it was an equivalent service (for example, they wouldn't give you intraLASIK for the price that a competitor was doing regular LASIK, but they would match the competitor's intraLASIK price).
2) Wait for a good sale. Almost every holiday these doctors would have some sale (Memorial Day sale, Christmas sale, thanksgiving, president's day, etc)
3) Don't get tricked by gimmicks - One place was offering lifetime touch up work to the procedure provided you came once a year and did your eye exam with him. The cost of the exam was inflated and out of network for insurance companies. You're not going to want to do LASIK twice. It's worth is once, but unless there is something majorly wrong you're a) not going to need yearly eye exams and b) not going to want to go through the hassle of preping your eyes for surgery and spending two months keeping them hydrated!
Find a place that gives a good deal and is reputable and you'll be fine.
4) Ask around... a lot. Seriously, ask friends who they went to, problems they faced, check yelp and google, and anything else you can think of. You want a good deal, but you also want to make sure you've chosen a doctor who has your back in the very miniscule chance something does go wrong.
5) Do it! I've been rather frank with any slight thing that was negative with the procedure so I can only hope you haven't gotten the wrong impression. LASIK has been non-stop amazing since the very first moment they finished the procedure. It was pricey (especially for someone like me who wants to get a $10 product for $3), but it was worth ever last cent!
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