The Best Call I Ever Made

[Tim C]

Folks:

After wearing glasses for more than 50 years and after wearing contacts when working games for over four decades I went in search for the correct doctor to perfom LASIK surgery for me.

Hint: When contacting doctors one critical question to ask is: "how many of these precedures have you done"

If the doctor's answer is: "Do you mean counting you?" quickly move on.

My selected physician not only took photos of my eyes, he also performed both and ultra-sound and an MRI on my orbs.

As he said too me: "Tim your eyes are in perfect health . . . you just can't see for $hit."

Tuesday afternoon I had LASIK surgery on both eyes.

The procedure took less than 20 minutes and was 100% pain free.

Before surgery I was 20/400+.

My two pronged test yesterday (approximately 24 hours post surgery) shows that I am now 20/20 (very close to 20/10).

Think about that . . . perfect eye sight after wearing glasses for over 50 years.

I strongly suggest that if the procedure is appropriate for you . . . DO IT!

Ain't technology GREAT!

Regards,

[RPatrino]

Tim, I made the same call last year!! No more glasses, no more fiddling in the ball bag for the readers to make line-up changes!! Distance was near 20/40, now I'm 20/10.

The only issue was the day of the surgery, about an hour after the surgery it felt like someone poured a bucket of sand in my eyes, but that was the only issue.

[spokanelurker]

Guys, if you don't mind sharing, what was the price, and also will you have to wear readers?

[Tim C]

I choose to do monocular. My left eye (dominate) was corrected to perfect long vision and my right eye was corrected for short range vision.

It takes the brain about a month to adjust and 99% of the time this type correction falls into place. The brain does not realize what has happened and you have perfect vision at all distances. I will not need cheaters to read.

As for price I did not consider shopping for a lower price. My doctor has performed more than 114,250 of these procedures and has never had a complaint filed.

Regards,

[JJ]

What's the long term prognosis? Will your sight remain constant as opposed to usually getting a little worse every year as we get older?

JJ

[dash_riprock]

Originally Posted by Tim C

My doctor has performed more than 114,250 of these procedures

He must be fast.

[MrUmpire]

Originally Posted by dash_riprock

He must be fast.

I think it's a typo. LASKIK first went commercial in 1987. If Tim's doctor began performing the surgery that year, he would have had to perform over 5190 a year, or 20 per work day (with no vacation time) to total 114,250.

Perhaps that was the number of operations done in Tim's doctor's office, rather than by just his doctor.

[DG]

Originally Posted by Tim C

I choose to do monocular. My left eye (dominate) was corrected to perfect long vision and my right eye was corrected for short range vision.

It takes the brain about a month to adjust and 99% of the time this type correction falls into place. The brain does not realize what has happened and you have perfect vision at all distances. I will not need cheaters to read.

As for price I did not consider shopping for a lower price. My doctor has performed more than 114,250 of these procedures and has never had a complaint filed.

Regards,

I went to a Doc for Lasik eval about 5 years ago. I fail every time I get my driver's license with my right eye and I mention to the examiners that I have "lazy eye" and they give me my license.

My main problem, I thought, was my right eye, which does not see as well as the left at distances. After examination the doctor told me I had what a lot of people pay for (ie lasik in one eye only), one eye sees very well closeup (right eye) the other sees well far away (left eye) and the brain just adjusts. He suggested we do nothing.

I have begun using 2x readers for very small print, but have never worn glasses. I actually had one doctor tell me long ago that glasses would confuse my brain and it has already adjusted to my condition.

[Tim C]

According to the manager of the site during the height of the season my Doctor did approximately 40 operations a day. They had multiple operating rooms (3) each with a laser.

The Dr moved from one room to another about every 15 minutes.

There are about 70 chairs in the waiting room and I was told that those chairs were always full 12 hours a day.

While the group has become smaller (poor economy and people banking the $ in case of lost jobs) they still average 12 to 15 per day.

While I think it is fair that ya'll question the number it is the number they refer to when they qualify you. I would imagine that he had "responsibility" for the 114,250.

JJ:

I do not know how to answer your question. My eye sight has improved each of the last four years (not significantly enough to let nature take its course).

What all my potential Doctors said was: "After 50 there is very little chance that the proceedure would have to be done again."

BTW, the price of my procedure includes a lifetime "adjustment" warranty that includes one "re-do".

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Tim C

According to the manager of the site during the height of the season my Doctor did approximately 40 operations a day. They had multiple operating rooms (3) each with a laser.

The Dr moved from one room to another about every 15 minutes.

There are about 70 chairs in the waiting room and I was told that those chairs were always full 12 hours a day.

While the group has become smaller (poor economy and people banking the $ in case of lost jobs) they still average 12 to 15 per day.

While I think it is fair that ya'll question the number it is the number they refer to when they qualify you. I would imagine that he had "responsibility" for the 114,250.

JJ:

I do not know how to answer your question. My eye sight has improved each of the last four years (not significantly enough to let nature take its course).

What all my potential Doctors said was: "After 50 there is very little chance that the proceedure would have to be done again."

BTW, the price of my procedure includes a lifetime "adjustment" warranty that includes one "re-do".

When I lived in Boston in 2000, I took my wife to a local clinic to have her evaluated (for free) for Lasik. She was an excellent candidate. They set the cost at $4800.

Being a guy who travels, I started doing some serious research. Turns out that a clinic in Montreal had 2 of the dozen or so doctors qualified to teach the procedure. Back then, the exchange rate was favorable to 'Merkins, too. Instead of $4800, we could go to Montreal and have a vacation and pay $1200 for her to have both eyes done. Guess what we chose. We went over Christmas and had a nice holiday.

She went for 3 follow-up appointments -- all using airline miles and a day off from work. Her vision before the procedure was "blind as a bat", after the procedure was 20/15, and almost 10 years later is right around 20/20.

That clinic went under in 2001, but the docs went on to start up a new chain of clinics called LasikMD. Basic LASIK there is less than $800 (USD) for both eyes today. In Madison, where I live, the basic LASIK is $4000.

[zm1283]

Lasik is great, and I would love to get it when I can afford it, but it is possible that it will have to be re-done in the future. My mom had it done but had to go back a couple of years later to have it fixed. I don't think they had any type of "warranty" either. I think the success/failure rate depends on the person.

[RPatrino]

I had the monocular correction as well, the adjustment was gradual and takes a bit of getting used to, driving at night was interesting for a while. As for the readers, I don't believe that I will need those anymore. If you just have lasix done to correct distance vision, you probably will need to use reading glasses eventually, I'm told.

The cost of my procedure was $3,600, in California, where prices tend to be higher I suspect.

[mbyron]

I had LASIK nearly 2 years ago and have been very pleased indeed by the results. As a person who has worn glasses and contacts since 3rd grade, I love waking up in the morning and not having to reach for glasses (although out of habit I still sometimes do, even after 2 years!).

I opted not to have the "monocular" correction, so that my eyes would have maximally sharp depth perception. I felt that stereoscopic vision would be important for me in order to, for example, pick up a baseball in flight with sharp depth perception. Other factors in that decision is that I am somewhat younger than Tee, and that I won't mind wearing reading glasses when that time comes.

I seem to recall paying about $3.2K, with the "lifetime guarantee" (which means that the clinic will redo the procedure if needed in the future, for no extra charge, provided I keep up with my annual checkups).

I would do it again in a heartbeat: the few hours of mild discomfort and the money were worth it. I did not know about the Canadian option, which obviously sounds cost effective from anywhere in the US (and, unlike importing prescription drugs, is probably legal).

[RKBUmp]

I had Lasik about 8 or 9 years ago when I was 35 or 36. I had worn glasses since 5th grade and was tired of them. As I recall, my cost was around $1,600 for both eyes. It would have been cheaper but my left eye had a very bad astigmatism and had to be done on a special laser. I am more than happy with the results and just had my first eye exam since the surgery and was still 20/20. Unfortunatly time has caught up with me in the readers department and I do now use 1.25 readers. When I had the surgery done the asked me if I wanted the monovision, but I did not want to deal with depth perception problems so chose not to do it.

Some things to know. I do have slight halos around lights at night. They are not bad and certainly no worse than what I had before when not wearing my glasses. Also, as I found out later, the flap they cut to do the procedure never fully heals. It does seal and heal around the edge, but the whole flap never reattaches. I did have a touch up on the left eye about 6 months after the initial procedure. My most recent eye exam the doctor said he cant see the edge of the flap at all in the right eye, and can barely see it in the left eye.

I would do it again and Im sure the technology is even far better today than when my surgery was done. I had heard people say it would only last 5 years and then I would need glasses again. It has been nearly 10 and everything is just fine.