After problems with my contacts during many games, I am comtemplating lasik surgery. I'm wondering if any of you had undergone this and how you liked it. Also, for those of you needing reading glasses, did you get both eyes done for distance or one for distance and one for reading?

I'm seriously thinking about getting rid of the glasses and going to contacts. At a camp I was at in a session the director was talking about moving up, and things that could hold you back. The first thing he mentioned was glasses.

So because I don't want the only thing keeping me at the high school level to be my eyesight, I'm going to try and do the whole contact thing.

Contacts work well for me. I did the glasses thing for one season, and it was really a nightmare. My ophthalmologist (do you know there's a whole term class at medical school to learn how to spell all these wild and crazy specialities!?!) didn't want me to use contacts, because I've got a sort of rare eye condition that he's afraid would be aggravated by them. Which is also why I will never get lasik. But I convinced him to let me try them, only for basketball. It's been great. I have them "set" for aobout 25 - 50 feet, so reading is a problem, but I have a little pair of drugstore reading lenses I can pull out if I need them, like at the table. I definitely won't go back to glasses for games.

lasik Surgery
 

I had it done about 14 months ago. I have found it to good for me. But I still have to wear glass to read real small print or not very well lighted area. It has helped me in my officialing.

Skip contacts and get the surgery.

I wore contacts for over 10 years and while they are better than glasses, they have major drawbacks.

They cost money and you need to wear the daily wear disposable type, if you want to keep your eyes healthy. Even with those your eyes will develop a scaley surface on the inside of your lids that will eventually keep you from wearing contacts at all.

Look into Lasik, spend the money in one shot, and forget about it.

I did it 4 years ago and it was the best move I ever made. I was seeing almost 20/15 20 hours after the surgery and I'm still 20/15 right now.

Whoa! Not moving up because of wearing glasses? You need the glasses to see optimally, right? Are you saying your appearance is being hurt? I have had to use bi-focals since last year. I didn't wear glasses officiating last year. I found my vision wasn't real sharp for distances. I have a real problem putting contacts in. So this year I have decided to wear sports goggles. I used them at a camp I attended last month and my vision is sharp now. Just an annoyance to have to put on and take off. And as far as my appearance, I don't really give a darn - besides, I'm better looking than a lot of officials WITHOUT glasses LOL.

Randy, I had a cousin who had lasik done. Says it was the best decision he ever made.
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“Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.”

I don't know about the surgery but I've been wearing contacts for more than 1/2 my life. Never heard of this scaley stuff, but I change my disposables every 2 weeks and its no biggie.

I beleive most doctors want you to be 21 to have lasik, that's what they told my son anyway.

I had it and the doctor said that most people will develop the inflamation at some point. It is a red area on the inside of your lids that feels like you have dust in your eye when your contacts are in. I went from the monthly to the two week disposables, but I could not comfortably wear them that long. I was taking them out daily at the end.

No more lens, no more glasses, no more wetting drops, and no more irritation.

I had it done about 3 years ago. Best move I ever made. I see better and it's a LOT less trouble. It also makes for some great one lines with coaches (if you can get away with it.) When they tell you to get glasses, just tell them you don't need them any more, you had the surgery. They don't know what to saw, they just look at you with this real dumb-founded look. It does keep them quite for awhile and really cuts the tension of the moment.

I would strongly recommend it if you Dr. says you are a candidate. Everyone isn't. Listen to your eye Dr. (I'm not even going to try to spell the big words.) Follow his instructions. I've had several buddies that have had it done & it's worked out great.

I had the RK surgery 11 years ago. That's before laser when they used blades. Went from about 20/300 + to 20/20.

A friend / coach I know had laser a few months ago. Loves it - no problems.

I believe they do two eyes at the same time with the laser, but when I had the RK surgery done it was one at a time...about a week apart. Just in case there was a complication.

If you decide to get the surgery, just make sure you choose a doctor who has done many, many, many (in the thousands, if possible) of these procedures. I seem to recall, from researching a paper on the procedure, that there are complications in about 10% of these surgeries, but that the complication rate drops dramatically with experience.

If you choose LASIK, I'd recommend getting a second opinion, and it's definately worth a trip to a major tertiary care center with an experienced opthamalogical surgery department.