Old Guy Lasik

[Sam I am]

My whole life I was fortunate to have Eagle eyes. But about four years ago they began to degrade as I was no longer able to overcome a mild astigmatism and the normal aging process. The astigmatism was the worst though and was making reading road signs at night without correction a real problem. I've really hated wearing glasses as I'm really active with hunting, fishing, golfing, and snowmobiling. So...this morning I bit the bullet at 47 years old and had both eyes lased for distance. I'll need to wear cheaters for reading, but four hours later I got my pilot eyes back. I went to TLC as they were offering a $1000 discount. They did great. I can read license plates from across the street again. Two thumbs up.

 

[Jim123]

 

[Gatordev]

I'm on month 4 and I was significantly far-sided (though I could still beat about a diopter off my actual prescription, pre-surgery). I think it was day 4 for me that was the most painful, where the inflamation got enough I was having some eye ache and a little bit of a headache. Then it was fine from there and the vision improved, as well.

I'm still bouncing around a bit on correction (not abnormal for far-sided patients) and I have a feeling I'll need a touch up, but the place I went to does that for free, assuming it makes medical sense to do so. I'm also doing battle with starbursts at night, unaided, if I'm tired, in large part because my prescription isn't stable. It is interesting to see how the NVGs makes all of that go away when their dialed in.

But on the plus sign, I can actually read the computer screen/see the TV without glasses! It's a nice change.

 

[surf3001x]

Near-sighted all my life - without glasses anything further than 2-3 feet was a hazzy blob.

PRK-Lasik on both eyes (the procedure where they scrape the cells off your eye and laser then let it regenerate) and slept the first two days after, could see day 3-4. Contact band-aid off Day 5. Corrections bounced a bit for about 4-6 months but remained consistently 20/20 to 20/40.

Had astigmatism in both eyes and was around -580 - ended up 20/15 both eyes, best $4k I ever spent.

I can't believe people get this clear of vision most of their lives, wish I'd done it a lot sooner!

Hope you both get as good of an effect! With PRK the good news is they can go back in and re-treat "if" necessary.

 

[Jim123]

Now for another "old guy" moment, back when Sam and I were both joining up, c2000 plus or minus a few years, eye surgery was a huge no-no for military aviation.

There was a guy in my OCS class who got booted from the student pilot designator after our NAMI physicals turned up evidence of PRK or some other early version of this medical procedure. Everybody knew that the in-physical included a corneal topography machine, something that scanned the surface of your eyeballs and created what's basically a terrain map. If you'd been "cut" then it would show up- the machine was designed to find this and a handful of other disqualifiers.

Corrective surgery wasn't a disqualifier from civil aviation but mil wanted long term data on it- there just wasn't much data yet because the technology was still only about ten years old.

Kids these days got it good. ?


(Me? I'm sticking with my glasses for a few more years, mostly a mild astigmatism prescription around 1.00-1.5.)

 

[Sam I am]

A little follow up: Still awesome and a solid 20/15 in my left and 20/20 in my right. I haven't needed cheaters, but I did have to increase the text size on my phone. Cheaters would absolutely fix it, but I'm going sans spectacles for as long as I can. My total payment to TLC was $3100 and I paid for my 2 follow ups out of pocket. Which will likely be $300 for each visit. If you're on the fence. I recommend it.

 

[Flash]

A little follow up: Still awesome and a solid 20/15 in my left and 20/20 in my right. I haven't needed cheaters, but I did have to increase the text size on my phone. Cheaters would absolutely fix it, but I'm going sans spectacles for as long as I can. My total payment to TLC was $3100 and I paid for my 2 follow ups out of pocket. Which will likely be $300 for each visit. If you're on the fence. I recommend it.

Any issues with dry eyes? Had a guy in my office do PRK vice LASIK because of possible dry eye issues.

 

[RandomGoat1248]

Any issues with dry eyes? Had a guy in my office do PRK vice LASIK because of possible dry eye issues.

I am a young guy and had PRK 3.5 years ago and still get dry eyes. Never had dry eyes before the surgery.

 

[Gatordev]

They should do a dry-eye test prior to LASIK (probably why your guy did PRK). I passed the test with plenty of tears to spare, but I'm having mild dry eyes now, post-LASIK. Really only an issue when I'm really tired (like getting off a busy night at work) or after numerous hours in a dry environment without hydrating well. The drops help, although I've noticed after my last hitch on nights that I'd have to hit them twice, once before leaving work and then again once I got home.

 

[Jim123]

Funny, about ten years ago the eye doc told me I had something that sounds like the opposite of that.

I can't remember what he called it, something about whatever it is in your eyeball that helps it dry when it's too watery (like when you first get up in the morning, if you've been laying down for a while, if you were just swimming or you just got out of the shower, kinda like that). He said it's a thing that happens to a lot of people as you age, that I'm a little ahead for someone my age, but not bad enough to worry about. They can tell with that little handheld magnifying flashlight thing, nothing more specialized required than that.

 

[SynixMan]

While I'm not "old", I kicked the tires on LASIK while on shore duty in Pensacola. I've become slightly near-sighted since my ENS days and have a light flying prescription I otherwise never wear. One caveat explained to me by the doc, was that if I was getting a touch-up for distance vision, it would negatively effect my close-in vision earlier. So, if say, I would've needed readers at age 50, this would accelerate that change by an unknown timeframe. That trade-off seemed poor to me, so I opted to not get the surgery. YMMV, talk to a doctor.

 

[Sam I am]

Synix, that's all true. I got lased for distance and that has affected my near vision. Not to the point I can't function, but I had to enlarge the text on my phone where as if I had cheaters I wouldn't have needed to do that.

 

[Sam I am]

Any issues with dry eyes? Had a guy in my office do PRK vice LASIK because of possible dry eye issues.

None for me.

 

[hlg6016]

I looked into it a few years back but chose not to go through with it. Doc explained that with my current eyesight (Life long googly eyes) and age they would not be able to get me 20/20.

 

[scoolbubba]

No issues with dry eyes after about 2 months; I'm 5 years post-surgery meow.

Do any of you LASIK guys find that your eyes water if you push negative g's or have your head upside down? Asking for a friend.