For a while, it has been somewhat difficult for me to drive at night. I had chalked it up to my vision getting progressively worse after lasik. To that end, I went to the eye doctor recently to get an updated prescription and some glasses.
The doctor told me that I indeed no longer have 20/20 vision. However, my prescription was quite low, so low he really couldn't give me any less of a prescription. Knowing how my vision is at night, I decided I still wanted to get glasses so I can hopefully be a little safer when I drive.
I got my glasses today, and they do help somewhat, but not greatly. Turns out I don't actually need the glasses. The actual problem is the much dreaded "Halo Effect" that people often get after Lasik. I noticed it a little bit after I got it, but it wasn't too severe. It has definitely gotten worse for me over time. It isn't to the point where it is a great problem when I drive, it is just annoying.
So I guess I'll have to just deal with it for now. Still think the Lasik was worth it. It's great 99% of the time. Just wished it had stayed where it was when I first got it. Oh well, there aren't any guarantees.
Showing posts with label Lasik. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lasik. Show all posts
Lasik update - Four years later
Monday, November 19, 2007
I have been really bad about going to the optometrist to get my eyes check since I have had Lasik. Really you should go every year just to be sure that your eyes are OK. I haven't been to the Optometrist in well over two years, and I was due to go.
Since my insurance was almost up, I decided to just go. Considering MS employees pay absolutely nothing to go to any doctor, you figure I would have done it sooner. Oh well. Turns out, I actually have a slight astigmatism now. I didn't have an astigmatism before Dr. Assil performed Lasik on me. It's small enough that I didn't end up filling my prescription for new eyeglasses, but I probably will as soon as I start a new job and get some insurance again. It only somewhat bothers me at night when I drive, but it's probably worth it for just that.
For the Full story you probably want to follow the following link:
All Lasik Post
Since my insurance was almost up, I decided to just go. Considering MS employees pay absolutely nothing to go to any doctor, you figure I would have done it sooner. Oh well. Turns out, I actually have a slight astigmatism now. I didn't have an astigmatism before Dr. Assil performed Lasik on me. It's small enough that I didn't end up filling my prescription for new eyeglasses, but I probably will as soon as I start a new job and get some insurance again. It only somewhat bothers me at night when I drive, but it's probably worth it for just that.
For the Full story you probably want to follow the following link:
All Lasik Post
My Vison: Four Months Later
Thursday, November 04, 2004
OK, this should probably be the final istallment about how my Lasik Procedure went barring any sudden blindless that might strike me.
Yesterday I went back to Dr. Assil's office for my check up after I had my touch-up. I have to say that I'm happy with my sight. Sometimes my eyes feel a little dry but that is to be expected. Every once in a while my sight gets a little wonky but it usually corrects itself in a few minutes. Overall my sight is very good. Probably better than when I had contacts. The doctor measured it at 20/15 and I could see that line pretty clearly.
My life has definitely changed now. My eyes aren't irritated nearly as much and I never have to worry about falling asleep with my contacts or remembering to bring a case wherever I go just in case I end up spending the night. Overall, well worth the money. I highly suggest it to anyone thinking about it.
Dr. Assil did a fine job. I think he is starting to become very very popular though which can be somewhat annoying. I hear his ads on the radio all the time and I get a hit or two a day on this little blog for people looking for info. Yesterday, I had to wait about 45 minutes just to see the doctor and for them to tell me I can see well. Yeah, big surprise. I know that Doctors are busy and it is hard to get an appointment but maybe I'm just old school in thinking that if you get an appointment you should be seen at that time plus or minus 10 minutes or so.
Update: For full story you should also see these post
All Lasik Post
Yesterday I went back to Dr. Assil's office for my check up after I had my touch-up. I have to say that I'm happy with my sight. Sometimes my eyes feel a little dry but that is to be expected. Every once in a while my sight gets a little wonky but it usually corrects itself in a few minutes. Overall my sight is very good. Probably better than when I had contacts. The doctor measured it at 20/15 and I could see that line pretty clearly.
My life has definitely changed now. My eyes aren't irritated nearly as much and I never have to worry about falling asleep with my contacts or remembering to bring a case wherever I go just in case I end up spending the night. Overall, well worth the money. I highly suggest it to anyone thinking about it.
Dr. Assil did a fine job. I think he is starting to become very very popular though which can be somewhat annoying. I hear his ads on the radio all the time and I get a hit or two a day on this little blog for people looking for info. Yesterday, I had to wait about 45 minutes just to see the doctor and for them to tell me I can see well. Yeah, big surprise. I know that Doctors are busy and it is hard to get an appointment but maybe I'm just old school in thinking that if you get an appointment you should be seen at that time plus or minus 10 minutes or so.
Update: For full story you should also see these post
All Lasik Post
Lasik: The Touch Up
Thursday, July 22, 2004
So on Tuesday I had the touch up with Dr. Kerry Assil. Jenny was kind enough to drive me there so a special shout out to her.
So how did it go? Well the procedure itself was different than last time. This time I kind of knew what to expect so none of it came as a surprise. The big difference is that they don't recut your cornea. They just peel back the original flap (I think I read that the flap never 100% heals itself) and then zap you again. That part was actually slightly more uncomfortable. Some people don't like the Microkeratome (the blade that cuts your cornea) because it sucks in your eyeball and than you hear a drilling sound as it cuts your cornea. That part didn't really bother me all that much. This time though they kind of move your cornea around to get it loose and that part was kind of strange and uncomfortable.
They zapped me and then sent me home. This time I remember the aftermath being much more painful which is strange since they had to do much less to me. Jenny wrote that she felt like she had shampoo in her eyes afterward. After my original procedure I felt no such thing but this time around I definitely felt it. It stung like a mother f*!#$r for the first few hours. Maybe that is just what you have to feel for the first few hours after to get good sight. :)
So the final verdict. So far so good. You can't really know the final result until a few weeks after the procedure but the initial results are pretty good. I didn't have that far to go to get to acceptable and it seems OK to me now. Whereas before it was a scary proposition to drive at night and I couldn't make out faces from far away indoors (making it impossible to check people out in the gym) I can do those things now. Is it 100% perfect. I don't know. Some things seemed slightly clearer right before the surgery when I had the -0.75 prescription and the glasses. So I would put it at about 98% good. But that may just be because it is so soon after the surgery. If things change one way or another I will of course post it.
Update - See these post
All Lasik Post
So how did it go? Well the procedure itself was different than last time. This time I kind of knew what to expect so none of it came as a surprise. The big difference is that they don't recut your cornea. They just peel back the original flap (I think I read that the flap never 100% heals itself) and then zap you again. That part was actually slightly more uncomfortable. Some people don't like the Microkeratome (the blade that cuts your cornea) because it sucks in your eyeball and than you hear a drilling sound as it cuts your cornea. That part didn't really bother me all that much. This time though they kind of move your cornea around to get it loose and that part was kind of strange and uncomfortable.
They zapped me and then sent me home. This time I remember the aftermath being much more painful which is strange since they had to do much less to me. Jenny wrote that she felt like she had shampoo in her eyes afterward. After my original procedure I felt no such thing but this time around I definitely felt it. It stung like a mother f*!#$r for the first few hours. Maybe that is just what you have to feel for the first few hours after to get good sight. :)
So the final verdict. So far so good. You can't really know the final result until a few weeks after the procedure but the initial results are pretty good. I didn't have that far to go to get to acceptable and it seems OK to me now. Whereas before it was a scary proposition to drive at night and I couldn't make out faces from far away indoors (making it impossible to check people out in the gym) I can do those things now. Is it 100% perfect. I don't know. Some things seemed slightly clearer right before the surgery when I had the -0.75 prescription and the glasses. So I would put it at about 98% good. But that may just be because it is so soon after the surgery. If things change one way or another I will of course post it.
Update - See these post
All Lasik Post
Lasik Tomorrow
Monday, July 19, 2004
Tomorrow I'm going in for a touch up to my original Lasik Procedure. Thus far my vision has been pretty much the same for the last 6 months. In both eyes I have a diopter of -0.75. Not horrible but bad enough to be really annoying when I'm driving at night and when I go into a store.
I'm hopeful that Dr. Assil, the doctor performing my Lasik Procedure, will be able to get me close to 20/20. Dr. Assil is supposed to be one of the more respected Lasik surgeons in the L.A. area so I'm fairly confident it will work out. I know two other people who have gotten their Lasik done by him. One was very happy and one not so much so. But the latter was supposed to go in for her touch up recently so maybe it ended up working out for her. It is a little strange because I think I'm more nervous this time around than last. I think its because it didn't work out the way I wanted last time and I don't think I could go 6 more months with my current vision .
Thus far having slightly bad vision has caused me to have a headache on and off for the last few months. There are some people who go their whole lives with my current vision and don't ever get any glasses or contacts. How they manage is beyond me.
So everybody cross their fingers and wish me luck. I'll let everyone know on Wednesday or Thursday how everything went.
I'm hopeful that Dr. Assil, the doctor performing my Lasik Procedure, will be able to get me close to 20/20. Dr. Assil is supposed to be one of the more respected Lasik surgeons in the L.A. area so I'm fairly confident it will work out. I know two other people who have gotten their Lasik done by him. One was very happy and one not so much so. But the latter was supposed to go in for her touch up recently so maybe it ended up working out for her. It is a little strange because I think I'm more nervous this time around than last. I think its because it didn't work out the way I wanted last time and I don't think I could go 6 more months with my current vision .
Thus far having slightly bad vision has caused me to have a headache on and off for the last few months. There are some people who go their whole lives with my current vision and don't ever get any glasses or contacts. How they manage is beyond me.
So everybody cross their fingers and wish me luck. I'll let everyone know on Wednesday or Thursday how everything went.
My Lasik Experience
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
As a public service I am re-posting this which is from my original blog. Toward the end of my other blog this became one of the more popular searches to my site. I enjoy sharing my experience with others so that they can decide for themselves if Lasik is right for them. If you have any comments feel free to post a comment and I will be happy to share some more.
I was going to wait to discuss my Lasik procedure until things settled down somewhat but my roommate Sandy suggested that I blog about it on a daily basis so I have some record of my experience. So here goes.
I got my eyes done by Dr. Kerry Assil of the Assil Sinskey Eye Institute in Santa Monica. I traveled all the way to Santa Monica because I had heard that Dr. Assil was one of the best in Los Angeles and figured I had only one set of eyes so I might as well get it done by the best. He also came highly recommended by an ex-coworker of mine and he was a VSP doctor so I got a significant discount on my procedure.
Dr Assil used the latest WaveScan technology with a VisxS4 laser. This particular technology is especially suited for someone like me because I have very large pupils.
The entire process was VERY quick. The speed at which everything happened made it both easier and more uncomfortable. I got to the office and signed in. They immediately gave me some meds and told me to wait a few minutes. They called me back to get one last reading of my prescription. I thought that after they got my prescription it would be a few minutes because I was pretty sure there were some more people ahead of me. As it turned out Dr. Assil came in at the end of my measurement and I was escorted into the operating room.
Dr. Assil checked out my eyes again and made a few markings on my eye. Then I was placed in the chair and the whole thing began. From the moment I sat in the chair until I got up and could see again was about 15 minutes or so. The actual part of the procedure where they cut open the cornea and apply the laser to my eye probably only lasted about 4 minutes each eye. They cut open the eye (which only took about 20 seconds or so) and removed the flap. They did another quick scan of the eye and than applied the laser with the actual laser being used maybe 30 seconds or so. After they used the laser I could spell something funny which may or may not have been the fried smell of my own eyeball. Kind of disgusting when you think about it huh? As I got up from my seat and looked around things were somewhat cloudy. It was described to me that it would look like I had vaseline on my eyes and that is exactly what it looked like.
They did one last look at my eyes, put these stupid plastic cups over me (which I had to wear all day and the tape hurt like hell this morning removing it. Removing the tape was the most painful part of the whole thing) and I was sent home. I was told not to do any reading or computer work (which if you know me drove me nuts) but I could watch TV. I was annoyed at only being able to watch TV so I went to bed early, 9:30 or so (I was specifically told not to nap yesterday because it dries out your eyes but everyone else I know is told to sleep immediately after), and just got up early and came to work.
So what do I think now? Like I said the rapidness of the procedure made it both good and bad. Good because I didn't have any time to be nervous, it just happened so quickly. Bad because it all seemed kind of rushed and the last thing I wanted was something to be rushed during the operation.
I can't say that the procedure was life-altering. Right now it looks and feels like I have a very dirty and dry pair of contacts on. My vision isn't super clear and my eyes are somewhat irritated. From my understanding this is all very normal in the first few weeks and I will probably discuss it more with the doctor today during my post-op check up. I hope that my vision sharpens up significantly. I'm hoping that I get vision at least as good as it was when I had contacts otherwise I'm not so sure it was all worth it. I like not being tied down to my contacts or glasses, it was nice to be able to see my clock at night and not have to fumble around for my glasses this morning, but I wouldn't necessarily want that at the expense of the clarity of my vision.
I will write about it a few more times over the next few weeks to let you know if things get any better or any worse. I will reserve final judgment until a few weeks from now when my vision should be more or less stable.
UPDATE: For the full story you should see these followups
All Lasik Post
I was going to wait to discuss my Lasik procedure until things settled down somewhat but my roommate Sandy suggested that I blog about it on a daily basis so I have some record of my experience. So here goes.
I got my eyes done by Dr. Kerry Assil of the Assil Sinskey Eye Institute in Santa Monica. I traveled all the way to Santa Monica because I had heard that Dr. Assil was one of the best in Los Angeles and figured I had only one set of eyes so I might as well get it done by the best. He also came highly recommended by an ex-coworker of mine and he was a VSP doctor so I got a significant discount on my procedure.
Dr Assil used the latest WaveScan technology with a VisxS4 laser. This particular technology is especially suited for someone like me because I have very large pupils.
The entire process was VERY quick. The speed at which everything happened made it both easier and more uncomfortable. I got to the office and signed in. They immediately gave me some meds and told me to wait a few minutes. They called me back to get one last reading of my prescription. I thought that after they got my prescription it would be a few minutes because I was pretty sure there were some more people ahead of me. As it turned out Dr. Assil came in at the end of my measurement and I was escorted into the operating room.
Dr. Assil checked out my eyes again and made a few markings on my eye. Then I was placed in the chair and the whole thing began. From the moment I sat in the chair until I got up and could see again was about 15 minutes or so. The actual part of the procedure where they cut open the cornea and apply the laser to my eye probably only lasted about 4 minutes each eye. They cut open the eye (which only took about 20 seconds or so) and removed the flap. They did another quick scan of the eye and than applied the laser with the actual laser being used maybe 30 seconds or so. After they used the laser I could spell something funny which may or may not have been the fried smell of my own eyeball. Kind of disgusting when you think about it huh? As I got up from my seat and looked around things were somewhat cloudy. It was described to me that it would look like I had vaseline on my eyes and that is exactly what it looked like.
They did one last look at my eyes, put these stupid plastic cups over me (which I had to wear all day and the tape hurt like hell this morning removing it. Removing the tape was the most painful part of the whole thing) and I was sent home. I was told not to do any reading or computer work (which if you know me drove me nuts) but I could watch TV. I was annoyed at only being able to watch TV so I went to bed early, 9:30 or so (I was specifically told not to nap yesterday because it dries out your eyes but everyone else I know is told to sleep immediately after), and just got up early and came to work.
So what do I think now? Like I said the rapidness of the procedure made it both good and bad. Good because I didn't have any time to be nervous, it just happened so quickly. Bad because it all seemed kind of rushed and the last thing I wanted was something to be rushed during the operation.
I can't say that the procedure was life-altering. Right now it looks and feels like I have a very dirty and dry pair of contacts on. My vision isn't super clear and my eyes are somewhat irritated. From my understanding this is all very normal in the first few weeks and I will probably discuss it more with the doctor today during my post-op check up. I hope that my vision sharpens up significantly. I'm hoping that I get vision at least as good as it was when I had contacts otherwise I'm not so sure it was all worth it. I like not being tied down to my contacts or glasses, it was nice to be able to see my clock at night and not have to fumble around for my glasses this morning, but I wouldn't necessarily want that at the expense of the clarity of my vision.
I will write about it a few more times over the next few weeks to let you know if things get any better or any worse. I will reserve final judgment until a few weeks from now when my vision should be more or less stable.
UPDATE: For the full story you should see these followups
All Lasik Post
Bright Light Hell
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
In preparation for getting Lasik I had my comprehensive exam yesterday. It is an exam where they do all sorts of things to you to make sure that your eyes are healthy enough to undergo the procedure.
One of the things they do to you is check the health of your retina. They do this by dilating your eyes and shining a VERY bright light into them. Yesterday when they did this to me I decided it would be an excellent way to torture someone. I can't tell you how painful this was for me yesterday. Just thinking about it now brings tears to my eyes.
No I know what most people are thinking. I have had this done to me before and it wasn't that bad. Well I have too but I don't remember it being this painful. Maybe the light they used was extra bright. Maybe the doctor just took a lot longer than most to ensure the health of my eyes. Whatever it was it hurt like hell. And I only had to endure it for about a minute and a half in each eye. If you did that for a long period of time to someone I can't imagine them not passing out from the pain.
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