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[ellaminnow]

I'm a good candidate for this procedure and I'm considering it.  For those of you who have had Lasik, are you happy with the results?  How long has it been since you had the procedure?  Would you do it again? 

[quotiazelda]

I haven't, but Mr. Zelda had it over the winter and couldn't be happier. He was an excellent candidate, and his procedure/recovery were easy. He was religious about the drops and other aspects of post-procedure care. He just had a 6 month follow up, and his vision is 20/15. The dr. said it may still degrade very slightly over they next few months but his vision will still be essentially perfect.

On the other hand, you couldn't pay me enough to do it.

[mntwins]

I had the procedure done 3 years ago.  My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.  I love not having to mess with contacts or prescription glasses. 

[desert_rat]

10 years ago.  Was a great move, except:

1)  I MUST wear sunglasses in the bright sun, otherrwise I tear up to the point where I can not see.  I've had to pull off the road while driving becasue of this.  I am told this is not uncommon.

2)  Now I'm getting to the point where I must wear reading glasses.  NOTE:  This would have happened anyway, but I can buy readers at the dollar store instead of using bi- or trifocals like I would have had to done without the LASIK.

3.  Driving all day makes my eyes really tied.  I don't know if that is due to LASIK or old age...

YES!  I would do it again.

[nebo113]

DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[chaosbydesign]

Just to give you the other side of the argument...

This is not my story, but that of a friend who recently had LASIK. Or rather, attempted to have LASIK. Her words, not mine:

"They use a machine to cut a flap into the eye before you get laser. I was XXX's first patient of the day. Yesterday this machine "malfunctioned" in an unexpected and still unknown way whilst slicing my eye. This has resulted in the machine severing a slice completely off from my eye. The have sewed the piece back on to the eyeball. During this time they made no apology and left me scared and fully aware that there was a problem without explaining it to me. ( Example a dentist always talks you through a filling just using a drill, puff of air.)... Just sewing your eye back together... On the table I asked "what's going on this isn't normal? No one told me about stitches" and no one replied the room fell silent and the eye poking continued. I knew something was up cos lets face it you can see someone sew your eyeball back together. A nurse informed me that there had been a problem. XXX have now removed the machine and are no longer preforming LASIK. I was sent home in tears and XXX made no attempt to check up on me. Later in the evening I suffered an allergic reaction causing my eyelids to swell both in the "sliced n diced" eye and unsliced untouched eye. It was then that I attempted to phone two out of hours emergency contact numbers for XXX and they both went to voicemail. It was an hour before any one got back in contact with me. During an after hours appointment I had to prompt both the surgeon and the owner for an apology "are you guys not sorry this has happened to me?" They don't give a rats ass about the patients they care that they had to cancel all their LASIK appointments cos their machine malfunctioned and now they have to refund a lot of people a lot of money. I have now received a full refund. My eyes are still swollen and I have a stitch still in my eye. Oh best part of the story... they claim I can drive a car with only one contact in and one swollen stitched up eye so they don't give a rats ass if I go out and run over some people. Machines don't malfunction in unexplained and unknown ways a bad workman always blames his tools."

Her eye has fully recovered from the incident, however there was a possibility it could have been permanently damaged.

[biomancer]

My previous eye doctor was trying to talk me into it.  The big reason that I have thus far not had the surgery is that he said that I'd probably need glasses for reading or driving but not for everyday things.  That means I have to worry about where those glasses are.  Since I was 4, my glasses are the first thing to go on  me in the morning and the last thing to come off at night, and are otherwise on my face, so I know exactly where they are.  I had contacts for a while and lost about 100 pairs of sunglasses in 15 years with contacts, and I don't want to do this with reading/driving glasses.  It seems a lot more bother than it's worth.

I'm waiting for a little more perfection on the surgery too - if I'm going to have this done, I will have it done *once*, done *right*, and have *no* need for corrective lenses for *anything* and none of the side effects (I'm already light sensitive and dry-eyed; let's not make that worse).  Otherwise I'll just stick with the all-day glasses - no sense fixing what ain't broken.

[high_energy_photons]

This thread has a bit of a discussion of LASIK:
http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,54988.0.html

As I mentioned in that thread, I loved the results of my LASIK.  One thing, do your research diligently.  I ended up paying more because I chose the best LASIK doctor around, who had tons of experience with my type of eyes.  I talked to people who went through surgery with him (including ones who had it a few years back).  All of them talked about how helpful he was, and that he really listened to his patients.  The actual surgery was somewhat terrifying, though blissfully short.  It helped having a good doctor.  I would do it again, if I had to.

[adjunctprincipessa]

I was extremely happy with my LASIK procedure.  Like the OP, I was an excellent candidate (very stable vision, mild nearsightedness).  The surgery was scheduled at 10:00 am, and I was able to attend my class that night at 7:00 pm and observe my students' final presentations.  The doctor's office correctly assured me that I would be able to teach that night, since they have performed surgery on  Broadway actors who were able to perform on the same night.  I went home and rested for a few hours, got up and went to work.  I was absolutely fine, but if you have the option to take the whole day off, it would be preferable.  If you travel frequently, you should try to schedule the surgery far in advance (not doing this was why I had to have it on the same day as my class) since the doctor may want you nearby for followup visits, and may restrict you from certain activities (such as swimming) in the coming weeks.  Best of luck to you!

[ellaminnow]

Grrr...I got logged out and lost my post.

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts.  After reading these posts and many other sources of info.,  I'm leaning toward doing it.

[southerntransplant]

STpouse had Epi-LASIK done, which can be done for some people who are not good candidates for LASIK. She doesn't regret it at all, and is thrilled with the results. I'm jealous that she can just don a pair of sunglasses while I have to fumble around for my shade clips or spring for prescription sunglasses.

Recovery was a hassle, I'll admit. While her eyes were healing from the surgery, she was very sensitive to light, and couldn't see at all through the contact lenses they put on her while healing. She would use my ski goggles to walk around outside. Then there was lots and lots and lots of eyedrops. And the overall cost was high relative to any ads you might see in the paper. But a month later, all was well.

She does have to wear glasses to read, but they're just the magnifying readers one buys at the drugstore. We have several bowlfuls of these glasses around the house. Additionally, had she not had the procedure done, she would probably be wearing reading glasses by now anyway, or bifocals.