Lasik’s Risks Are Coming into Sharper Focus

I experience the shitty night vision (bad glare, halos, and huge starbursts). But still am very happy with this over contacts/glasses

It's quite miraculous.

My mother had it done. Side effects are mostly limited to eyes so dry she needed her ducts plugged to retain fluid and no/ limited night driving due to halos.

With all of that said, compared to the coke bottle glasses she had before, I don't think she would have done anything differently.

Me, I can still comfortably wear contacts (astigmatism is mild enough) so she suggested that I not get it.

YMMV

The inconvenience of glasses are relative. Before I had LASEK/PRK done, I had a very strong astigmatism and mild case of nearsightedness. Combined, I basically couldn't make out much of anything more than ~6 inches from my face.

I didn't mind wearing glasses at all, or even contacts (although they caused dry eyes). What I minded the most about glasses was my dependency on them, and the fact that I'd be dead in the water if anything happened to them. Having a contingency plan was a part of everything I did; having a second pair on me, avoiding activities that risked my glasses if I didn't, dealing with them at the beach/pool/water activities, etc. I went through a lot of glasses growing up, and also had several ruined vacations and social situations due to something happening and becoming a lame duck reliant on other people to get me squared away. Although not consciously, I very definitively became more risk averse over time to avoid those situations.

The most profound impact of getting eye surgery was the complete and utter removal of that dependency, and the cognitive overhead that came along with it. Not that it seemed like a big deal at the time, as I spent decades accounting for it. But now I just don't think about my eye sight anymore. It's a small and subtle thing, but profoundly impactful on my quality of life in a way that I didn't even realize prior to surgery.

And when I have to start wearing glasses again, it'll be contextual need due to gradual degradation of my eyesight rather than an absolute dependency on them for every aspect of my waking hours.

I'm not sure I'd have made the same decision if eye surgery would have only been an incremental improvement in vision for me, but wanted to provide some insight into why some people would choose eye surgery, even with a high potential of side effects.

I had Lasik done in India to both my eyes in 2009. The total cost came out to Rs. 25000 (~500 USD) for both eyes. I went from a 20/600 to 20/20 in 15 minutes. Best decision of my life. I made sure to get the surgery done from a highly reputed ophthalmic surgeon who had performed 1000s of surgeries with success. As in every surgery, there are side effects. For me, there was temporary mild dryness that lasted a few months, and eye drops were recommended. Besides that, there are no halos, no blurred vision, or any other visual aberrations that others report.

One thing I'm really concerned about is the flap itself. I always have the flap and eyes at the back of my mind when I play any sport. Since the flap never heals, a blow to the eyes can possibly detach the flap. I've also read instances where people who have had surgeries and swam in pools/sea water have had their flap edges infected resulting in complications. But, I am not really a swimmer, so no worries there. I went into it with as complete a knowledge as possible, and it has been worth it.

I had PRK done at Stanford about 10 years ago, right around. I wasn't a candidate for Lasik for a reason that I can't quite remember (thin corneas? large pupils?)

For me, it was a complete success. Healing took about a week (PRK takes longer than Lasik). It was painful during the healing, but afterwards there have been no issues at all. No night halos, no dry eyes. Everything has been great.

I "couldn't" wear contacts, which affected my decision to get the procedure done. I had astigmatism in my left eye that was "half and half" right across my cornea. Spherical astigmatism on one side, cylindrical on the other. Given this description, I'm still kind of surprised that glasses worked well for me, but they did. Because of this strange shape, even though contacts worked to correct my vision, I just couldn't stand to have one in my left eye. It always felt like I had something stuck in my eye.