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Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?

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Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?

#11

Post by andrewhubbs »

A coworker of mine had Lasik in India in February 2010. His surgery resulted in very serious light sensitivity problems when he returned to America. He was not able to work for several weeks longer than what the doctor indicated. Also once he did begin working again he wore sunglasses and dimmed his screen way down for at least a month after that. He also experienced intense headaches throughout this time period.

I do not know how he is doing now because we have not been in contact since June. I would still get Lasik but caution you to receive it from a surgeon that you do not have to travel thousands of miles to see if complications do arise.

Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?

#12

Post by Natsu »

My brother had it an recommended it to me, but he also had better vision than I do.

I still haven't had it, though. I have something like -9 in both eyes and have worn glasses since elementary school and last I talked to an optometrist about it, they said that I'd still need glasses afterward.

Granted, they also said that I had nice thick corneas and that I was, otherwise, a good candidate for it, I just have a hard time seeing the value in it if I'll still need glasses anyhow. I don't really have any problems compensating during whatever small amounts of time I spend in the morning without my glasses.

Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?

#13

Post by tmsh »

Had LASIK about five years ago. Mixed feelings. Still somewhat glad I did it, though I wear glasses with .5 prescription in both eyes to make sure vision is perfect and to filter polarize the light, etc.

If you're a programmer or staring at a screen, I learned recently that you blink something like 1/5 as much as normal. This in turn causes eye dryness and potential irritation.

So for a while I thought that LASIK had something to do with it, in my estimation, it contributes some to it -- but being a programmer is always going to require being careful with your eyes (giving them rest, doing activities where you naturally blink more, etc.).

If they tell you that your pupils are near the limit (if they're too big, then LASIK -- because it only shaves the top portion of your lens -- won't cover things completely when your pupils dilate -- e.g., at night).

So I've been happy for the running that I can do now. But it's not perfect and I wear glasses when I work.

Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?

#14

Post by CaptainMorgan »

I had Lasik approximately three years ago in the month of November, using wave/topography (expensive) technology. After waiting whatever the usual time period for enhancements after healing, I went back in for a second surgery around January/February, to my right eye because the Dr (or the machine) didn't get the numbers right. I was 20/15 in my left eye, and about 20/25 in my right eye after the surgery and this was a difference I could literally see, sorry for the pun, so it did cause me on a certain level, problems.

Had that corrected and haven't had to go back since, with both eyes at an astounding (to me) 20/15. I was a -6.0 in my left and -6.5 in my right before the surgery.

I do see halos at night from other vehicle lights, but I was prepared to accept this because my glasses prescription already gave me halos. I do not find them after the surgery to be a huge pain.

To this day, I occasionally use eye drops - but that's not even a complaint. I'll take using eye drops any day of the week versus the coke bottle glasses I had to use 24/7.

I program and stare at computer screens just as much as the next programmer, but it hasn't damaged my vision. If anything, it's as someone else said with the issues of staring at screens with minimal air flow through the office: dry.

Like others, this operation made me question why I didn't get it sooner. It truly is life changing, as it was for me. I don't consider what happened to me as a "complication" but as something less. I could've walked out of there blind forever, but I didn't. So, indeed, you have to understand the risks before going in.

Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?

#15

Post by portman »

I had LASIK in the summer of 2002. (Wow, hard to believe it's been more than 8 years!)

No problems to report. I do experience the so-called "halos" while driving at night, but it's not a problem and hasn't impacted my night driving.

Furthermore, a few of us got LASIK that same summer:

    - My mother, who was 51 at the time
    - My wife
    - My best friend
All three of us have had no problems.

We all used the same doctor, Dr. Rajesh Rajpal in Washington DC. He led the LASIK clinical trials resulting in FDA approval in 1995. I believe (but can't confirm online) that he's done over 25,000 operations in his lifetime.

Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?

#16

Post by puredemo »

Got the wavefront (expensive but less after-effects) PRK (no flap) version because I play in a recreational softball league and didn't want to risk getting sand or dust under the lens.

It was painful for a couple days, then my eyes were watery for a couple days, then everything was good. A month later I had 20/20 vision.

Well worth it, I would recommend the PRK version specifically though. IMO, avoiding the (still rare) issues that can come along with getting the flap is worthwhile. PRK is also slightly cheaper.

Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?

#17

Post by jules »

How safe is Lasik compared to contacts? I tried soft contacts half a year ago for 3 weeks, and my eyes got very irritated and red. They are still redder and more easily irritated today (for example I used to have no problems with cutting onions or cycling in wind or swimming, but now I do, for example if I swim without goggles I will have red eyes for two days). Could this lead to extra complications with Lasik? (probably)

Did anyone else have this problem and solve it with a different type of contacts?

Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?

#18

Post by pingswept »

I worked on the redesign of a Lasik machine in 2005. As part of this work, I spent a few weeks just watching lasik operations in various locations around the US. I saw several events that made me very wary of the procedure-- specifically, a technician accidentally setting a microkeratome to the wrong size and thereby detaching the corneal flap. I also talked with several patients who were back for 3rd and 4th sessions to fix problems that had occurred previously. It appeared to me that while generally the machines work well, there were occasionally drastically bad outcomes, often due to human error.

Overall, my impression was that the surgery is more risky than one is led to believe. I can't give you any good statistics on how risky it is, but I would not consider doing it myself until I saw credible statistics that suggested that the error rate was very low. From what I've read, approximately 1 in 20 lasik patients are not satisfied with the outcome of their surgeries, and this is from one of the big lasik doctors[1], who I presume would have a strong interest in describing the risks as minimal. But as far as I know, there haven't been any large-scale studies of lasik outcomes.

You might also ask the doctor what machine will be used to do the surgery. When I was watching surgeries, the doctors generally thought that the Visx machines were the best, but they were excited about the arrival of "wavefront" machines that can correct for variations in the geometry of your eyes. I bet that's mainstream by now.

[1]: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/103194.php

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