Be sure to get the best doctor in your area to do it. Don't skim on the cost. It's your eyes. I did mine 6 years back in UCSF. I researched the lead doctor. He's a professor and the Medical Director for the UCSF Department of Ophthalmology. He was one of the early investigators of laser eye surgery in the beginning. He's the guy who teaches and trains other doctors to do eye surgeries. Lasik is one of them. He did all the operations himself and had done couple thousands Lasik cases. Not one failure. Mine turned out great.
Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?
31–40 of 88 posts
Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?
#32Ancillary question: are there any benefits to Lasik eye surgery other than not needing to wear glasses anymore? I wanted Lasik years ago but decided to wait a decade or so until it was a foolproof process. But now my glasses have become a part of my personal "brand" and I don't want to give them up unless eye surgery perhaps goes "better than glasses"?
You aren't going to get clearer than glasses for your main focal point--both glasses and the surgery are going to get the image properly focused onto your retina--there's no improving past that.
The main question is, how bad is your vision currently?
I would say that for me, lasik is unquestionably better than glasses. But I had horrible eyesight and even with the smallest frames my lenses were almost a 1/4 inch thick at the edges. At that much correction they really skewed things at the edges of the vision and my peripheral vision was practically non-existent because I just couldn't see anything when not looking through the lenses. I was pretty much a non-functioning human without my glasses on. I hated them and wished to get rid of them at all cost.
Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?
#33Not mine. But, a nice detailed writeup here: http://valerieaurora.org/lasik.html
(Valerie Aurora is a kernel programmer)
Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?
#34Ancillary question: are there any benefits to Lasik eye surgery other than not needing to wear glasses anymore? I wanted Lasik years ago but decided to wait a decade or so until it was a foolproof process. But now my glasses have become a part of my personal "brand" and I don't want to give them up unless eye surgery perhaps goes "better than glasses"?
I know even with just contacts the increased field of vision was a huge advantage when driving, playing tennis, and some other common activities for me over glasses, but this may have been partially because of my very strong prescription. I'd say this, coupled with the ability to instantly have vision whenever you wake up and so forth are the only real advantages..
Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?
#35How 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? (pro…
From my doctor, Lasik actually is better for your eyes than wearing contacts. The chance of getting your eyes hurt due to infection from dirty contacts is higher than Lasik operation goes wrong. Contacts also restrict oxygen to your eyes which can cause health problem.
Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?
#36Any recommendations for Doctors around Bay Area?
Research the Vision Correction Center in UCSF.
Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?
#37I had mine in 2005 and have spent long hours in front of computers since.
Since the surgery, I have always had a slight starburst/glare effect around lights at night
In early 2009 I started to notice very slight deterioration in one eye. Now, two years from noticing and 5+ years after the surgery, my right eye is noticeably worse when reading text at a distance, and especially driving at night. Depth perception and the starburst/glare effect is worse. It's even worse if I've been staring at a computer screen. (I have astigmatism in that eye, so that's probably a factor.)
Was it worth it? The jury is still out. I have a lifetime guarantee of "enhancements", so we'll see how those work if/when I get one. I just had an appointment -- they said it wasn't bad enough to justify, and I got a prescription for glasses :-/
Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?
#38I 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.…
I've read a few claims like that.
Perhaps I'm being overly pedantic, but assuming he started when the procedure became FDA approved in 1995, doesn't that imply that he does 4.5 operations a day, 365 days a year?
Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?
#39Ancillary question: are there any benefits to Lasik eye surgery other than not needing to wear glasses anymore? I wanted Lasik years ago but decided to wait a decade or so until it was a foolproof process. But now my glasses have become a part of my personal "brand" and I don't want to give them up unless eye surgery perhaps goes "better than glasses"?
You aren't going to get clearer than glasses for your main focal point--both glasses and the surgery are going to get the image properly focused onto your retina--there's no improving past that. The main question is, how bad is your vision currently? I would say that for me, lasik is unquestionably better than glasses. But I had horrible eyesight and even with the smallest frames my lenses were almost a 1/4 inch thic…
Thanks for the replies, guys! Seems I might not benefit much (yet) then. I wear my (quite thin and light) glasses from seconds after waking to getting into bed and have no issues with them so it sounds like my advantages are few, especially as I don't play sports or swim.
Re: Ask HN: experiences with Lasik eye surgery (programmers especially)?
#40Ancillary question: are there any benefits to Lasik eye surgery other than not needing to wear glasses anymore? I wanted Lasik years ago but decided to wait a decade or so until it was a foolproof process. But now my glasses have become a part of my personal "brand" and I don't want to give them up unless eye surgery perhaps goes "better than glasses"?
The ophthalmologist that I went to said that some people experience better than 20/20 vision after the surgery.
The information that I received from the doctor mentions a clinical trial in which "70% of patients could see better than 20/20" after the surgery. However, the pamphlet does not provide information on how to locate that clinical study.
I could not find any hard and fast statistic, but this article mentions in passing that some patients can see better than 20/20 after surgery: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/22772.php
I would say that if glasses have become part of your "brand" and you actually enjoy wearing them, then definitely do not get the procedure. Some of my main motivations for getting the procedure (keep in mind I have not undergone the procedure yet) are: wearing glasses is annoying, glasses get dirty/scratched/bent/etc, contacts are a pain to put in when I wake up, contacts dry out my eyes sometimes, playing sports with glasses is difficult (I snowboard quite a bit; glasses and goggles don't go too well together) so I have to wear contacts.