Invention to Impact: The story of LASIK eye surgery • Hacker News Board

Re: Invention to Impact: The story of LASIK eye surgery

#61

Post by thejazzman » Sun, Jun 16, 2024, 3:36 AM UTC

BrannonKing wrote: post #32

I had LASIK twenty years ago and have regretted it every day. Before that I had a -2 prescription that was perfectly correctable. I still have a -2. However, in the late evening my vision gets much worse, as the iris expands. And it's uncorrectable. I'll never be able to see stars again. I struggle with large halos when driving at night, and I lost some edge detection abilities. The cause was that the laser used had…

It sounds to me like you have epithelial in growth under your flap. Or you've had multiple surgeries to remove it and now you have major scar tissue.

Or I'm just projecting because you remind me of me :( my initial LASIK went well, but when I had it corrected years later it turned into a 7 surgery living hell spanning years. It's stabilized as what you described, primarily in my left eye, while weirdly my right eye has more in growth

Re: Invention to Impact: The story of LASIK eye surgery

#62

Post by thejazzman » Sun, Jun 16, 2024, 3:38 AM UTC

diggan wrote: post #27

moffkalast wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From the report: "In [FDA] studies, ~15% of patients experienced night vision symptoms that were worse or significantly worse than preoperative night vision symptoms. Approximately 20% of patients experienced dryness symptoms that were worse or significantly worse than preoperative dryness." View complication table from report. Says it right there?

As someone who never had any issues with my eyes, is worse night vision and/or increased dryness something that is considered "life-altering complications"?

It can be so insanely very much worse than that

I couldn't go outside for months. I'd wear double sunglasses and a hat. I'd just cover myself completely. I couldn't open my eyes to see, it was blindly bright. I couldn't use an oven, the hot air instantly and painfully burned the moment I'd open the over door. Etc.

It's the second worse thing of my life

Re: Invention to Impact: The story of LASIK eye surgery

#63

Post by thejazzman » Sun, Jun 16, 2024, 3:45 AM UTC

malfist wrote: post #46

lordofgibbons wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no surgery without risks but this FUD website caused me a lot of anxiety and had me to delay getting lasik. I can without a doubt say it has been the best money I've ever spent. I spend a lot of time outdoors and hike and camp. Doing that with glasses or contacts absolutely sucks. Either your glasses get finger oil on them, or your contacts get some dirt and you have to take them out (but first you have to f…

Exactly the same boat here. That site and reddit caused me to put off having good vision for years and years. My right eye couldn't see the E on the eye chart. If I hadn't been able to wear glasses I'd have qualified as legally blind. Now I have perfect vision, and everyone I personal know that has had LASIK or PRK have the same story. Bad vision, to good vision, no complications. Everyone I know (including my optome…

Don't ever do a touch up. Like if your vision slips and they offer to get you back to 20/20.

My lasik in 2008 went perfect. My 2014 touch up turned into a living hell 2014-2018 and I still have issues. But at least I can look at a backlit display again, go outside, use the oven, ........

It's fun to feel good about something turning out well. It's called luck. Don't take it to mean the internet is FUD.

Terrible things really do happen and after 7 surgeries and 4 corneal surgeon specialists across 3 states I am calling absolute bullshit on the suggestion that this is rare. They told me it's not rare. The rarity is it not being fixed after 7 surgeries.

Just to drive this home. They glued my flap down. It felt like a dagger was in my eye. I was screaming. They told me this was normal -- only after the surgery. AND IT FAILED. I had to do it again. And then they sutured it down instead.

I have pics from an iPhone where you can see the stitches popping out of my eyeball

...ugh. Anyway. I'm glad it went well for you. BUT YOU ARE LUCKY. No one should do this unless they understand the risks. I absolutely did not. They repeatedly told me they could fix it and failed.

(I don't mean to be argumentative. It's like a PTSD fueled public service announcement..)

Re: Invention to Impact: The story of LASIK eye surgery

#64

Post by m463 » Sun, Jun 16, 2024, 5:15 AM UTC

thejazzman wrote: post #61

BrannonKing wrote: post #32

I had LASIK twenty years ago and have regretted it every day. Before that I had a -2 prescription that was perfectly correctable. I still have a -2. However, in the late evening my vision gets much worse, as the iris expands. And it's uncorrectable. I'll never be able to see stars again. I struggle with large halos when driving at night, and I lost some edge detection abilities. The cause was that the laser used had…

It sounds to me like you have epithelial in growth under your flap. Or you've had multiple surgeries to remove it and now you have major scar tissue. Or I'm just projecting because you remind me of me :( my initial LASIK went well, but when I had it corrected years later it turned into a 7 surgery living hell spanning years. It's stabilized as what you described, primarily in my left eye, while weirdly my right eye h…

I suspect it is dim light where the pupil size grows near or larger than the corrected area. You will get corrected light entering the center of the eye, and halos from the uncorrected light entering the uncorrected lens of the eye around the edges of the surgery. They're supposed to measure your eye, your pupil and tell you about this stuff before the surgery.

Now me - I had the surgery in one eye, it wasn't great and I never did the other eye.

Except for completely uncorrected vision, the non-surgery eye was significantly better in all aspects than the surgery eye. (both with correction)

Nobody asks the lifetime of the surgery, but I can tell you after a few years the surgery eye was back to where it started. It will need cataracts earlier. It has halos at night. It has continued to need correction, and now needs more correction than the other eye. So now the non-surgery eye is the best in all respects.

With correction (astigmatism contacts), the non-surgery eye has more immediate focusing, less glare, and better corrected vision than the surgery eye.

oh wait, I couldn't get correction of the surgery eye when it started needing it, since contacts were too thin.

In my specific case, I couldn't wear glasses because the low correction of the surgery eye could not work with the high correction in the non-surgery eye. (two different image sizes, brain couldn't put them together)

If I had known, I would have asked two questions:

- will I get the best corrected vision from the surgery or from no surgery + contact lenses.

(the doctors typically try to compare no correction pre surgery to no correction post surgery, which is ridiculous)

- what will happen to my eyes in 5 years, 10 years, etc

Re: Invention to Impact: The story of LASIK eye surgery

#65

Post by pizza234 » Sun, Jun 16, 2024, 10:28 PM UTC

diggan wrote: post #27

moffkalast wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From the report: "In [FDA] studies, ~15% of patients experienced night vision symptoms that were worse or significantly worse than preoperative night vision symptoms. Approximately 20% of patients experienced dryness symptoms that were worse or significantly worse than preoperative dryness." View complication table from report. Says it right there?

As someone who never had any issues with my eyes, is worse night vision and/or increased dryness something that is considered "life-altering complications"?

An extremely important (and grave) misunderstanding is that "eye driness" is just a feeling of burning or similar.

Tears are a crucial part of the vision. With less tears, the eye has worse vision. So one can end in a paradoxical situation where they have a better vision in theory (and tests!), but in practice, they may see considerably worse. And there's nothing one can do - eye drops only last a short amount of time.

I had considerable eye dryness that improved over several (5+) years, which is almost entirely recovered. A couple of years ago I've tried contacts and they wouldn't hold (it wasn't the case pre-op).

The (licensed) doctor was a liar (about the risks), and they actually didn't care about me post-op.