Pulled out of Surgery

irishwanderers

I recently pulled out of my LASEK surgery. After an exam the doctor told me I had some irregularities in my eyes - perhaps from wearing contact lenses but I had them out two weeks beforehand. 

He recommended LASEK as he said it was the safer for me than LASIK. I was a bit surprised as I was referred LASIK a few years ago. The decision to not go ahead with LASEK was very tough as I it was a golden opportunity to get this procedure done before I started a new job and I would have had approximately three weeks to recover post surgery. 

My understanding is that results from LASEK can take up to three months and sometimes even up to six months reach. I was concerned that this long recovery time would have an impact on my job performance. He wanted to do both of my eyes at the same time. 

My concerns are were not only would my vision not be good enough to perform my job to but also the potential stress that may arise if my vision is fluctuating during the recovery process and LASEK seems to be a bit of a rollar coaster. 

I need to re-evaluate things now. I am leaning towards getting a second opinion and getting LASEK but only one eye at a time. Any advice would be appreciated.

mcgiggles

I had lasek (prk) done last Christmas, it took the 3 months to get fully to 20:20 vision but I was legal to drive after the 5 days of thr bandage lens and vision was good enough to comfortably drive/get on with work after 2 weeks off.. at 1 month checkup i was just off 20:20 and 3 month checkup I was at the 20:20.... I think my experience is pretty standard - having worn contacts your eyes will adjust better after surgery than someone who's never worn them as they are used to having to lubricate themselves! I don't know where im going with this other than to tell you how my experience was.. but if you have any questions pm me :-)

mcgiggles

I just saw your other post in the prk thread - regarding the recovery​ process, day 1 post surgery was fine I was up and about with my (super sexy) wraparound bono shades on, downloaded some audiobooks and got colouring books (im 32!) just to keep busy! day 2 sucked in that they weren't sore but they stung like I had 2 onions taped to them! Numbing drops (kept in fridge) every 2 hours for that whole day worked a treat. I had more issues with a sinus headache that day from my eyes running than I had from my eyes themselves! Pretty much just slept on and off all day - slightly propped up as it was less pressure on my eyes.. if you were gona be on your own id advise to prep food the day before this one so you dont have to fuss too much about being out of bed. day 3 was sound, up and about again, bit light sensitive (wore bono shades for the 5 days solid just for comfort).. and days 4 and 5 they just felt dry like I was wearing lenses too long :-) got lenses out day 5 and still slightly blurry. Took another week or so till I felt comfortable driving.. shades all the time, to stop dust and for light sensitivity! Driving at night was hard for a few weeks but it passes too..

irishwanderers

Interesting to hear. Any side effects at all now? What was your initial prescription? I'd be interested to know where you got it done too as it sounds like it went very well. Maybe PM me? 

Did you get lasek or PRK? PRK they discard the epithelium and lasek they put it back in place once its pushed aside for the laser. You had both eyes done right? 

My girlfriend had all the food prepped and I was fully stacked up on the audio books! I just bottled it!!

Mousewar

I had LASEK. One eye done and then the other nearly two years later.
Recovery is a piece of piss. I think it's really moved on especially with the bandage contact lens they use now. I had absolutely no pain or discomfort with my first eye. One day of discomfort with the second.
Vision is perfectly serviceable straight out of the chair to be honest. I mean, it's not perfect at all but you can function just fine I found. Then it got sharper as the days go on, takes a few dips here and there but again, it always remained serviceable.

My first eye dropped back to -.5 after 6 months which was disappointing. Other eye stayed perfect so far.

I do have dry eyes but I had them before surgery as well. Not sure how connected my current dry eyes are with the procedure tbh.

LASEK is a fundamentally less invasive procedure than LASIK. Every doctor I have spoken to says it is a superior treatment save for the fact that the recovery is longer.

irishwanderers

Mousewar wrote: »

I had LASEK. One eye done and then the other nearly two years later.
Recovery is a piece of piss. I think it's really moved on especially with the bandage contact lens they use now. I had absolutely no pain or discomfort with my first eye. One day of discomfort with the second.
Vision is perfectly serviceable straight out of the chair to be honest. I mean, it's not perfect at all but you can function just fine I found. Then it got sharper as the days go on, takes a few dips here and there but again, it always remained serviceable.

My first eye dropped back to -.5 after 6 months which was disappointing. Other eye stayed perfect so far.

I do have dry eyes but I had them before surgery as well. Not sure how connected my current dry eyes are with the procedure tbh.

LASEK is a fundamentally less invasive procedure than LASIK. Every doctor I have spoken to says it is a superior treatment save for the fact that the recovery is longer.

Thanks Mousewar. Actually, I actually went and got a second opinion/consultation from a very highly regarded surgeon in the field (private instead of public but this practice seemed much more efficient). He would be similar to head surgeon in the wellington eye clinic I believe. The surgeon is very experienced and it is not on the cheap side either coming to around 4500 euro for both eyes. 
He recommended that I get LASIK instead of LASEK. I mentioned to him that in the last month I was told that LASEK is the safer option due to some 'irregularities' that the doctors seen in my eyes. The doctor said he has no hesitation performing LASIK on me and I am within all the ranges. He said he noticed some irregularities but they're of no concern. He said the other clinic just prefer LASEK and prefer to take absolutely no risk at all. 
I asked for one eye at a time and he will do my bad eye first. I'll be interested to see how good the vision is as my right isnt bad at all. 
It's been a mad few days but in the end I am glad that I skipped on the LASEK now and got a second opinion. I just think the long recovery time would have been too much an ordeal for me. Each to their own of course. I just don't have as much time off as I would to get LASEK and I would like the maximise the chance that I am back in action ASAP. I am aware it is a little bit more riskier. 
Surgery on the first eye is on Monday! :)

Mousewar

Yeah, IK has moved on a lot so the risk difference between the two methods is almost negligible now.
EK is less invasive as it's done more or less on the surface of the eye (just below the epithelium). The surface of the eye then has to heal.
With IK they cut the flap and then perform the surgery underneath that (further down than EK). Healing is much quicker because there's not really much healing to be done as the flap never really heals. You have that flap forever.
But the use lasers now to cut the flap and it's super thin these days.
Anyway good luck with the surgery.

irishwanderers

Mousewar wrote: »

Yeah, IK has moved on a lot so the risk difference between the two methods is almost negligible now.
EK is less invasive as it's done more or less on the surface of the eye (just below the epithelium). The surface of the eye then has to heal.
With IK they cut the flap and then perform the surgery underneath that (further down than EK). Healing is much quicker because there's not really much healing to be done as the flap never really heals. You have that flap forever.
But the use lasers now to cut the flap and it's super thin these days.
Anyway good luck with the surgery.

Thank you for the advice! I'm thinking about getting off the internet and quitting when I'm ahead before I start youtubing LASIK videos!

irishwanderers

Mousewar wrote: »

Yeah, IK has moved on a lot so the risk difference between the two methods is almost negligible now.
EK is less invasive as it's done more or less on the surface of the eye (just below the epithelium). The surface of the eye then has to heal.
With IK they cut the flap and then perform the surgery underneath that (further down than EK). Healing is much quicker because there's not really much healing to be done as the flap never really heals. You have that flap forever.
But the use lasers now to cut the flap and it's super thin these days.
Anyway good luck with the surgery.

Just a question Mousewar in case you knew: For some reason my doctor never dilalated my pupils. This was done on previous check ups. There were plenty of familiar machines to look through etc. and he done the inspection where he shone intense light down the back of my retina but I just thought it was strange that he didn't give me drops to dilate my pupis. Maybe he had another machine to do it or something?

Mousewar

They usually do that alright, presumably to see how you eye acts under lighting conditions they can't produce in the clinic. Just ask him I suppose.