- I can wake up and glance at the time instead of having to lift something up and put it centimetres from my face to tell the time.
- I can do sports without the glasses falling off, getting mashed into my face, etc.
- I look a lot better, with a -13 prescription, my glasses were heavy and thick
- My nose and ears aren’t in pain from carrying the weight of my glasses all the time.
- I’m not having to constantly adjust my glasses whenever my nose sweats a bit.
- I’m not completely blind any time I have to take off the glasses, like when I take a shower or go in a pool, or especially swim in the ocean where there are big waves.
- I’m not utterly helpless because I’m blind if I lose my glasses. If you’re blind without your glasses, and your glasses aren’t where you expect, you can’t really use your eyesight to find them.
- I don’t have to deal with all the problems of using and potentially losing contacts.
- …
For me, before I got laser surgery, I was once swimming in the ocean at a very big and popular beach. I was wearing contacts because obviously wearing glasses in the water is next to impossible. I got hit by a big wave, tossed around, and lost my contacts. Now I was almost completely blind, in a foreign country where I knew almost nobody, and trying to find my beach towel and bag among thousands of others. I actually can’t remember how I resolved that problem, but I do remember the massive stress and panic being blind like that caused. When I got back from the trip, I got my eyes fixed within a year.
The worst one is when you wake up having drunk a little bit too much and you can’t find your glasses. You are now effectively blind and helpless and hungover.
If I was at home, I always knew where I had some backup glasses. But yeah, wake up at a friend’s house or something and you’re screwed.
Before my wife got the surgery, she used her phones camera to look around. She used to jokingly say that she is a cyborg.
Regarding the topic. For her the procedure was also a game changer.
maybe not in the case of swimming but when you have your phone around you can always turn on your camera and then look at what it’s showing you
If you can find it
Depends on what issue you have, I get intense headaches/nausea/dizziness from looking at digital screens without my glasses for more than 20 seconds or so. The longer I look at them the worse it gets and longer it lasts. So it’s not really viable.
yeah same, but if all you use it for is to scan the room to find your glasses then it works quite well!
Now all I wonder is how the hell you solved that issue.
So do I.
So, what I think happened was that I knew roughly where my stuff was. When I went to play in the waves I basically went straight out from my towel. Because of the rip currents I was being pushed sideways while in the waves, but I mostly kept trying to correct for that so that I didn’t wander too far from my stuff. I am pretty sure about that, because that’s what I always do at the beach. I always hate being pushed around by rip currents and am really worried about getting caught in the undertow so I try to stick to the same part of the beach.
When I got tossed by the huge wave(s) I did end up getting moved sideways. I remember that because I remember how out of control I was. But, I suspect it wasn’t too far. So, when I went to search for my stuff I wasn’t searching the entire beach, just a small section of it.
I think I remembered what colours my beach towel was, so I think I just wandered that section of beach, squinting so I could see a bit better, looking for a towel with roughly the right colours and with nobody on it. Then when I thought I had the right one I crouched down to see if I could recognize the bag I brought.
I don’t think I asked for help, which would have been the smart option. But, I was a shy kid in a foreign country so I am pretty sure I didn’t do that.
But really, I don’t remember. I just have a clear memory of how helpless I felt, and a vague memory of wandering up and down the beach. The rest is just reconstructing how I think it probably happened based on vague memories and what I know about myself.
but you didn’t have any massive stress or panic thinking about the worms that burrow into your eyes after wearing contacts in the ocean?
No, I was on vacation on Earth, not Proxima Centari 6.
The answer to almost all of those is contacts.
Glasses are a hotness superpower
*“Optional” glasses are a hotness super power.
Real glasses are more about how you see than how you look.
: Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys enters the chat :
Honestly that meteorologist that sadly took her own life several years back after having really bad complications from laser eye surgery was more than enough to convince me to not get it done.
Source on that?
As sad as that was, the article only mentions that the family suspects it was the operation as they “don’t know what else could have caused the suicide”, to paraphrase it.
Not saying that Lasik couldn’t cause any of these issues, just that this particular example is just a suspicion
Not the first and won’t be the last.
There’s a lot of folks in the comments who are pretty cavalier about the safety, yet the CEO who produces Lasik machines refuses to get the procedure and just wears glasses.
Obviously there’s a lot of folks happy with it.
However, many people end up needing glasses within ten years. “Relating to the legal requirements in Germany, sufficient visual acuity was found in 76.7 % of the LASIK group, in 73.9 % of the Ortho-K users and in 85.7 % of the reference group (72.7 % in the adult group, 100 % in the juvenile group).” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23508754/
“Nearly 5% of subjects were dissatisfied with their vision after Lasik… eyes feeling irritated (50%), glare (43%), halos (41%), and [trouble] seeing in dim light (35.2%).” Source: Mamalis N. Laser vision correction among physicians: “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”. J Cataract Refract Surg. 2014 Mar;40(3):343-4.
“Lasik Suicide” is a real thing, most of the folks who have been affected don’t take the time to say much about the excruciating pain, they just commit suicide.
https://www.lasikcomplications.com/suicide.htm
Definitely think very carefully, your eyes are something you can’t fix if you get this surgery. For some people enough nerves are damaged to cause persistent pain that doesn’t go away.
I almost got the surgery a few years ago, if it worked 100% of the time I would have taken the risk. But vision is so important that I didn’t want to take the risk. Several of my family members did get it and still have dry eyes and halos ten years later, and two now need glasses again anyway.
The sample size of that study was only ~300 people. A study with 20,000 participants in Singapore found that 90% of patients had 20/40 or higher vision after 10 years. It found that high-myopia (-14+)(the most extreme form of near sightedness) patients had a much higher rate of regression, with 39% of those patients losing 2 points or more from their vision within 10 years of tratment (and likely choosing to wear glasses [not listed in the study] or get retreatment [27%]).
So basically, if you have extreme vision problems before LASIK you’re much more likely to have to wear glasses again down the road.
Also, worth pointing out that almost everyone will need reading glasses as they age regardless of LASIK. This conversation only surrounds glasses for near sightedness.
Good points. So roughly 10% chance of needing to get glasses or surgery again, which gets higher the worse your vision is to start.
Yep you got it. So for people with only minimal vision issues it might not be worth it, but for those with severe vision problems it may be worth the risk even though their vision likely will degrade slowly back to their original prescription.
Yup friend of the family got it years ago and now sees coronas of light intensely enough while driving at night that they had to stop driving at night in their mid-40s.
To each their own, I guess. For me, it was some of the best money I’ve ever spent. My research ahead of it suggested that the most likely permanent side effect was halos, and I’m inclined to think that even if that had happened, it still would have been a net positive.
Had mine done almost 18 years ago and absolutely 0 regrets. One eye went from 20/200 to better than 20/20. The other wasn’t as bad and was corrected to be 20/15. Vision has not regressed at all in either eye. Dryness was mild at first but completely recovered after several months. I’ve had no halos or night vision problems. The most important thing to remember is that not all procedures are equal, and not all clinics are either. Go to a few different eye doctors and ask who is the best in town, and then go there. Don’t get quotes, don’t shop for coupons, and don’t go with the 2nd lowest bidder. If you can’t afford what the best surgeons in town are charging, then you don’t do it. I had to save for 4 years to pay for mine (I think it came out to around $5000 but I can’t remember for sure anymore). The next most important thing is to follow every instruction and post-op care recommendation they give you to the letter. I wore those sleep goggles, stayed out of the pool, and avoided touching my eyes for 2x longer than they recommended.
Granted, my research on this is all 18 years old but this was not a brand new procedure even back then. I was convinced that the vast majority of horror stories came from people who did not go to good clinics or did not follow post-op care instructions. If you remove them from the dataset the procedure looks a whole lot less risky than what the naysayers in this thread would have you believe.
What’s the success rate? Oh yeah, over 95%. Get outta here
meaning around 1 in 20 people who do it end up facing consequences? that sounds like quite a lot actually, at least when its about longterm health.
A little less so when the main consequence 1/20 people face is something like dry eyes.
Or halos, which are just a little annoying
You’ve clearly never dealt with dry eyes.
Xcom players: nah. Fuck that
5% is way too high of a chance of getting permanent chronic dry eyes.
Go look at horror stories on the dry eyes subreddit and take note of the people considering a permanent solution.
You missed the part where not all LASIK procedures are “bladeless”. As in: there is an eye knife and guess which way you gotta look for that to work.
Bonus:
I don’t have eye problems of any kind. Don’t even need reading glasses…
And even I cried upon reading this.
just wait you’ll get there
As if I didn’t have enough reasons to avoid that procedure.
Have had it done, bladed. Yes, you look straight at it, but you can’t see shit anyway because of the drops they put in your eyes first. I was much less concerning than I expected.
That was only for one eye though. The other was not a candidate for LASIK, so I had the alternative procedure known as PRK. This one is super fun because instead of cutting the cornea off then put it back on (LASIK), they just scrape off the outer layer of the cornea.
Yeah, the vision during the procedure was not an issue at all. The smell of burnt eye as the laser works away was a bit off putting though. I can attest that burnt eye smells a lot similar to burnt hair.
I just don’t mind my glasses that much that I want to put myself through this/take the risk/pay the cost. I’ve had them since I was a child, I’m used to them and as far as I know, that’s still what has the least side/adverse effects.
I can think of two specific instances in my life when wearing glasses saved me from serious eye damage, I’m sure there were more.
You can still wear glasses, and not need them.
I live in a sunny place, so I’m never outside without wearing my sunglasses. As you’ve pointed out they’ve saved my eyes from traumatic injury at least a dozen times over the years.
I wear safety glasses when I’m working around the house with anything that could be considered a power tool (kitchen mixer, drill, etc…) and those have saved me a few times as well.
But not needing glasses, now that could be a lifesaver. I have a close relative who is basically blind without his glasses. He’s told me that if he’s in an unfamiliar place and is woken up by the fire alarm, there’s a good chance he can’t find his way out without his glasses.
I’m not sure if I look better without glasses or I just look better in SD
Risk management isn’t solely based on how bad the outcome is but also on how likely that outcome is.
It’s a big factor considering the benefits.
My aunt got corrective eye surgery and was really happy with it, but her description of the experience made me want to never do it. For whatever procedure she had, they had to keep her awake to provide feedback while also scalpelling open the lens of her eye and she said she could smell her eyeball being lasered. She had absolutely no side effects and loves not needing to wear glasses, but her telling me what the procedure was like put it firmly in the hell no category for me.
How do they keep your eyes from looking away or blinking while they’re doing it if it’s whilst you’re awake?
I got LASIK about 10 years ago. Can confirm both the visual experience of watching them laser/scalpel my lens off, as well as the highly unique smell of buring eye. Along with the painful light sensitivity that persisted for like a year. Hell I got a USB at the end with a video of the procedure to relive.
Totally worth it though
The most important thing to remember, is they also put you on a medically supervised dose of what is essentially an anti-anxiety medication. So you actually like don’t care at all during the procedure. Like you are fully aware and fully alert, but you are super cool with what is going on. It’s all chill, a totally normal thing, could do it every day if need be.
That’s what it was like for me, but it only took like 2 minutes so… I’ve had worse. Going on ten years with dope vision.
I worked (assisted with minor tasks) in a surgical room where those surgeries were done on a 15 minute cycle per eye. It’s a fairly routine and clean thing for cataracts or frontal chamber lenses (like eye-internal glasses) when your own lens is still intact. Better thank Lasik for sure
To each they’re own. I got lasik’d because I hate having my very existence almost entirely reliant on this fragile glass and plastic thing on my face that I had to constantly clean. I also want to go hiking for more then a day, so I went ahead with it. I wish I had went for the femtosecond operation in another city though, less chance for dry-eye.
Why would glasses prevent you from hiking multiple days?
If they get lost or damaged I would be stressed for the whole time. Just a me thing.
Plus sweat on face slides glasses down the nose.
I’ve learnt the hard way to always bring a second pair of glasses for any trip, no matter how short.
That could work, if you have the extra money for a second pair. I used to have my old pair as backups but even still if anything happened to my new pair I would need a replacement that cost at least $400.
You can buy glasses online from china for super, super cheap. If you have a really rough prescription they might still be kinda expensive but I pay like $15 or something for mine.
their
nuh-uh
To each where own?
Yes, exactly!
Had all-laser LASIK done in 2007.
Was scary, and the excimer laser sounded like a giant electrical wasp, but overall, I’ve had zero problems. Best procedure I’ve ever had done.
My older sibling had it done back then, too. No issues. 2 other close friends did the same. Not a single issue.
Give it a rest people.
Go get checked to see if you’re a valid candidate, and have the procedure done by a professional ophthalmologist with an “all-laser” setup who has more than a decade or so of experience and also has the $200,000 equipment to do it right and a lifetime contract-backed guarantee, and you will be happy with the choice you made.
I did it because I was blind. Hella blind. -6 and -9. When covid hit I suddenly realized that if supply shortages ever hit hard and I lost my glasses, I was absolutely fucked.
I could not drive, I could not use two monitors, I would be functionally blind… I always joked I would be dead weight in the apocalypse but in the midst of a hurricane, a wildfire, I could be absolutely fucked. With months before a replacement pair could be acquired. And with all the shit that went wrong with covid… I just wanted to hedge my bets.
if supply shortages ever hit hard and I lost my glasses, I was absolutely fucked.
And the results? Did you died?
Went perfect. Although I had a friend who went same weekend. It did NOT. Couldn’t peel the first layer of the eye.
Otherwise I have full 20/20 vision. No side affects.
It was so WEIRD though. I felt like I was on an assembly line. The process was so fast.
no but he will… probably of old age the poor fella 😔
I happen to just like wearing glasses.
