I've had a fairly mild nearsightedness (as in can't see far stuff well) since high school. I started in glasses, went to contacts, hated them for making my vision worse, and have been back in glasses for a few years. When I say I am "in" glasses that mostly just means I forget to take them to meetings with me and squint at the screens instead. It also means I am terrible at recognizing faces from a distance (sorry, I'm not being mean if I don't wave, I just don't know its you). Further, I haven't gotten a new prescription for glasses in, oh, around 11 years and they are actually too strong for me now and give me a headache if I wear them too long anyway. In summary, I don't like them.
So I'm trying to find out if ponying up some money to get some high-tech laser action on my eyeballs will free me from my albatross of corrective lenses. This also means I have to accept the risks of doing so, but Lasik sure has come a long way and given my mild correction needed the risks are typically fairly low. BUT, and here it is, I've now been to two places for consultations and have been found to have an irregular astigmatism. Which means instead of have a normal goofed up eye where the corneal "cone" is a little flattened in only one axis, mine droops to form something like a horseshoe with the luck pouring out (although not that extreme).
The first place I went to which I knew was most likely to be an eye chop shop (since it was the only one "in-network" and has laser special pricing) said I was just flat out not a good candidate. Probably because they don't want to deal with anything other than easy stuff to make their buck. Yesterday I went to Mann eyes, which is a very well known and respected outfit, and they said Lasik may be an option but need to make sure my droop isn't continuing to droop and need a follow up a month from now. Basically if the astigmatism was continuing to shift and not be just how my eyes are, bad things could happen since the Lasik weakens your cornea and it could make that worse. If Lasik can't be done, then something like PRK could still correct my vision which doesn't have as much impact on the cornea but is a little more complex up front and needs more healing time.
I have a third consultation with Baylor Eye in a few days and we'll see what they say. Not 100% that I'd go through with anything, but it is interesting so far.
12 years ago
1 comment:
I had PRK done. Instead of slicing a thin layer of your cornea to make a flap and burning under that, they just remove the corneal membrane and burn directly onto the surface. You wear contacts for a month or so while the membrane grows back. It hurts like hell the first two or three days afterwards and takes a couple of months for your vision to completely clear up, but it's worth it.
Post a Comment