LASIK: Risks & Consequences They May Not Tell You

I come from a family with bad eyes. My great grandma wore glasses, my grandparents wore glasses, my mom, aunts, sisters, cousins…we’re all terribly near-sighted. Our prescriptions ranged from -5.00 to -10.00.

Eight years ago, my sister was the first to undergo PRK laser surgery for her eyes. Some months after that, my mom encouraged me to undergo LASIK, the newer type of eye surgery that lets you recover in 2 days. I had been wearing -9.75 contacts for a while, so I figured “Why not?”

Pre-surgery, they refracted my eyes to -10.25 and -9.75. Gadzooks! Thank goodness for Lasik, right? I wanted perfect vision so badly that I was willing to go under the knife, conscious, to achieve it. Unfortunately, after 8 years, I was back to wearing contacts and my grade is still climbing.

Before undergoing LASIK, here are things to consider:

1. LASIK requires a lot of self control & a high tolerance for pain. LASIK surgery essentially won’t hurt, but it will burn your eyes for two days or so. The procedure, including anesthetizing, takes 15 minutes, the laser beam pointed in your eye goes on for about 15 seconds or so. After the flap of the cornea is put back, you are not allowed to squeeze your eyes, otherwise it will displace the flap and ruin the shape of your cornea, disrupting the healing.

2. Side effect 1: Night glare/blur. This is a problem, especially when driving at night.
3. Side effect 2: Dry eyes. Eyes will always feel dry and itchy, and it gets worse over time.

4. Side effect 3: If you had worn/fancied colored contacts before, you will never get to wear them again.

5. Side effect 4: some of the grade may recede. The “ideal” candidates for LASIK, they say, are people with -2.00-8.00 grade. Any one with a grade less or more than that will definitely get some grade back.

6. Any Eye clinic that offers LASIK will tell you that they have a lifetime guarantee which means you can repeat it as many times as you need. BUT, of course, each time will be a risk to losing your eyes. I had the LASIK procedure done twice (six months after the first). It is still not a guarantee to perfect vision, however.

I won’t lie and say waking up with almost perfect vision post-surgery was an emotional experience for me. To wake up and see objects in perfect clarity, look out the window and see the detail of the leaves on the trees. It was breathtaking! I was legally blind before that, and could not see anything before I grabbed my glasses on the bedside. A person had to come up at least 6 feet in front of me so that I could recognize who it was.

Looking back, however, I was wondering whether the lasik was the right thing to do, and was it the right time to do it? I am miserable that I have now resorted back to wearing contacts (at -3.00 and -2.50) and that I can’t wear colored contacts because the shape of my eye will not support it. Also, I’ve been getting headaches and need to change my contacts grade every 3 mos (an $80 doctors visit, each time).

I feel cheated somehow, thinking that the $1,000 LASIK was such an investment, when it only worked for about 2-3 years before I was back to corrective lenses.

Word to the wise: Study the risks and explore your options. Make sure your grade has stabilized for more than 2-3 years before considering undergoing LASIK. The procedure is permanent, but unfortunately, not perfect.