Exposing the LASIK Scam

Been sort of busy lately. I have an appointment with the optometrist and have questions in hand to ask him. I also talked to my colleague yesterday, and she stated that she was unhappy with her results. She stated that she now needs glasses to drive at night because of lights. I wish she had told me that when she first discussed her surgery with me. I have had problems the last couple of days seeing well. It seems that my sight is very poor when it is cloudy or raining. Today, was bad, but seems to get better after I have been working at the computer awhile. When I look up at the board, I can see the writing a lot better. I did notice that once before. Is there some relationship with distance vision and the close work that I am doing with the computer?

Thanks for listening, it is nice to just vent sometimes.

Hi Patstin,
I'm a teacher too, so I can totally relate to you when you talk about switching from reading, to working on a computer, to trying to read a board, back and forth and having to adjust and focus your vision. I don't stop thinking about my vision ALL DAY LONG. I'm constantly testing it, thinking, "How well can I see the board now, compared to how well I saw it yesterday?" "Can I read that poster down the hall yet? How well can I see it from my door today?" Even when I'm driving I'm covering one eye to compare the vision between my left and right eye. After being out of school for 10 days for spring break, I swore to myself that things looked slightly better than they had before break, and I think there actually was a slight improvement. However, Improving from disgusting, awful, depressing vision to SLIGHTLY less disgusting, awful, depressing vision really doesn't make me feel much better. I'm really coming to terms with the fact that my vision is crap, and that's just the way it's going to be. A couple of weeks ago I was in the front row of a school concert, and in the dim lighting I could not focus and see the children clearly...in the FRONT row! It?s depressing to think about all of the things I have yet to do that will not be fully enjoyed. My Dr. stole these things from me. I'm only 26, have no kids yet, but I now know that when I do, I will not be able to see my kids when they perform in a concert, dance recital, sporting event, etc. When I buy my first house, will I truly be able to see what it looks like? Not the dim/dark parts of it anyways! I certainly wont know what my house looks like at night, or when it?s decorated with Christmas lights. Christmas and Halloween, my two favorite holidays, will never look or be the same. I love Christmas lights and I dread seeing what they are going to look like for me this winter. How crappy will my vision look when I walk my children around in the dark for trick-or-treating? I'm engaged...will I even be able to see in the dim lighting of my own wedding reception? I?ve wanted to see the play Wicked ever since it came out, and my fianc? was going to take me to ?see? it for my birthday this summer, I told him not to waste his money on the tickets because I wont be able to actually ?see? it. It all makes me very edgy and moody. I?ve got such a short fuse now, I snap at the smallest thing because I?m miserable inside. I?ve actually told him that I will probably be upset and depressed about this for the rest of my life, and he needs to decide if he can handle that. So many people have probably had pieces of their life taken from them because they simply didn't feel like bothering with glasses and contatcs, and this was supposed to be a safe procedure. DEPRESSING.

Anyways, sorry for going off on my own pity party here. But, you?re right, it?s good to vent. I really hope your vision continues to improve. It sounds like you had your surgery pretty recently, so hopefully you can still adjust and get a bit better.

I'm glad to meet you. I also regret Christmas coming. I love the lights also, but I know that looking at them will be really bad this year. I used to just turn off all lights except them and sit in the living room and just relax. This won't be happening this year without glasses.

I hope things get better for you with your wedding and children. I am so sorry that this had to happen to you so early. You still have to get to the presbyopia stage and deal with it. Well, maybe it will help when you reach that stage. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you, and God bless you.

Have both of you checked into RGPs yet? IF you go to a good fitter of post-LASIK eyes they can really help. The new skirted lenses offer the better vision through a rigid center with the added comfort of a soft skirt. Broken Eyes wears these.

You should not assume that you will not find a correction solution that works for you! Especially not if your surgery was fairly recent. The first step is to get a really good pair of glasses and find out what is correctable with glasses. Then you can venture into contacts.

How about a tree without a string of lights? With maybe some gentle uplighting from colored lights placed at the base and shining through the tree?

I don't use strings of lights any more. Trees still smell good and they do look pretty without electric lights. Really.

Reshape your world to fit you better. You can do it.

What's hard for me is the shorter days of winter and going to work and coming home after dark. I need lots of light to see. I bought 'Happy Lights' for my home and work desks and they help.

Patstin,

This is EXACTLY the thing that bugs me about so-called 20/happy patients. They say it's great, but when you really start to question them, the truth starts coming out. They have issues they didn't tell you about. I believe all LASIK patients have issues. If they say they don't, they have convinced themselves everything is ok. It's called cognitive dissonance.



Regrets, we call that "the LASIK salute".

I have been very busy and have tried to deal the best I can with the knowledge that I chose to have surgery to harm myself.

I have since started wearing a contact in the lasik eye. I can see better, but still not as good as I did before the surgery. The contact is a soft lens
and feels okay. I do have a bit of glare and have the need to rub the eye sometime. I have an ittitable feeling in the corner of the eye with or without the contact in. I try not to wear the contact on the weekend to rest the eye. I don't know if this helps or not. I guess it can't hurt.

The overcorrection seens to be regressing a little bit as the last visit was messearued at -1.75 + 0.22 X 178 down from -2.25 + 1.50 X 178, according to my records they gave me.

I want to know, is -2.25 a reasonable correction for monovision, or was this doctor just experimenting with on my eye?

Regrets, are you still around and how are you doing? Lights are normal for me with the contact in the lasik eye. I have a contact for the left eye to correct some distance, but I do not wear it. If I wore it, I would need to were reading glasses to see anything as close as 2 feet. I still have the small floaters, but I can tolerate them.

Hi Patstin,
Bet you never knew that a surgery that was supposed to simplify your life could make things so complicated.

I also am not correctable to my pre-LASIK visual quality by any means.

It is hard to say what your surgeon was aiming for with your monovision.
The correction you have does sound reasonable. One doctor told me they aim for complete near vision in one eye and complete correction for distance in the other so that the vision in the eye you are not using is blurry enough to ignore.

Monovision may work for some people, but it was terrible for me. Any surgeon who performs monovision excimer laser eye surgery on a patient without performing a contact lens trial first to see if the patient can adapt to monovision is a MONSTER. Just so you know.

It's really bad when ex-Lasik patients tell you how great their Lasik experience went and that you should consider it also.

The following is my own experience with such a patient: A co-worker/Lasik patient recommended Lasik to me and mentioned that our health plan covers most of the cost of the procedure. I remember now how he was putting eye-drops in his eyes at lunch-time everyday. About one and one-half years later I ran into someone who was working closely with this individual and he commented how this Lasik patient was complaining bitterly about his night vision disturbances and how the doctor did not take into account his pupil size.

There simply is no forgiveness in my book for people (even though they have been victimized by Lasik) who recommend the procedure to others. I myself made a terrible mistake by having this procedure done on me and will not forgive or excuse the clinic/doctor/flunkies for their role in destroying my health. The FDA cannot be excused either for abdicating their responsibility for permitting such destructive surgical practices that are more like a horror film, especially in the aftermath of complications/side-effects that can be reliably counted on to occur. Dry eye is not a possible side effect of Lasik; EVERY EYE AFTER LASIK WILL PRODUCE LESS AND A LESSER QUALITY TEAR FILM. Patients are not being informed of this Lasik result. Instead, fuzzy language is employed in the informed consents to fool prospective patients that it is a remote possibility - UTTER NONSENSE.

When it comes up in a conversation (Lasik and similar surgeries) I exercise no restraint in logically explaining how injurious this procedure is to a person's physical, emotional, and spiritual health. I will never compromise on this issue; I could not sleep with myself otherwise. The truth is the truth and the Lasik truth is a particularly ugly truth. Making daily deliberate decisions to harm people's health because it makes one important (or feel important) and is easy money is simply unconsionable. There is no reason or excuse for these practices.

I am not naive enough to believe I will dissuade participants in the Lasik industry from further engaging in life-destroying practices, but feel it is my human dignity that demands I warn others so they won't make such a fateful and horrible decision.

I couldn't have said it better myself. These so-called "20/happies" who conceal these "side-effects" and complications are the reason the LASIK industry continues to get away with this. LASIK doctors quote percentages such as "98% of patients are satisfied" and "only 1 - 2% of patients experience a complication", but every patient I know, if you really dig, will admit to having some problems.

You can't rely on "Patient Satisfaction Surveys", post-op questionnaires, or word-of-mouth referrals. I have never met a single LASIK patient who claimed to be happy with the surgery who wasn't dealing with these issues to some degree. There is no such things as successful LASIK unless you only consider the Snellen chart in bright light and ignore all the adverse effects. What I will NEVER understand is WHY they recommend it to a friend, co-worker, or family member without disclosing these issues.