Why I canceled my LASIK appointment.

Good thread ts. Glad you were able to research this thoroughly. It was a good read. Ive know a couple people. They all liked it, but had same issues. Constant stress eyes. I should follow up to see if they had to get it again like @Zer That would be frustrating.
 
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I have had several friends get it and they all are alot happier than me. They can fuckin see.
 
I have had several friends get it and they all are alot happier than me. They can fuckin see.

You do realize TS likes to overthink and overcomplicate things right?
 
Great post ts, thanks!
Elderly relative had it done years ago and she had the ghosting effect. She passed away shortly after but she was miserable after it happened
 
Good choice, bro. I read up on the issue years ago, and it looked bleak, but the doctors who profited from it made it sound great. The older I get, the more I learn that the American medical system is really sick and evil. I avoid it as much as possible. Nothing good comes from it.
 
When the world ends I’m just going to take your glasses away, and you’ll be my worker and at my mercy, you’ll be hopeless and worthless. You won’t be able to hunt with the men.

But seriously, my wife got hers done and she’s got those eye drops which she has to use every single day because of dry eyes. And I asked her if it was worth it, she said yes as relying on glasses or contacts sucked
 
I got PRK, which is a better but more painful recovery than LASIK. It was offered because I was in the Air Force and that’s what they did for pilots. There was some fear than under stress of flight the LASIK flap would open. For a couple of months afterwards I had a slight double vision in one eye. It was a very dim second vision slightly off from the main image. Thankfully it went away. 2 years later I turned 40. Like everybody else, my lenses in my eyes got a little stiffer and I ended up using bifocal glasses ever since. Now, after realizing almost everybody wears glasses later in life even if they start with perfect vision, I wish I would have never gotten it done. The thought of a complication with my sight for only a temporary fix just isn’t worth it
 
This may be a long read and may even be a little controversial, as I know a lot of people have strong, polarizing views on this topic. Nevertheless, I hope this thread doesn’t get canned, or if not canned, maybe just moved to the war room. Anyway, here goes …

I had been flirting with the idea of having laser eye surgery for a long time. I even made two threads about this issue here:

In 2013:
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/can-you-train-your-eyes-to-get-better.2407947/#post-80493475

In 2019:
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/lasik-anyone-had-this.4019869/#post-155340415

Anyway, I decided to do more research on it, I went to a couple of local ophthalmologists to have an eye check and a chat about their opinions on this surgery and then, I went to a clinic that does LASIK for a consultation.

All of these places did a very thorough examination of my eyes. I have mild myopia and a slight astigmatism. My cornea thickness was also in the healthy range and I had zero signs of glaucoma or cataracts or any of that nasty stuff. In short, my eyes were pretty healthy and I was a “good candidate” for LASIK.

However, I couldn’t help but have a niggling feeling that it just didn’t add up. A lot of the statistics of “95% satisfaction rate”, “a less than 1% rate of complications” just seemed off to me. I study statistics and I have a masters degree, I just know when shit seems off.

I searched for “cases gone wrong” on the internet and I discovered a huge rabbit hole here. Entire forums full of people complaining about haloes, starbursts, non-stop pain, dry eyes, having to use eye drops four times a day, blurry vision, double vision, ghosting. There are whole websites dedicated to it:

https://lasikcomplications.com/

Moreover, there are entire videos of people on YouTube describing their lives post-surgery and their regrets, depression, shame, suicidal thoughts, and it is absolutely heartbreaking…

Sure, some patients may have gained 20/20 vision, but issues like their “contrast sensitivity” and “crispness of vision” was weaker than before the surgery … thousands, tens of thousands of people suffering from these symptoms … this rabbit hole goes so deep …

Moreover, apparently, Dr Morris Waxler of the FDA approved of LASIK in the late 90s, but he is now working to try and get it banned:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/...isory-urges-agency-BAN-LASIK-eye-surgery.html

Many people have suffered from depression, as this procedure is irreversible. Some people have even committed suicide, shortly after documenting complications of their refractive surgery. According to Dr Waxler, the true statistical rate of complications is actually 30-50%.

A lot of what constitutes a “successful” surgery is the results, immediately after the procedure, however, a lot of the complications can take months or even years to manifest.

Even after reading all of this, I was still kind of considering it, as anecdotally, you always hear non-stop positivity about this procedure and people often saying cliched things like “It’s the best decision of my life”, “My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner!”, “I can see better than 20/20” etc.

The kicker for me, was truly finding out what these doctors actually do to the corneal tissue of your eye. These lasers literally destroy stromal tissue underneath the outer, epithelial layer or your cornea and they basically carve a lens shape into your cornea, removing significant amounts of stromal tissue (which doesn’t grow back!).

From my eye examinations, I found that my corneal thickness was about 540 microns and the healthy range of the average human is about 530-560 microns thick … Corneas below 500 microns are considered thin … well, after LASIK, the cornea thickness can be as thin as 300 microns. Moreover, in the LASiK industry, a lot of doctors say that surgeons should never go as low as 250 microns, as this is “considered dangerous” … however, after doing research, I found that this number “250 microns” is completely f**king ARBITRARY and has no scientific basis. Surely, I would imagine it would surely depend on individual patient factors and the standard “250 microns” would not apply to all people … and, to think some people get this done 2 or 3 times … I can’t imagine what state their eyes are in …

The reason why this increased corneal thinness is a bad idea is because when corneas become too thin, their structural integrity becomes compromised … almost like a bridge that is too thin in the middle … the shape of the cornea, over time can become weak and start to warp in shape, causing nasty diseases like keratakonus (sp?) and ecstasia … even, if initially, you may think the surgery was a success, it could take years of natural wear and tear for these problems to appear.

Moreover, human eyes naturally change shape with age and environmental factors, so what is considered your corrective prescription today, is not always going to stay like that. THUS, despite assuming all of this risk of complications (as described above), it’s not even a permanent solution to myopia. FSMH.

I don’t mean to scare anyone and I am not trying to offend anyone or give medical advice to anyone here. But, just giving the reasons why I, personally, didn’t go through with it and I encourage everyone to do their own research if they are undergoing elective surgery like this.

I also feel the marketing for LASIK is almost predatory, preying on people’s insecurities and low self-esteem for wearing glasses.

A lot of people have no idea of the long term risks involved and what these doctors actually do to the corneal tissue of your eyes. The Hippocratic oath states “First do no harm”. Personally, I feel like I dodged a bullet here.

Wait till you look into gastric sleeves and lap bands.
 
If you go with the flow and don't independently verify what you're told in the medical world, you can get burned very badly. A flagrant example of this are transgender surgeries. They sell vulnerable people this pie-in-the-sky idea that they can just take hormones, do a few snips snips and magically become the opposite sex, forever happy and content. But when you actually look at the videos of surgeries like the penile inversion, it's absolutely grisly and barbaric. Nobody can look at that and seriously continue believing the illusion.
 
It's not a complication of lasik.

After age 40, it's common for your vision to change so that you require reading glasses. “As we age, the lens inside the eye becomes less flexible, so we have a harder time viewing things clearly when they are up close.

I know, it’s called presbyopia.

Nevertheless, it still begs the question as to why you would want to carve a permanent lens into your cornea and assume all of the physiological risks of complications if your eyes are inevitably going to change shape as you age.
 

I just started following a YouTuber that talks about the “End myopia” method, which argues that if you use glasses that are slightly weaker than your prescription and go outside a lot (I know, difficult for Sherdoggers, lol) … then, you can incrementally improve your short-sightedness (gradually, as in one diopter a year).

it utilizes the concept of “active focus” and loosening the muscles that control your natural lens in your eyes (the cilliary muscles). Also, if you have myopia, you should take off glasses altogether when doing close up work like reading or using your phone, as wearing glasses while doing this can worsen your myopia.

I am going to casually experiment with this method and pick up some new frames and slightly weaker lenses. There seems to be a lot of YouTubers and forums of people that have tried this and a lot of these people post their results demonstrating their ability to reverse their myopia.

I currently am -2.00 in both eyes (which is considered mild), but I will probably buy a -1.75 lens soon. I will probably make a thread later on and update it with my findings.
 
Idk what eyedoctor yall have been going....
Ive Never been offered a vasectomy there.
 
Wife had two new lenses installed and a cataract repaired, all with laser..About 3 years ago, doesn’t need glasses anymore, but has dry eye and occasional floaters ….still a win thus far..
Taking care of floaters is just a matter of flushing again.
 
Got PRK on my left eye 15 years ago. Never had any problems. Also doesn’t leave any scar tissue like lasik does so I could fight again and soon
 
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