Experiences with Laser Eye Surgery?

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Experiences with Laser Eye Surgery?

Posted by Cliff on Friday July 23, 2004 @11:59AM from the is-it-worth-the-risk-to-your-retinas dept.

GodLessOne asks: "I am about to get my hands on a reasonable lump of cash and I am working on my list of ways to make it an ex-lump of cash. All of the normal geek things appear on the list, but one item that I keep considering is corrective laser eye surgery. Would anyone care to share their real world experiences? I worry that the people selling it are the only ones saying how wonderful it is, and what percentage of people show a marked improvement afterward. Are there any stories out there relating how bad it can be if it goes wrong?"

35 of 1,104 comments (clear)

And the short answer is... by SIGALRM · 2004-07-23 12:00 · Score: 4, Funny

Would anyone care to share their real world experiences?
<squint>
I would, but I'm a hunt-and-peck typist, and my keyboard is pretty much just a blur.
</squint>

--
Sigs cause cancer.
1. Re:And the short answer is... by Mantorp · 2004-07-23 14:11 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  My touch typing has improved tremendously, and I always wanted to learn braille.
2. Re:And the short answer is... by aqua · 2004-07-23 18:24 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  This is going to sound like the total slashdot linux-zealot posting; sorry, but it happened.
  
  In early 2000 the chief software engineer at LASIK came to give a talk before a Software Engineering course I was taking at Sonoma State (worthless CS program, but nevermind). He talked for most of an hour about various parts of the development process, hardware interlocks, millisecond-cutoff crash-detector watchdogs and so forth. Moderately interesting. At the end of a Q&A period, one student asked him what platform LASIK ran on -- since it had been explained that the machines had to be deployed to eye doctors' offices and be easy to use correctly and difficult to use wrongly, etc., etc. The answer, and I swear I'm not making this up, was "Windows 3.1." There was a pause while everyone in the room absorbed this, then he added "But we're considering porting it to Win95."
  
  Hooray for hardware interlocks. :P
If I had money to spend... by mikael · 2004-07-23 12:01 · Score: 4, Funny

... personally I'd just wear glasses, and spend the money on a new computer. For me, glasses help boost your intellectual look (Don't something like 70% of engineers wear glasses?).

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Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
1. Re:If I had money to spend... by CGP314 · 2004-07-23 21:01 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  The 'intellectual look' is only a bonus for people with thin lenses. I have horrible vision and when I used to wear glasses the lenses were thick enough that my eyes looked beady and strange.
  
  When my glasses get to coke-bottle thickness, I plan to wear contacts and glasses to keep the intellectual look. : )
2. Re:If I had money to spend... by nahdude812 · 2004-07-24 01:12 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  It all falls back to "God helps those who help themselves." Guy sits on his roof during a raging flood. A helicopter offers him assistance, he says, "God will save me." A boat offers him assistance, he says, "God will save me." A canoe offers him assistance, he says, "God will save me."
  
  In Heaven, he asks God, "Why didn't you save me?" God says, "I sent a helicopter a boat and a canoe, what did you want?"
  
  --
  Slay a dragon... over lunch!
Forget laser eye surgery by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-23 12:03 · Score: 1, Funny

Get laser ear surgery, then you can echolocate your way around even in the dark.
Jessica Simpson had it done by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-23 12:03 · Score: 5, Funny

She's pretty smart. I'd follow her lead.
1. Re:Jessica Simpson had it done by ZBM-2 · 2004-07-23 12:22 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Ok,here goes my karma.
  
  Rodney Dangerfield quote: "I love girls who wear glasses. You take 'em home,breathe real heavy,it steams up their glasses and they don't know what you're doing."
  
  --
  ==== Warning:this poster contains subject matter that may be offensive. Flaming discretion is advised.
A horrible disappointment by bravehamster · 2004-07-23 12:04 · Score: 5, Funny

I hate to break it to ya buddy, but I was crushed when I found out, and I think you should know too. They use a laser ON your eye, to fix problems. They DON'T give you a laser eyeball to replace your puny and misshapen one. I know, I couldn't believe it either, but it's true. Shoulda taken that guy to court for false advertising.

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---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
1. Re:A horrible disappointment by 222 · 2004-07-23 12:41 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  If your really set on having a laser eye, im pretty sure theyre part of the Microsoft "new employee package"....
Check the Expert. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-23 12:04 · Score: 5, Funny

Friend of mine once remarked after thinking about it.

"I wasn't sure, every surgeon I met who would perform it was wearing glasses..."
1. Re:Check the Expert. by Exitthree · 2004-07-23 12:22 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Here's an appropriate story, but with dentists instead of eye surgeons.
  
  There is a small town with two dentists. The town is hundreds of miles from anywhere else that is inhabited, so anyone who visits a dentist visits one of these two. One of the dentists has a sparkling mouth full of perfectly arranged, white teeth. The other dentist has a mouth full (well, half-full) of the ugliest, yellowest, most-malformed teeth anyone has even seen. If you lived in this town, which dentist would you visit?
  
  The answer of course, is the dentist with the nasty teeth, since the dentist with nice teeth obviously visits him for his dental services.
  
  So, perhaps none of those eye surgeons have meet another surgeon they would trust... If they could perform the surgery on themselves, the fact that they all wear glasses might be another matter.
Re:beowulf cluster by Daniel+Dvorkin · 2004-07-23 12:04 · Score: 2, Funny

I think that would be what a fly gets when it goes in for Lasik surgery.

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The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Those with whom it went wrong... by Karpe · 2004-07-23 12:06 · Score: 4, Funny

...are not here to tell their stories.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-23 12:08 · Score: 1, Funny

As we say at los alamos
An even better Idea for than Eye Surgery. by Timmy+D+Programmer · 2004-07-23 12:09 · Score: 5, Funny

Get breast implants. Then you won't need a girlfriend ;)

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(If at first you don't succeed, do it different next time!)
Good advice by photonic · 2004-07-23 12:10 · Score: 1, Funny

As a physicist who works daily with (only moderate power) lasers, i might share our old and well known survival trick:

DON'T LOOK INTO LASER WITH REMAINING EYE!

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karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
Re:EYE SURGERY by machoromeo · 2004-07-23 12:22 · Score: 2, Funny

Yeah, and I hear that Jim Adler the Texas hammer is a tough smart lawyer.
friends say that it is OK... by dindi · 2004-07-23 12:22 · Score: 4, Funny

one thing to keep in mind :I heard it from a friend:

supposedly it weakens some parts of your eye (dunno exaclty which) and if your head receives big hits (eg you do motocross, martial arts or just get beaten up frequently) there is a chance that your eye just pops out and pours out ...

a friend who is a kempo teacher told me that, it worths a research...

i think it also depends how bad your eye is .. he is almost blind without glasses/lens but he won't go with the operation since he gets kicked in the head 100 times a week ...
ok for me by Eric_Cartman_South_P · 2004-07-23 12:27 · Score: 4, Funny

I itd kd83 ldfjkl 3dfsdklj sdfsdfsdlk j ok. jaghas dkah dks *7jwks happy dksaje fksajhd. httr luck!
My girlfriend got laser eye surgery by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-23 12:30 · Score: 1, Funny

Gave her near perfect vision. Less than a week later, I was dumped. I don't think this was coincidental.
Re:Don't do it. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-07-23 13:45 · Score: 1, Funny

1) I'm a big wuss ...

5) the army and police won't let you join if you've had it, rather tellling I think

Considering your point #1, I don't think point #5 has much relevance
Re:My experience by flacco · 2004-07-23 13:56 · Score: 5, Funny

The pleasure of being able to see...always...and not becoming an invalid if my glasses break is priceless.

plus, if there's a nuclear war that kills everyone but you, and you want to spend the rest of your days reading all the books you never had a chance to read, you don't have to worry that an ironic accident will put the kibosh on your plans.

--
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
Hanging up the red and blue tights? by WillDraven · 2004-07-23 14:19 · Score: 5, Funny

I have better than 20/20 whereas before I had something like 600/20
I certainly hope you meant 20/600, because otherwise you've shed yourself of your superhuman abilaty to read at 600 feet as a normal human can at 20 that you inherited from your parents on Krypton.

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This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
Waste of Money by pyrrhonist · 2004-07-23 14:52 · Score: 2, Funny

I had laser corrective surgery, and everything was working out fine until I accidentally clicked on a goatse link.
Now I look like Neo at the end of Matrix Revolutions.
Damn you Slashdot!

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Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
Re:My experience by paxil · 2004-07-23 14:56 · Score: 4, Funny

My advice is go to a good doctor...

Let me get this straight. Are you suggesting I not go to a lousy doctor?
Mail Order Lasik by SirModem · 2004-07-23 16:38 · Score: 2, Funny

Be careful doing this through mail order. I sent out both of my eyes... only one was returned. Can't even tell if it is mine since I can't see it.
No glasses? by Punchinello · 2004-07-23 17:05 · Score: 2, Funny

How will you conceal your secret identity?

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Remember... ZG9uJ3QgZm9yZ2V0IHRvIGRyaW5rIHlvdXIgb3ZhbHRpbmU=
Re:If you're already 20/20 .... by E_elven · 2004-07-23 17:06 · Score: 4, Funny

Night glare? That's what sunglasses are for.

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Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
420/20 ??? by deft · 2004-07-23 17:32 · Score: 2, Funny

is that where its all red and you can barely hold your eyes open?

a few of my friends do this "420" eyes thing that you speak of.

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There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Re:One man's experience by dwillden · 2004-07-23 19:42 · Score: 2, Funny

Just a thought :)
Good thought too, guess my Lasik wasn't soo good after all. I managed to miss that. Thanks fer pointing it out.

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I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
Re:My experience by talaphid · 2004-07-23 22:15 · Score: 2, Funny

So ... we're completely ruling out the voodun priest?
Re:One man's experience by Dashing+Leech · 2004-07-23 22:25 · Score: 2, Funny

BAAFAMUST (Because Acronyms Are Fun And Make Us Sound Technical).
Re: Experiences with Laser Eye Surgery? by bitN · 2004-07-24 03:47 · Score: 2, Funny

Every ophthamologist (3 total) I have visited over the last 15 years continues to wear glasses. That includes an ophthamologist who is a pioneer/leader in the laser eye surgery field. When I asked one of these ophthamologists if the surgery was safe the good doctor replied: "I still wear glasses don't I?"
And the protective value of eyeglasses against airborne particles and debris is another good reason to stick with them. Besides, you can always have your eyeglass prescription easily and quickly tweaked, too.

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it's 1 or the other