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Has Anyone Tried Corneal Reshaping?
bgraziano asks: "I'm looking into alternatives to LASIK and I'm investigating corneal reshaping. This involves wearing contact lenses at night to reshape my eyes to address nearsightedness and astigmatism. I've found lots of vendor sites but I can't find any first hand accounts from people going through the process. Has anyone tried this? Are you aware of any links to first hand accounts of people that have tried it?"
Finally, an excuse to share a story from "back in the day".
I was a teenager delivering advertising circulars in Tulsa, and I stopped to chat (a frequent occurrence) with an old guy with cool gadgets in his garage. After a while, he showed me his favorite unsung invention... a tiny blade mounted on a circular track in a spherically-faced plastic housing.
He described for me how this device could be used to reshape the cornea -- make a shallow circular incision, and the eye would reshape itself. Voila, corrected vision without contacts or glasses!
But nobody was interested in his invention, he said.
Ten years later, radial keratotomy was all the rage... the only difference from the old man's method, really, was that the incisions were made radially instead of circularly.
And that was soon followed by any number of friggin'-laser-assisted procedures that all built on an idea I first heard about in the early '80s from a crazy old guy in a garage in Tulsa. I wonder if he's still around... I got the impression he wouldn't be bitter that his crazy idea turned into something big after all.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
The title is the short version.
My recommendations first and then maybe a short version of the story.
Schedule appts w/ a couple of doctors. I ended up seeing nearly 20 before I chose. You will learn alot about the process. Plus, if you have a stigmatism you get a cool 3d picture of exactly how it looks (mine was hourglass shaped)
Being a comp guy, I decided that the most important factor for me was to get the kewl laser. At my time it was the Visx S3. All teh doctors will tell you they have the coolest laser so do some research. The key points, as I recall, were that the laser tracked and pulsed 10k times/sec (so if I moved my eye it would adjust) and the width of the beam. My pupil was large so I needed a large laser to help minimize the potential for the halo effect at night.
Docs were charging anywere from 500 - 5000 / eye. I ended up w/ a guy at 1800 for both and was very happy. He was in teh same office (same equipment) as one of the 5000/eye guys.
I don't know how much the doc really does. Supposedly, he takes your measurements (perscription, stigmatism, corneal depth) and plugs them into some equation that is fed to the computer. Supposedly, coming up w/ the equation is the "artful" part.
The actual procedure was daunting but fairly painless. I got to the waiting room and spent a few minutes after check in telling myself how stupid I was to be fucking w/ my sight. Glasses aren't so bad, better than being blind, etc...
I was called in and they did the final bits of tests, the long one was to test peripheral vision.
After all the tests they gave me some valium and told me to relax for a bit. About 1/2 hour later, it was time to get zapped. I went into the room and layed down in the chair. they covered me up and gave me a small stuffed teddy bear. Seemed odd at the time but I was fairly glad I had it later. A TV screen above displayed a 27in close up view of my eye. My ex, watching from teh other room, snapped a pic (w/ flash) and got yelled at by the doctor. Then we began.
He administered a bunch of drops of various drugs. He puts a speculum kind of thing around my eye to keep my eyelids out of the way. Then, he brought out the cutter (don't remember the technical term, i would proably opt for the laser version now, they were too new when I did it). He warns me that I am giong to feel some pressure and then my vision is giong to either blur or go out completely. This is basically what glaucoma is I guess. Sure enough, I felt some pressure and bang! complete blackness in that eye. (i think my other eye was covered at this point. i was much more worried about the eye w/ the speculum though so I don't recall) The cutting tool is built into the "pressure giver". I hear a whir and feel a blade go around my eye in a circle. I was anestitized (sp?) but not hurting is not the same as not feeling it. That was fairly scary (but not the worst part).
He pulled the cutter off and I could see the lights above again. My sight came back more or less instantly. Then he reached in w/ a tool and flipped the top of my cornea back. Everything went super blurry and my grip on teh bear tightened.
"Your only job for the next 45 seconds is to look at the red light and DON'T MOVE", ordered teh doc. I looked at the red light and resolved myself to completely immobility. I think the doc even held my head.
The laser made a loud "TAC-TAC-TAC-TAC" and a smell of burning cat drifted to my nostrils. This was definitely the scariest part. This went on for maybe 30 seconds.
A bunch more drops and then he flipped my cornea back down. Holy shit, I can see. I could already tell the lights above me were much clearer.
This whole procedure took maybe 3-4 minutes, max. Then we did teh other eye. I was out of there in less than 10 minutes.
They taped big swisscheesed plstic eyeshields to my face and sent me to a dark room to lie down. By this point, the adreline was definitely beating the valium b
Scenario: Eyes changing at an inopportune time such operating a motor vehicle (car, plane, etc.) in conditions of marginal visibility. Having your eyes change at a time like this can be a lethal combination.
From what I have read, the change is temporary and the eye returns to normal after not wearing them. In the beginning, this change is within a day. Is the change gradual or instantaneous change? I am concerned about being between 20/20 and my normal nearsighted vision so that I cannot see clearly with or without my glasses, or with only one eye and not the other.
After having worn them for a while and getting used to not needing my glasses during the day, will I still need to carry my glasses/contacts 'just in case' my eyes decide to change back? If I have to carry my glasses all the time 'just in case' they can change, I might at well just wear them.
She said she slept fine, and has gone the whole day without her glasses. Apparently, after the first two weeks she will only need to wear the contacts at night once every three or four days.
Not a bad trade off for close to 20/20 vision.