My prescription was -6.5 in both eyes and was stable for 15 years. All through my teens and early adulthood I had glasses or contacts. I fretted about Lasik for several years and finally plopped down the 4K to have it done and *love* it.
It has been about 6mo now and I *do* have some haloing. But it does *not* affect my night vision and it is fading. Some friends who have lad lasik have told me that it can take up to a year for the haloing to disappear.
Specifically, what I mean by haloing is this. Around small, point sources of light, e.g. LEDs on a hub or modem, I can see a halo or glare about 10x the diameter of the LED. Oddly it does not affect my visual sharpness of the LED itself. I see the sharp corners of the LED rectangle just fine and the halo does not effect my ability to read to see the darker objects behind it. In this way it is different from say a halo from a headlight caused by water drops on the windshield. My haloing *does not* effect my night vision. It seems as good to me as it ever was. I have noticed the following though: The more tired/dry my eyes are the more pronounced the halos.
Would the halos affect my ability to do something like observational astronomy. *possibly*. But to be fair, my first degree was in astronomy and I failed *miserably* at observational astronomy because my -6.5 diopter prescription glasses hindered me from focusing/finding guide stars easily.
Now, Am I concerned about the halos. No. It is fading over time. Yes. Will mine fade completely. I do not know. Do I care. Well, No. The benefits of being able to see *perfectly* day or night far, far, far outweight this minor inconvience.
Some additional info... The reason some folks have less than optimal experiences with LASIK is because LASIK uses a statistical model to calculate just how much material to remove from the eye. The Opthamologist measures your eye pressure and topography a few days before surgery along with your current prescription and using these as inputs into a statistical model. The model then guides the computer to remove the *correct* about from the eye. People who have disappointing experiences are outside the statistical norm.
My surgery experience and pointers...
1. Take the Drugs!! When I walked in for my surgery on Friday morning the nurse asked me if I wanted some vallium (sic). I was a little taken back because I really hadn't expected the question. Further, for years I had never had a problem with needing anything like NO2 at the dentist, thinking this would be just as straighforward, i.e. a little eye numbing, slice, zap, patch, move on, I said no. *Big mistake* There was just something about having my head restrained and having my eyes/vision being violated and being fully aware of every step of the proceedure that *freaked me out*. Fortunately for me, the nurse gave me a teddy bear (no joke!) I held on to that bear like I was 3yr old and it was all over in about 5min. So the first advice is take the drugs!
2. When the procedure was finished, they sat me up and had me look around. It was amazing, my eyes were still numb and goopy (like greasey glasses) but I could see perfectly! The doctor checked me out, gave me a take-home bag of eye drops, goggles (for sleeping the first night) and an appointment for the next morning. My wife drove me home, and as we were driving the numbing started to fade and then came hell. My eyes were scratchy, I was sensitive to light, they were irrated when I closed them. We got home, and I paced and paced and paced. I walking into a dark closet sat, then stood, then sat. I was going nuts. All because I was focusing on the discomfort. My wife finally had enough, called the doctor, got me some vallium , I slept, woke up in about 6 hours. And felt great! The irriation was gone, I could see perfectly (those still a little *greasey*, that lasted for a week) but was happy as a clam. So my second point is also take the drugs.
3. Use an experienced opthamologist. I credit my perfect vision to the attention to detail that my opthamologist has. Since the success of the procedure is very sensitive to the accuracy of the pre-op measurements. I do not believe my result would have been as good with a cheaper LASIK provider.
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My prescription was -6.5 in both eyes and was stable for 15 years. All through my teens and early adulthood I had glasses or contacts. I fretted about Lasik for several years and finally plopped down the 4K to have it done and *love* it. It has been about 6mo now and I *do* have some haloing. But it does *not* affect my night vision and it is fading. Some friends who have lad lasik have told me that it can take up to a year for the haloing to disappear. Specifically, what I mean by haloing is this. Around small, point sources of light, e.g. LEDs on a hub or modem, I can see a halo or glare about 10x the diameter of the LED. Oddly it does not affect my visual sharpness of the LED itself. I see the sharp corners of the LED rectangle just fine and the halo does not effect my ability to read to see the darker objects behind it. In this way it is different from say a halo from a headlight caused by water drops on the windshield. My haloing *does not* effect my night vision. It seems as good to me as it ever was. I have noticed the following though: The more tired/dry my eyes are the more pronounced the halos. Would the halos affect my ability to do something like observational astronomy. *possibly*. But to be fair, my first degree was in astronomy and I failed *miserably* at observational astronomy because my -6.5 diopter prescription glasses hindered me from focusing/finding guide stars easily. Now, Am I concerned about the halos. No. It is fading over time. Yes. Will mine fade completely. I do not know. Do I care. Well, No. The benefits of being able to see *perfectly* day or night far, far, far outweight this minor inconvience. Some additional info... The reason some folks have less than optimal experiences with LASIK is because LASIK uses a statistical model to calculate just how much material to remove from the eye. The Opthamologist measures your eye pressure and topography a few days before surgery along with your current prescription and using these as inputs into a statistical model. The model then guides the computer to remove the *correct* about from the eye. People who have disappointing experiences are outside the statistical norm. My surgery experience and pointers... 1. Take the Drugs!! When I walked in for my surgery on Friday morning the nurse asked me if I wanted some vallium (sic). I was a little taken back because I really hadn't expected the question. Further, for years I had never had a problem with needing anything like NO2 at the dentist, thinking this would be just as straighforward, i.e. a little eye numbing, slice, zap, patch, move on, I said no. *Big mistake* There was just something about having my head restrained and having my eyes/vision being violated and being fully aware of every step of the proceedure that *freaked me out*. Fortunately for me, the nurse gave me a teddy bear (no joke!) I held on to that bear like I was 3yr old and it was all over in about 5min. So the first advice is take the drugs! 2. When the procedure was finished, they sat me up and had me look around. It was amazing, my eyes were still numb and goopy (like greasey glasses) but I could see perfectly! The doctor checked me out, gave me a take-home bag of eye drops, goggles (for sleeping the first night) and an appointment for the next morning. My wife drove me home, and as we were driving the numbing started to fade and then came hell. My eyes were scratchy, I was sensitive to light, they were irrated when I closed them. We got home, and I paced and paced and paced. I walking into a dark closet sat, then stood, then sat. I was going nuts. All because I was focusing on the discomfort. My wife finally had enough, called the doctor, got me some vallium , I slept, woke up in about 6 hours. And felt great! The irriation was gone, I could see perfectly (those still a little *greasey*, that lasted for a week) but was happy as a clam. So my second point is also take the drugs. 3. Use an experienced opthamologist. I credit my perfect vision to the attention to detail that my opthamologist has. Since the success of the procedure is very sensitive to the accuracy of the pre-op measurements. I do not believe my result would have been as good with a cheaper LASIK provider.