I had my LASIK procedure done a few years ago and I have mixed results and opinions about the experience. As I tend to do, I researched my area for reputable doctors and searched online to get background information, etc. The nice part about doing the research is that the initial consultations are free (and if the one you find doesn't offer that, keep looking).
Also, if you regularly see an optometrist for your glasses or contacts, ask your optometrist if you are a good candidate for LASIK and if they can recommend a doctor too (but don't blindly follow their advice. They may have a referral incentive set up with a LASIK center so the recommendation might not be in your best interest).
I wanted to find a good LASIK doctor in my area so I came across the Assil-Kinskey Eye Institute on Santa Monica Blvd. Dr. Kerry Assil is touted as the LASIK doctor for the Los Angeles Lakers, and upon entering his offices for my consultation, you see nothing but signed head shots of celebrities thanking him for their surgeries. I figured if these high profile folks trust this man, surely I could too. However, I realized he may cost more than the Laser Eye Center you see on television ads, but scrimping on any medical procedure is not the area one wants to cut corners. Dr. Assil's staff was courteous and they literally worshipped the man, talking about how "amazing" he is as a doctor and as a person.
Sidebar: I'll explain later why I had a problem with this blind worship to this doctor, but the devotion was so strong, I honestly felt like it was a bit of a cult. And now that I am dredging up these memories, I think one of the steps before the surgery was watching a video about how great Dr. Assil is, such as doing a free surgery for the poor. This is all fine and dandy but doesn't it sound like something close to a cult introduction? I'll touch upon this later in my experience...
Once I figured out what the costs would be for my surgery, I decided to go forward. Dr. Assil sounded like the best of the best, and wasn't I worth it? (ha ha ha)
There are some important pre-op steps one must take before surgery can commence. For instance, if you wear contacts mostly, versus glasses, you will need to be off your contacts for at least two weeks so that your cornea will be at its most natural curvature. So I was to return after wearing only glasses for a couple of weeks.
The next step is diagnostics of the health of the eye and to determine the prescription to be corrected for 20/20 vision. I was forewarned that someone with the severity of my vision and slight astigmatism may have less success but that the procedure they have is at the forefront of LASIK technology called Wavefront or custom LASIK. This new technology was to help a nearly blind bastard(ess) like me. I was about -9.50 in the left eye and about -10.75 in the right with both eyes having some astigmatism. These numbers and astigmatism had made it unlikely for me to get LASIK in the past but now I could be helped.
The health of my eyes were fine (this initial check up was really helpful for my brother. He went in to see if he could get LASIK but the doctor found some clots in his eyes and said to see a regular doctor. Turns out he had diabetes. Had this not been caught in time, he could have gone blind!). They also check for the depth of your cornea. Since the laser actually destroys layers, you have to have enough available. I passed this requirement as well. They also look for stability - making sure your vision has remained the same for a few years. For instance, were I still going to school, they might want me to wait till I was done because all that extra strain for the moment may level out by the time I am done.
So, my surgery day came and went. Before you go under the laser, they feed you half a Valium and you must have someone pick you up since you're essentially blind and bandaged up anyway. I was a bit nervous, and it is weird when they pry your eyes wide with something out of "A Clockwork Orange." However, once the anesthetic is dropped on the eyes, you don't feel any pain. It was after the surgery that everything went downhill for me.
First:
They lift you back to a sitting position after you'd been laying down under the direct point of the laser. The first test to see if the LASIK took is they are you to see how clearly the time is on the wall clock. My initial reaction was hardly enthusiastic, and I could tell by their reaction, they expected... more from me. It was as if they expected me to say, "Wow! OMG, I can see - it's a miracle!" Well, my vision was more like, "hmm, I can make out the time based on knowing what time I arrived and where the hands of the clock were pointing, but the numbers were blurred and everything was fuzzy." They all said that it would go away with time. I was like, oh-kay.
By the time I got home, and once the anesthesia wore off, my eyes burn like acid was poured in. The first thing the Assil Institute tells you is to never rub your eyes, which makes sense. But they also tell you to NOT go to sleep. They say keep your eyes OPEN as much as possible - to even watch a little TV. Well, the pain was so much and my eyes were so heavy, all I wanted to do was sleep! Between the burning and the desire to do nothing but sleep, I wanted to literally pull my hair out! I actually wondered if this is how crazy people feel when you see them pull out chunks of hair. So I fought every once of my being to keep from sleeping.
(Update: Well, from other stories I have heard and even things I've seen on TV or read on the Internet, there seems to be NO problem with sleeping after surgery. Uh huh. Of course, I didn't read any of this even after my touch-up.)
You can't take a bath nor put your face under a stream of water for a week or so. You have to wear goggles to bed so you don't try and rub your eyes while asleep. You have to go in for check-ups. All here is fine and dandy. It was waiting for the results that got to me.
You go the next morning, and they say you can drive yourself, but wear dark sunglasses as your eyes are sensitive to light. However, besides the light-sensitivity, my vision was very blurred and I wondering if driving myself was really the best idea. Luckily I am very familiar with the streets so it wasn't too difficult. My check up was quick and they said to give it time for the blurriness to fade. Once I got to work, looking at the computer screen was tough but I was able to do my job.
I believe my check ups went for weekly to bi-weekly to monthly. But each time, as they did the reading tests and checking the health of my eyes, all was fine except the clarity. The letters on the screen (like the standard reading chart you see when getting your eyes examined) were blurred on the edges. Also, going in every week to read the same chart, I knew what letter I was looking at, so I didn't want to lie to say I can't see it, but it was a blurry spot. The lights around the chart and from the ceiling was also had a hazy cast around it.
Even after the six months, without improvement in these areas, the doctors and Dr. Assil told me to wait until the 1 year mark. If my eyes hadn't adjusted by then, he would do a touch-up procedure. They also then referred me to Dr. Kwok for my check-ups as he was the doctor to whom they sent the "difficult" cases.
Dr. Kwok realized immediately that the reason I was able to read the letters on the chart so well was because he guessed I had nearly memorized the chart. He then used a special eye chart he kept for use on patients like me. He also discovered that I had excess oil secretions from my glands so that contributed to the blurriness, but he did think getting a touch up should help.
Dr. Kwok also noticed my left eye's pupil was larger than my right. He asked if this was always the case (which it was based on previous optometrist observations - Dr. Kwok was also concerned because an enlarged pupil is a sign of medical complications with the brain) and said the enlarged pupil also contributed to the extra blurry halo effect around the lights I see. (This was not mentioned to me by anyone else as a possible side effect before my surgery.) Again, a fantastic analysis from one doctor within a few weeks that seeing multiple other doctors could not deduce for me in a year.
The bad part in all this was at the one year mark, Dr. Assil agreed to the touch up, as promised, but he felt touching up only one eye would be the best method. He did say if I still wanted the other eye afterward, he'd honor it even though the year had passed.
I did get the touch up and I again felt the burning eye that made me want to tear my hair out. Again my lids were so heavy and tired, yet they still said not to go to sleep, when all I wanted was sleep.
I waited for my recovery to see if my vision had improved. While it was better, it still wasn't the perfect 20/20 everyone brags about after LASIK. That, plus the pain I endured, made me skip the touch up for my other eye. I figured if my vision wasn't perfect anyway, why bother going through the pain again.
Another co-worker, who went to a different doctor and had about the same high prescription as I did, when through a similar process. We were both frustrated by the lack of clarity after our initial surgery. He went back to his doctor and got a touch up procedure but on both his eyes. However, he had the ideal results - he was completely satisfied with the touch ups and was now one of those uber-happy post-LASIK patients. I still was not.
I have to wear glasses to drive at night because the lights all blur together, plus reading signs is extremely difficult. I actually am a bit fearful when driving on unfamiliar streets since reading anything at a distance is hard. Also, just in the past week, I started to get headaches while working at the computer. I realized the words on the screen, though slight, was enough to cause the problem so I started to wear my glasses at my desk.
I am very unhappy that the Assil-Kinsky Institute because:
1. They did not emphasize the possible side effects after surgery strongly enough, especially since higher prescription cases like myself had more complications post surgery.
2. When I kept saying that my vision wasn't improving, all they told me was to wait and wait and wait. They didn't seem to take my own evaluations seriously. Only towards the end, with Dr. Kwok, did I feel anyone understood what I was saying.
3. I should have gotten the touch up for both eyes and enforced that idea. Dr. Assil treated my desire for a touch up as if to say he didn't do a good job. I do feel like my constant concern that my vision wasn't improving was treated by the other doctors as a "problem" in the sense I wasn't giving Dr. Assil the proper reverence as their other patients who "adored" him.
I felt a bit uncomfortable by the end in that I did believe the majority at the institute were almost in the cult of Assil: they saw him do no wrong, to the point of not understanding that a patient could say a problem exists post-surgery. Were it not for Dr. Kwok, I would have continued to have some very negative feelings about my experience.
While I am unhappy with it and the lack of clarity I have now, I am glad I got it done. I can go out during the day without contacts and wear my sunglasses. I can wake up and see the time. I just wish they could really regard the possible side effects with more weight than how cavalier they were about it.
So, I recommend LASIK and I have no doubt Dr. Assil is one of the best. But do your own research, go in knowing it might not be exactly 20/20 afterward, and if you need a touch up and it's for both eyes, get them done at the same time.
FYI:
Large pupils
http://www.medicinenet.com/lasik_eye_surgery/page5.htm
Visual aberrations
http://www.medicinenet.com/lasik_eye_surgery/page6.htm
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