my husband's cousin just had laser eye surgery. He said make sure that the place you are getting it done has a really good reputation. it was a complete success for him.

I had the surgery in 2003. How bad are your eyes? My vision was -7.5 and the procedure failed the first time because of the amount of correction needed and I had to wait 7 months of healing before I could have the correction done. It was scary. I went to a very highly rated doctor here in CT. Now I still have some issues with my night vision (halos) and my real doctor is watching me for epithelial ingrowth. What this means is that the flap on the cornea has grown some cells along the edge that may need correction later. This is about 4 years now since the second procedure and I do have a slight prescription but if I got glasses is would just be for night driving. Otherwise my vision is great and I'm very happy to be rid of contact lenses! The best time ever was in Aruba at the beach where I could just go in the water and see clearly without worrying about letting my head go under. Be cautious of Vision Centers that are part of a chain. They advertise doctors that have done tons of the surgery and may even have done someone famous but then in reality they employ a bunch of doctors and you may not get that one. Or you go to an office that is close for your consultation but they don't actually do the surgery there and you have to drive an hour and a half to the actual surgery center.

I've thought about this surgery for years, but wanted to wait until I heard enough success stories, to outweigh the negative tales we've all heard. I believe, as the previous poster mentioned, that if you seek out a good doctor, you should do fine.

My eye sight, without glasses or contacts is very poor. The first thing I do, when I get up in the morning, is put my glasses on my face. It would be awesome to be able to wear glasses of a lesser degree of correction, but I'm a big chicken and haven't been able to work up the courage, yet.

Good luck, I think it would be awesome not to have to wear glasses or contacts while swimming. I've lost my contacts in our pool a few times and it is next to impossible to find them in 20,000 odd gallons of water.

Basset_Lover

I have wanted it done as well, but am weary of anyone messing with my eyes.

That's a very intelligent fear to have lpn169. Your eyes are not something you want to take a chance with. Nobody knows what the long term effects are. What happens to your eyes in 20 years? The procedure hasn't been around long enough to know. I talk to tons of people including my best friend that are very happy with it.(I sort of think she's lying though because she can't read signs that I can see so I don't think hers was perfect) But if I could go back in time, I don't think I would have done it. My vision was 20/20 at first. Four years later at age 41, I am starting to develop a slight prescription already. And it's almost a guarantee that if you have it, you will eventually need reading glasses. A lot of older people need them anyway, but my Mom didn't until she was 70. And even having it 4 years ago, the procedure has come a long way. He had to cut a flap in my corneas. Now they just laser the outside. If they take too much of the cornea off you can develop other eye diseases. So I am at the limit already. The procedure itself is nothing. They give you drugs and strap you down. It's my future I am worried about now.

Make sure the person you go do is certified. I work with a nurse and she went to someone I don't believe was certified or hasn't done it for very long. Well, she has had to have the procedure repeated 3 times. Her vision is still blurry. She still has to wear glasses. I don't think they will be able to fix her eyes now. I am not trying to talk you out of it...but just make sure you know who is doing it. Good Luck!