Well its been 1 month since my surgery and my vision is 20/15-20/13. Normaly this is no big deal, but my vision used to be 20/100 and its great to see!! and now my vision is better than the wifes(20/20).
          FREE

I cant remember now.. but what kind of problems/discomforts did you go through shortly after?

I'm having it done eventually. I dont really care about anything short term.. just wondering if it disables you from doing certain things.. using computer? ..driving?

as you can tell I havent done too much research

Great to hear that it's worked well for you.  Let us know if things change.

Not to be intrusive but what kind of prices can one expect or aim for when considering this type of surgery? I am pretty interested in it myself.

Happy to hear it FREEFALL. I had Lasiks done on March of last year. It was one of the best things I had done. The only problem I have is my eyes get dry from time to time. A couple drops of Bausch&Lomb "Moisture Eyes" and that takes care of it. I'm 20/20 in one eye and 20/15 in the other.

Can't be any worse than the drying problem my contacts give me.
I'll be turning 18 soon, Can't wait to get this done myself [:D]

Freefalle6, if I'm correct, you are Airborne...did you have PRK or LASIK?

I'm under the impression that only PRK is approved for SF duty...is that true for Airborne as well?  

Well the PRK(grind surface of your eye off and then use laser to fix it) is what I had done. This is the type of surgery I had done so I wouldnt be disqualified for certain army schools. The recovery for this process is 4 days of bed rest due to the pain and the amount of Valiunms. For me it was pretty painful I couldnt drive or use the computer for 5 days. After the surgery my eyes got a little better. I could see far away but my  close up focus was gone, as you could see by my past shot groups. Then after another week I could see and all is good. Now if you have lasik they slice the top of you eye, then peal it back zap your eye let the flap return over your eye and presto!! 20/20 vision. You go home and your good. The bad thing is this type of surgery disqualifies you from all Special, forces training and I think it disqualifies you from flight school.So I wanted to keep all options open so I took the pain. but the good thing is I got 4 days off work and the only thing I payed was attention.
        FREE

FREE, say that again?  LASIK disqualifies you from SFAS/SFQC?  Not waiverable?

You are correct SF Canidates during language school get PRK. Im not sure about Airborne but most get PRK.
            FREE
   

[url]http://www.usapa.army.mil/pdffiles/r40_501.pdf[/url]

See Chapters 2 and 5 (5 for SF SERE Ranger Airborne quals. re vision)

Not sure about the waiver.  

LASIK is no longer disqualifying for Naval aviation and I have heard rumors that the same is true for BUDS/SEAL training.  Don't know about the other services.

I had the PRK two years ago now and the dryness definatly gets better.

The dredded flap in Lasik never heals, it is only just stuck on there like licking a playing card and sticking it on your forehead for playing liars poker.

The military is still concerned over pressure changes, impact and other things that could knock the flap loose.  just imagine freefalling and having the flap break loose and flutter around beating you about the face as your chute pops!

just what I know

TRW

[white]Glad to hear it worked out!!![/white]

[LOLabove]

Hm.  I had it (LASIK)going on 4 years ago, and I have results that mirror FREE's.  I'm 20/15 in my left and 20/10 in my right.  

The flap on my eyes are completely healed over after over a year and a half. My Doc says if I would ever need the Lasiks again that my flaps would have to be cut just like before.

Whats wrong with this post? all I see is green zeros and ones[:D] and then I hear a voice telling to take the red pill 10101010101010101010100101010101010101010101010
    FREE

My understanding is that the Air Force disqualified LASIK for pilots after a pilot who'd had LASIK had to eject from a fighter and the windblast blew the flaps off both his corneas.  No doubt THAT hurt, and he had to get cornea transplants.

I'm not ready for surgical correction of my 20-200 eyes yet.   It's bad enough that I have to take eyedrops every night for ocular hypertension, a condition that if untreated is likely to lead to glaucoma.    It was apparently diagnosed in time as my vision shows absolutely normal (except for the nearsightedness) in every test they can throw at me, though my retinas DO appear to be "slightly abnormal", but not enough to diagnose as a problem.

The drops have my pressure back down well into the normal range, thank goodness, and a side effect is that it makes your eyelashes grow.  I now have long, thick, beautiful eyelashes that would be the envy of many models!  I can trap moths with these suckers!

CJ

Current policy for naval and USMC
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/blnavylasereyesurgery.htm

From what i've read, LASIK, unlike PRK, does disqualify you on certain things. However, this is due to the fact that LASIK is newer and still in research and evaluation stages by the military. Give it a few years and its likely LASIK will be approved for all activites.

Surgeon, clinician, and lecturer Bill Lloyd, MD, is an experienced ophthalmologist who has devoted the last two decades to practicing and teaching medicine. His writings have appeared in leading medical journals, and he has been a contributing author to many leading textbooks in this interesting medical specialty.

Lloyd is a diplomate of the American Board of Ophthalmology and an elected Fellow to both the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He is a five-time recipient of the American Medical Association Physicians' Recognition Award.

Member: Dr. I had LASIK about four years ago and I developed some cell growth beneath my cornea and it keeps coming back. The cells I have were called epithelia cells and keep coming back. Do you have any advice that I could share with my doctor?

Lloyd: You are experiencing a very common complication from LASIK surgery. The outermost layer of cells on the corneal surface is called the epithelium. When the LASIK flap is created, a new pathway for these cells is created. The LASIK flap never heals. As an experienced eye pathologist, I can tell you that the LASIK flap NEVER heals. That means there is a thin layer of corneal tissue resting on the remaining cornea for life. No scar forms because (once again) there is no healing.

This raises two critical points: The LASIK flap remains available to both epithelial cells and germs for the remainder of your life. Secondly, the LASIK flap can be easily dislodged from simple contact with the eye such as a finger poke. Once the flap is lost the eye is in serious trouble. It will require a corneal transplant (a much more serious operation) to regain useful eyesight. Anyone who has had LASIK needs to wear eye protection when outdoors, working in the yard or participating in vigorous activities. These precautions must be followed for a lifetime.

For the rest of the discussion:

[url]http://content.health.msn.com/content/article/61/68084.htm[/url]

Totally incorrect. It will not budge at all and I have poked and been poked in my eyeball several times in the last 3-4 years since I have had LASIK done. The doc did say that in the first few days, don't rub your eyes and I didn't. I am now enjoying 20/16 and 20/14, couldn't be happier.

This Dr. Bill can say all he wants but it isn't true... in my case.

I'm poking my eyes right now and I still have a cornea, I cant move it if I wanted I dont think.


If you are on the fence with this type of surgery, go for it! Life is too short to go through it with glasses and/or contacts.

Mine was $2400.00 per eye. Flexible spending account at work paid for it and I just paid it back throughout that year.

WELL WORTH THE COST!!!

OK guys...here's a question I have.

I would get the surgery, but I've been wearing disposable contacts for many years with no problems. I leave them in for weeks and don't even know that they are there.

The problem, is that now that I'm in my 40's, by near vision has gotten FAR worse. I can still see far away things fine, but can't read a damn medicine bottle.

Will any of the new laser techniques fix near vision or is it all to fix myopia ??

I'll second this,
I got Lasik back in 2000 & it was a life changing event for me, I basicly  couldn't
function without glasses or contacts before.

My eyes where like 20/200 , -5.25/-5.75 diopters
now I'm 20/20,20/30

the techniques they're using now are only better, Freefalle's experience demonstrates that
I've read the industry's goal is 20/10 by 2010

I had LASIK three years ago, with [i]excellent[/i] results.  Never heard about the flap coming off after the healing was over.  I'd like to see some documentation before I agree with that.

I had a buddy who went SF way back in the late 1980s.  He had bad eyes, so he snuck out and had the [i]original[/i] radial keratotomy in Canada.  He had the "starburst" effect, but they never caught on, even after he completed the Q course.  He's with the FBI now, and even they don't know.