lasik surgery

[Mark Mills]

I'm not sure if this topic has come up before, but I was curious how many examiners have had the lasik surgery on their eyes? My vision is not that bad, my major problem being an astigmatism. I'd be curious to know for those that have had it, what your experiences have been with performing comparisons since the recovery was complete. Are you happy with the results and have there been any side effects related to job duties? If you choose, you may respond to me off list at millsma16@yahoo.com. Thanks.

Mark Mills

[Julie]

I've had it done and have had no problems at all - I love it - though, it is scary to think about your livelihood being effected by such a surgery. . .I know many people (not in the business) who have had it done and all have been very happy with it. . .I only had a slight astigmatism, though. . .I guess your eye doctor would have to be the best judge on that. Good luck

[Necessarily Anonymous]

I have to remain anonymous on this. I had a supervisor who had lasik surgery and couldn't see well enough after that to do a comparison on anything except an inked-quality print. That person would go through the AFIS cases and pick out the ones with the pristine latent prints and only do those. It caused some friction. My personal opinion is not to mess with your livelihood. If something goes wrong, your career is over.

[sandra wiese]

I had super bad vision and astigmatism in both eyes. I knew some examiners that had the surgery and had problems for months afterwards. Since I was the only examiner at my agency at that time, I did not have the luxury of having someone else do my examinations for me but also was having problems with my contacts and really wanted to have it done.

The compromise was that I had only one eye done at a time. Very glad I did as it took a little over six months for me to be able to see third level detail clearly with that eye. Getting the second eye done was a bear since I could not wear my glasses and had to walk around with only one eye clear for the weeks before the surgery (saw double if I wore my glasses) I had the second eye done earlier this year. Both eyes are now independently excellent and I don't have to worry about contacts or glasses anymore. My doctor does think that if I had gotten both eyes done at once it would not have taken six months, but that is only a theory since all eyes respond somewhat uniquely.

The 'one eye at a time' was how they used to do it when RK first became available. It is an option if you are not sure you want to 'risk' both eyes at once.

Sandra

[Laura D]

About a dozen people in my department had lasik and loved it, and I was ready to improve my 20/600 vision. I had both eyes done at once and my vision was greatly improved, but it took two enhancement surgeries to actually go without glasses when driving. I went through two temporary eyeglass prescriptions. I was part of that small statistical group where the first try didn't work that well.
I still have some astigmatism, but I've learned to adapt. I got the monovision, so I've had to mark and adjust my magnifiers for each eye. I love being able to go without glasses or contacts, but my results aren't perfect!

[George Reis]

I did it a couple of years ago with great results. Something that many people don't consider regarding their vision is the degradation in vision caused by the glasses themselves. This can be from dirt, smears, scratches, glare, frames, etc. So, one does not simply get equivalent vision from the surgery, but also eliminates the degradation from the glasses. I no longer wear glasses for distance, but do wear glasses for close vision. I'd do it again in a minute.

George