Lasik

[webguy]

They claim I will probably need another correction, for more money. With no guarantees, and worse yet--with the chance it may leave me unable to ever wear contact lenses again (something I was NOT told about ahead of time). I hate hunting and fishing in glasses with a passion.

I spent a good amount of money for the lifetime corrections (included with the $$). So I can go back for no cost for life. A cop told me about the lifetime corrections.

I tell you what. I play outfield for Softball and the guys on the team notice that nothing gets by me and I rarely misjudge a ball. With my old contacts I had problems with blurred vision or halos. It's amazing how I can see the ball come off the bat now.

It's been a few months now since the correction and everything is great. I'm 20/20 and since I've been hunting, fishing, softball, golf and everything... NO GLASSES! Wow, I can't be happier.

I'll throw in a photo of me (left) and Justin (my web designer) shooting prairie rats with no glasses or contacts.

 

[BritChaser]

Eagle Eyes for Flying Prey

Hey guys. Thought I would give you an update on my Lasik eye surgery for those who didn't know or even care. Thought I might share since it's quite interesting. I was hoping I wouldn't go blind with the surgery and had to sell Ultimate Pheasant Hunting to the highest bidder (ha ha... ya right).

I got PRK Lasik on April 10th and here's the scoop... It's been a brutal couple weeks. This PRK surgery is not like the majority of Lasik where they cut a flap on your cornea and you go home from the surgery sleep for 4 hours and when you wake up you see 20/20 and then go out and have a steak and beer after that. Nope, not at all.

PRK Lasik was basically 10 days of pure hell for me.

So as I'm in the waiting room before going into the "Laser Room" or whatever the heck you call it, I didn't have my glasses on when I was talking to the Dr. before the sugery. I couldn't even see his face being a -7 as I am.

We chatted a bit, he checked my eyes and I said lets get this over with. I went in, I layed down and I looked at a few lights and I was done in less than 10 minutes. I walked out and I could see great! Dr. came to the waiting room and I could see his face and could even read his name tag. Wow, was that just the oddest thing ever. Pretty emotional to be honest. I can remember having "the morning freak out's" waking up and not being able to find my glasses.

So on the ride home, the drugs on my eyes started to wear off and wow, the pain was pretty brutal. Supposedly I was supposed to be drugged up but in typical webguy fashion, I was working before the surgery, so I forgot to fill the damn prescription. So, whatever, I went home, slept and low and behold I woke up and could still see good and watched some baseball all night and drank a six pack of beer at the folk's house for easter weekend. On Easter Sunday, I woke up and I couldn't see crap and my eyes burned. It wasn't the beer and I was seeing crazy halo's at night in the car (i wasn't driving... I would have killed someone).

My eyes got progressively worse for 4 days before finally stopping and getting better each day for 5 days. Both my right eye and left eye healed at different rates so my headaches were pretty annoying for 10 days.

Finally on day 11 I woke up and could see like Superman. I could never even see this good with contacts! I debated about this for years but finally pulled the plug since my eyes were about -7 in both eyes and I had a major astigmatism. My Mom had the surgery 15 years ago and she's seeing great still today.

So there you go. Cheers to seeing good in 2009 and I can't wait to wake up and hunt ducks, pheasants, deer or whatever and not have to put my contacts in anymore!

:cheers:

I think you'll be shooting high percentages this fall. Have a great season.

 

[crockett]

Dragging this one up from the dead instead of starting a new one. I had Lasik last Thursday. From a -7.5 in right eye and -6 in my left I eye I was 20/20 less than 24 horus after the surgery and it's still improving. I had enough cornea to have the intralase flap cut and the correction done under the corneal flap and then it was sealed back down and is now healing. This is slightly riskier and much more comfortable and fast-healing than PRK. I shelled out the price of two nice pheasant guns or one great pheasant gun to have the "cadillac" of available options:
-Intralase used to cut the cornea (instead of the microtome (blade))
-custom lasik (maps the cornea and optimizes everything that is not perfect about the eye, rather than just correcting the near-sightedness).
-life-time committment
It's too early to say for sure of course, I could still have problems later with light-sensitvity, infection, dryness etc... (and I will re-post here if I do), but for now, I am amazed. I went from legally blind to tack-sharp vision overnight, and I'm really excited to see jsut how good it gets (vision is supposed to improve over 6 months).
As far as the process goes, it was terrifying but relatively painless. They froze the eyes with drops than put a ring over the eye to apply some suction to lift and hold the eyeball for the laser to cut the flap. This was the most uncomfortable part - a fairly strong pressure isthe best that I can describe it. When then swung the tabel over to the other laser to do the actual correction was the worst of my fear, because my vision had gone all cloudy and I realised that they had just CUT MY EYES with a laser! THey then applied the laser to my right eye for 41 seconds and 35 seconds to my let eye. They then "painted" the corneal flap back down and that was it. Ahalf-hour later I walked out. Got home and my eyes started to burn and tear a bit as the freezing wore off. Took some advil, but in my drops, let the dog up on the couch and had a nap. I woke up and I could read the clock on the VCR from across the room! The burning was done and it has jsut been steadily improvements in comfort over time throughout the weekend. Lots of different drops, lots of naps and playing the old "wounded soldier" routine to get the wife to pamper me. I had to wear dark glasses all day and tape these cups over my eyes at night to prevent me from touching/rubbing my eyes. Next morning I went for a follow-up an they checked my visiion (20/20 in both eyes) and checked the flaps for wrinkles etc... - it all looked good. My next appointment is on Saturday. I go to work today for the first time and we'll see how it goes. The computer seems a bit of a strain. Eyes are dry but nothing terrible so far.
Cheers,
-Croc

 

[rwigg]

Awesome! Congrats! Glad all went well. No glasses, what a great thing. Hope you continue to do well and bet you can't wait to get out and shoot!:10sign::thumbsup:

Rod

 

[webguy]

Croc, Great story!!!! I kind of laugh because my story has a lot of similaries but my healing process with PRK was pure hell.

Very cool. I'm almost a year in and my vision kicks ass.

Thanks for posting. Keep me updated.

 

[BritChaser]

WebGuy has Several Hunting Techniques

So what you are really saying is......Daddy's got a new pair of beer googles on!

I actually got nose fixed twice too. 2nd time after landing on it after falling of roof at deer shack. I landed on this deer and kilt it....

Nice pounce! Did you dispatch it with a bite to the neck? LOL

 

[rwigg]

I thought you were gonna tell us you pounced on it and rode it into the ground until it gave up! Nice pic, thanks for sharing, and glad the eyeballs are doing fine!:cheers: