The Song Remains the Same

In October 1983 I had RK on my left eye after seeing a local ophthalmologist who had put an ad in our local paper. YES, 1983 that is the correct year and I was and am one of the early failures. I remember how excited I was when the MD told me that I was a "good candidate" for the procedure. A colleague of mine had the procedure done and was quite pleased with the results so I figured the only downside would be, according to the surgeon, possible slight undercorrection (since I was about a -7.0) and rarely an infection which could be treated with antibiotics.

Looking back these many years, I can see how easily it was to be led down the primrose path to this type of surgery. No one who wears glasses wants them. In my case, I had been teased as a child being called "4 eyes" all the time. This carried over to my adult life where I even wore uncomfortable hard lenses for many years just so I didn't have to wear glasses. Needless to say, no psychological testing was done on me to see why I hated glasses so much or what would happen, both physically and mentally, if the surgery was not successful.

After a month or so, I knew I had made a terrible mistake. The doctor kept prodding me to have my other eye done. I was seeing near 20/20 on his chart. What was my problem? What was wrong with me? I kept telling him that my vision in dim light was terrible with ghosts, starbursts and lack of detail. He said those symptoms would go away. I didn't believe him and I was right. Here it is 15 years post-op and my dim light and night vision is still bad. Yes, it is better than before because the slits do become finer as the years go by but it is not nearly as good as my unoperated eye. Now I am stuck with not only poor night vision but visual fluctuations of 1-2 diopters a day and anisometropia (refractive mismatch between the two eyes).

The surgeon was of little help once the damage was done and basically tried to cover up the situation. I asked for a referral to a University hospital to see their staff of ophthalmologists. He refused so I made an appointment myself with the head of the department of ophthalmology at the University hospital. By that time, three months post-op, I was now also dealing with severe depression which eventually required psychiatric care and medication. Until you have had depression you do not know how debilitating it is to yourself and your family. I kept asking myself "why did you do this."

My visit to the University hospital was not of much help other than to confirm my decision to not let my right eye be operated on. Otherwise, I basically became a guinea pig for them to photograph and test my eyes. At least I thought this would end this type of surgery, as my case would be published to help others. I even made that very clear to the chief of ophthalmology. I did not want others to suffer. Even though the MD left a 3mm center of vision, I have very large pupils and when my eye dilates in dim light the incoming light is being refracted off of the incisions. Needless to say, I am absolutely shocked at the problems RK, PRK, and LASIK patients are having in the 1990's with the same problems I experienced in 1983. Did no one learn anything from my experience? Why did they continue to cut into optical zones? Why are they still doing it even with the newer laser surgeries? I really thought I was a rare exception and had my problems because I was such an early case.

Now, since I have been on the Surgicaleyes web-site I cannot believe that others have suffered when I went through hell and tried to prevent others from doing so by going to one of the finest ophthalmology schools in the country. I am really sorry that my failure became some of yours also. It did not have to be! They new early on that cutting into the optical zone caused major problems. Even one case such as mine should have been a clear sign not to operate on people with large pupils.

I have learned to live with these problems and get on with my life though I guess I will never get over it completely. I feel pretty good mentally now but it is hard not to think about my situation since of all of our sense organs, the eyes are the most sensitive. At this point, laser eye surgery is a tremendous money making opportunity and I doubt that anything other than government intervention will prevent further tragedies. If this type of ophthalmic surgery were like a new prescription drug, it would have been banned years ago. I don't understand it, but at least there is the Surgicaleyes web site. I think it should be a requirement for each laser surgery candidate to be required to sign a document that they have visited this web-site and still want the surgery.

I wish all of you the best and hope that my experience will help someone decide NOT to have any non-required eye surgery. It is not worth the risk. I do not care what the ophthalmology community says.

Unfortunately, for the most part, you cannot believe them. I do not know where the MD's who don't believe in these surgeries are but they have not been vocal. They have done a great disservice to patients.