I'm an optometric technician that was offered the chance to have lasik done for free by the lasik corp. that our practise co-manages for. This is an incentive for the staff to promote the surgery to patients.
Although I read everything that our office had on lasik, and thought that I was well informed on the procedure and its risks, nothing could be further from the truth. Although the surgery and healing went well and I did not contract any infections, I ended up with poor vision that could not be corrected with glasses or another surgical procedure.

I had central islands, little "hills" of unlasered tissue that prevented the corneal flap from healing in a symmetrical optical surface, causing irregular astigmatism. This causes multiple overlapping images, or "ghosting". Everyone looked like they had two sets of eyebrows and eyeglass frames on their face. It was nearly impossible to measure people for bifocals or do the many fine tasks that I do at work each day. All the back lit instruments that I use had double images and the eye chart was one big jumble of tripled letters. (Good thing I knew it by heart because I cried everytime I looked at it and was reminded that I had lost my precious good vision.) My loss of contrast was so severe that newsprint looked like it had been left out in the sun for a few weeks, it was so washed out.

What I didn't understand, before lasik, was that 20/20 (or the 20/40 that I ended up with) tells you nothing about the quality of your vision. Line 8 could be blurry, tripled and barely legible but if you can make out a few letters on it - that's 20/20!!! Lasik promoters like to point out that no one has gone "blind" (they don't mention how many have needed corneal transplants) but they don't tell you that thousands are ending up permanently visually impaired and functionally disabled.

The downward spiral into depression was something else I hadn't counted on. This wasn't some accident that happened to me, it was a cosmetic surgery that I chose to have done, and the self blame was enormous.

I had trusted that my highly acclaimed, experienced surgeon had my best interests in mind when I asked her if I was a good candidate and she replied, "Absolutely, you'll be very happy!" How could such a noble profession lower itself by agressively promoting and downplaying the risks of a surgery that often can't be "fixed" and no one knows what the long term risks may be?

Thankfully, at SE, I found out about reverse geometry gas permeable (rigid) lenses, which most doctors have never heard of. I downloaded everything that I could find and my doctor, with the help of a great CL consultant, was able to achieve a pretty good fit. Although there are some problems with them, I am one of the lucky ones who has been able to get my life back. Many others here cannot tolerate them because of incredibly dry eyes or other problems post lasik, and their lives are on hold. Many have lost their jobs but cannot file for disability because they're not "legally blind" (20/200). Even if you accept the low figure that is often adopted by the industry that "only" one percent of eyes suffer a permanent loss of vision, that is still one out of every hundred eyes, and thousands of eyes each year.

If you're thinking about lasik, become very well informed by the "other side" of lasik before you sign your vision away on the mile-long consent form. Get at least three opinions and ask to know "your numbers": your corneal thickness, pupil size, how much tissue has to be removed and how much you will have left, untouched. (Some feel that 250 microns left untouched is safe enough, some others are calling for a thicker saftey net of 300.) But there are no rules or regulations - it's every surgeon for himself and you haven't much of a chance to receive compensation if something goes wrong because you've signed your rights away.

Take your time, learn from our experiences and best of luck to you.

Aurora