Dry eyes? Check Can’t see shit in low light? Check Weird itchy feeling? Rare, but check
It’s still a huge improvement over glasses or contacts. I probably ha e 5-10 years left before I need glasses again due to old age but I’ll enjoy it until then.
What kind of glasses are people wearing that makes it worth the substantial risk that they'll end up with chronically dry eyes. Especially when you'll he wearing them again anyway in a decade or two.
I didn't mind wearing glasses at all, or even contacts (although they caused dry eyes). What I minded the most about glasses was my dependency on them, and the fact that I'd be dead in the water if anything happened to them. Having a contingency plan was a part of everything I did; having a second pair on me, avoiding activities that risked my glasses if I didn't, dealing with them at the beach/pool/water activities, etc. I went through a lot of glasses growing up, and also had several ruined vacations and social situations due to something happening and becoming a lame duck reliant on other people to get me squared away. Although not consciously, I very definitively became more risk averse over time to avoid those situations.
The most profound impact of getting eye surgery was the complete and utter removal of that dependency, and the cognitive overhead that came along with it. Not that it seemed like a big deal at the time, as I spent decades accounting for it. But now I just don't think about my eye sight anymore. It's a small and subtle thing, but profoundly impactful on my quality of life in a way that I didn't even realize prior to surgery.
And when I have to start wearing glasses again, it'll be contextual need due to gradual degradation of my eyesight rather than an absolute dependency on them for every aspect of my waking hours.
I'm not sure I'd have made the same decision if eye surgery would have only been an incremental improvement in vision for me, but wanted to provide some insight into why some people would choose eye surgery, even with a high potential of side effects.
I always have a backup pair with me in the car, and I take 2 backup pairs on vacation, usually packed in 2 separate bags.
I also take spare shoes (even for day trips) because I can't buy another pair easily if something happens to mine--they don't sell shoes big enough in normal stores.
You obviously evaluated the risks differently, but to me not needing to pack an extra pair of glasses isn't worth the substantial, potentially life altering risk of severe dry eyes (not to mention blindness).
You don't have to buy them. Regular disposables are very cheap, but toric lenses are not cheap.
In most other ways, my vision is good, and I don't have night artifacts. Would take a lot for those to be worth it.
After using them for a while, I agree.
I know some people who've had the surgery, and who are happy with it, but it's not for me. I find disturbing the casualness that patients and medical practices have approached this kind of eye surgery. The rapidity of the procedure and the short recovery times, makes it easy to forget that this is major elective surgery on a vital organ. There's just too much that can go wrong. Glasses are a bit annoying, but that's the limit of it. I don't want to be reminded everyday how good I had it back when I wore glasses, as I put in eye drops every 15 minutes for the rest of my life, or have to have someone drive me around at night, or whatever else could go wrong. Medical procedures become more refined, safer and less invasive all the time. I'll wait until surgery is a necessity and enjoy the benefits of years of medical advancements between now and when that time comes.
Ive had really good results from it. 20/15 after 5+ years. I still have effects from the astigmatism, but less than I was wearing glasses/contacts, really only a problem when fatigued. I'll need reading glasses as I get older, but for now, its beautiful.
They did mine in 2 stages, one eye at a time over 4 weeks. Normally recovery is pretty quick, but I had a lot of swelling in my first eye done (anesthesia wore off in the middle of the procedure), I was blind for 3 weeks in that eye as the swelling came downm. Second eye I had nearly perfect vision straight out of the OR. The preop work is pretty painful as they use a laser to zap blood vessels in the iris to allow it to dialate enough to insert the implant.
There are side benefits, too, such as full UV A & B protection for the retina.
It's expensive, like $4500 per eye, but still probably the best money I've ever spent on myself.
But I've been wearing contacts for decades and they're still improving. (The type I was wearing for ages stopped being manufactured a couple years back and I switched to new highly permeable lens. What I had been wearing was fine but the new ones were even more comfortable.)
The only downside for me is that I now need reading glasses when I'm wearing contacts--which I don't when I'm not wearing them. May look into multi-focals next time I'm getting checked.