How much does it cost in the US? Down here in NZ, it cost me NZ$5750 (~US$4877) for intralase (laser-created flap) on both eyes.
I didn't have a lot of those follow up tests mentioned where they poke your eye. I had a follow up the day after, then a week after, then a month, then two months after. All they did at each appointment was get me to read from a chart and examined my eyes with some kind of digital microscope.
Annoying parts were the preparation (one week eyedrops) and the eyedrops after the operation for two months that take some time. And the fact that during the operation you realize that your eye is more attached to the huge laser machine than to your eye socket. Good thing that only lasted a minute.
No physical contact to the eye, just some checkups.
Some clinics claim to do it for half that price, but it seems like they will try to upsell you to a more expensive type of surgery (supposedly more accurate one) after getting you to commit. They even called it "premium lasik".
I could not figure out from any online sources whether there would actually be a difference between the two types of surgery (and if there was, what kind of a doctor would really allow a lesser surgery in such an important situation?), so I decided it was probably just an upselling attempt and decided to go with a clinic that was more straightforward with their pricing and had a less marketing-savvy look to their landing pages.
Another difference -- here the surgeon suggests the benzodiazapines. You would have been given surgery without valium if you hadn't asked your general doctor?
Yes, there would have been no sedatives. Seems to be normal here, also at dentist you get no sedatives (anesthetics though of course).