Lasik and shooting revisited....

[wally]

I considered resurrecting this thread, which I had participated in:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=216249&highlight=Lasik

But its got so long, and many of the later responses had not read the earlier parts of the thread anyway.

Short answer. I had Lasik done on both eyes on Jan 3rd (www.doclipsky.com is the place) and today was my first trip to the range since having it done and I am thrilled with the results despite having had a complication in my right eye that has its healing about a week behind the left.

I can't over stress the need for at least two independent evaluations and if they don't agree get a third and then of two of these three don't agree, forget about it and give the technology and screening procedures more time to improve to handle your situation.

If you are satisfied with glasses or contacts I'd certainly recommend staying with them as no surgery is without risks! I tried both and found both seriously lacking for my needs.

My complication was the right eye flap "wrinkled" over night and my next day follow up exam detected it and immediately corrected it, although I had to wear a "bandage contact" for a week which is why my right eye is a week behind. I had clear vision in the left eye but blury vision in the right when I woke up from the sleeping pill, so I figured something had gone wrong on the right side

Its wonderful to see the front and rear sights clearly again I was hitting the steel plate with irons the way I had needed red dot optics before! Did make me miss a bit more with the red dot since I was distracted by being able to focus on the dot -- with red dots you must look thru the dot and focus on the target. My right eye astigmatism had gotten so bad I was seeing two sets of blury sights!

I still need "cheaters" for reading and computer work (although I can read my monitor from 4' away!, just can't do it comfortably when sitting in front of it for more than a few minutes), but what a miracle to be able to see the buttons on the TV remote without having to fumble for my glasses, my near vision is not 20/20 as prebyoptia prevents that, but its good enough to have real utility where before I needed cheaters for anything inside of 7-9 feet, now only need them inside 3 feet.

I'll be happy to discuss specific details if anyone is interested. Dr. Lipsky had me do two monovision trials with contacts and these were much better than what the pervious eye doctor fitted, but after an through discussion I decided fixing my right eye astigmatism and previously undiagnosied hyperoptia and using cheaters for reading was the way to go!

My wife watched the surgery on a colsed circut TV monitor and said it was like putting an onion in the microwave -- lots of little sparks. She is scheduled for a detailed exam to verify PRK is OK for her later this week, Lasik is out for her because of too thin a cornea.

--wally.

 

[CWL]

I had Lasik done to both eyes in 1999 at ~5:00PM. Procedure took less than 10 minutes. My Doc gave me a video of the procedure, I showed it to people to freak them out until my VHS player broke. Too bad the ozone smell of my eyeballs being vaporized by the laser can't be recreated.

By 9:00AM the next morning, I was playing golf for the first time in my life without the need for eyeglasses or contacts.

No problems whatsoever although I do get occasional "haloing" late at night when I'm tired.

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

I had Lasik done in December. One of the best things ever. Not having to fumble for glasses at night, and not having to have prescription inserts for my sand goggles and pro mask is awesome too.

 

[gbran]

Did I incorrectly assume that since Lasik doesn't correct near term, that it would be of no value to me in regards to gun sights? Sounds like it helped you with iron sights, but you still need reading glasses.

I currently wear trifocals. A few weeks ago I had to renew my CCW and had to shoot about 50 rounds at only 7 yards. I bought 1.5x reading glasses for the shoot, just so I could focus on the front sight, but still be able to see a blurry target.

I typically wear 2x for close work reading.

 

[Japle]

I had AK (astigmatic keratotomy) done about 6 years ago. I wasn’t a candidate for Lasik because, at the time at least, it didn’t work as well for astigmatism. AK uses a tiny diamond blade to slice the cornea. The operation is definitely no fun at all, especially if you don't wear contacts and aren't used to anything touching your eye!

I’ll admit I was a little hard to deal with. In order to avoid wearing reading glasses, I wanted my right eye to focus from reading distance out to front pistol sight distance and my left eye to focus at long range. This “monovision” technique works well if it can be done, but it’s not easy. My eye doc was sure he could do it and he was right. After six years, I’m still going without glasses. My brain learned to use the signal from the in-focus eye and ignore the other one. I don’t notice. It all looks in focus to me.

For pistol shooting, I have a pair of glasses that has a zero-prescription lens on the right side and a 20-15 lens on the left. The sights are in sharp focus and I can see the target, too. It’s amazing how the brain adapts. I can see the front sight lift out of the rear notch and a hole appear in the target a split second later. Outdoors, if the light's right, I can often see the streak of the bullet. I’m not aware of my brain switching from right to left eye and I’m not sure it does. It seems like sights and target are in focus all the time.

Downside: Open rifle sights are almost unusable. I can use peep sights or a scope. Also, dot sights don’t work well. The dot is designed to be in the same focal plane as the target and my right eye won’t focus that far away.
A small price to pay, IMHO.

John
Cape Canaveral

 

[greenflash107]

Wally, if you dont mind, what age group are you in? I am 52 and wore contacts until I was around 45. My eyes then changed on the near focus(had to go to trifocal glasses) I would be interested in having something like Lasik done if it corrected not only my being nearsighted but also repairing the close focus (reading etc) I can wear contacts now and see fine far away, but up close, no deal. And I have tried the new contacts for people that have to wear bi- or tri focal lenses, but they dont work real good for me.

 

[Linda]

They don't have LASIK prefected for up close yet. Can't wait until they do. I'll get my left eye done.

I had my right eye done in 2001. So, I have monovision. My left eye has gotten where I have to wear reading glasses now.

Best $$ I ever spent on myself. And it was an amazingly easy process. Less than 10 minutes in and out of the surgery room.

Took my right eye from 160/20 to 10/20. Better than better, and it's as good now 7 years later as when I had it done.

 

[glockman19]

wally,

Congrats.

LASIK is/was the best decision I made.

 

[NAK]

My Lasik was done on Jan 4th and yesterday was my first trip to the range.
All I can say is WOW!

Before, it was impossible for me to see both the rear sights and the target. It was either reading glasses to see the sights, or contacts to see the target; I had to pick one and guess at the other. I have been using a Eotech with some success, but the 1 MOA dot in the center was fuzzy and covered about 5 inches at 100 years

I had a Mono-Vision correction. My astigmatism was fully corrected in both eyes. My dominant eye was fully corrected for distant vision (better than 20/15 at a checkup5 days after the surgery) and my other eye was corrected for reading.

The pistol range left me feeling like a kid again. I can now see the rear sights with my dominant eye and shot some very nice groups. At the rifle range, I shot a couple of 1 3/4" groups with my Bushmaster using "Gun Show" reloads. In the past I was getting more of a Pattern than a Group.

My real shooting addiction is sporting clays, and I was somewhat concerned about loss of depth perception with the mono-vision. I got in two rounds of sporting clays on Sunday and had absolutely no depth perception problems. I have listened to friends and coaches talk about "seeing the ribs" on the leading edge of targets. I assumed this was a figurative thing, until yesterday!

I am 100% satisfied!

...but now my shoulder and wrist ache.

 

[Neophyte1]

not candidate

Folks; I am not a candidate for the procedures. DADGUMIT There probably isn't anyone; well maybe; that has researched as much about the different procedures. It does make me jealous; in a good way. Continue with follow ups and experiences.

Thanks

 

[wally]

Did I incorrectly assume that since Lasik doesn't correct near term, that it would be of no value to me in regards to gun sights? Sounds like it helped you with iron sights, but you still need reading glasses.

Lasik has nothing to offer for presbyoptia other than mono-vison, where one eye is corrected to see near and the other corrected to see far.

There are two main problems with mono-vision, some people can't adapt to it, and depending on how much accommodation you have left it may be impossible to get good distance vision and good reading vision without leaving a range in between where neither eye sees good; so insist on a trial using contacts before considering it.

Mono-vision worked pretty well for me, but there was enough slippage of the toric contact in my right eye that I still had doubts. Dr Lipsky was my first eye exam that pointed out that I have always been hyperoptic, meaning I was wasting some of my accommodation at distance, so when the far vision was fixed my near vision also improved because the diopter or so I was "wasting" to focus at infinity is now usable to see closer -- a very nice surprise having my near point move in from about 9' to about 3'.

Fixing the right eye astigmatism was my main purpose of investigating Lasik and I originally thought my left eye only suffered presbyoptia, so I initially planed only right eye surgery. That's why a complete work up from a doctor that's not going in with assumptions about what you want is crucial.

He warned me that hyperopes are harder to fix and often need another tweaking pass with the laser after everything is healed in 30-60 days, If my near vision was not good enough I could consider mono-vision as a "tweak".

I'm 57. Got my first reading glasses at 49, pretty much needed them full time to read and do computer work at 50. I seem have abnormally large amount of accommodation for my age. The key is a good doctor that assess your specific situation correctly and gives you the best advice so you can make the compromise that is best for you. None of my other eye doctors pointed out the hyperoptia as once I tested 20/20 or a bit better at distance they assumed there was no problem and my complaint was the standard "you're, old, your near vision deteriorates, wear reading glasses" About three years ago when the astigmatism got bad enough to make the reading glasses less than useful I tried corrective glasses for near vision but found too much distortion unless I looked thru the "sweet spot".

Japle, interesting about your red dot comment. When I was doing the contact lens mono-vision trial I had great success with the red dot keeping both eyes open, and good success with the irons again with both eyes open. I'd always been a one-eyed shooter but as the astigmatism developed in the right (dominant) eye I've forced myself to be a two eyed pistol shooter. The astigmatism made it hard to use scopes as I'd see two reticles and under some lighting conditions found it near impossible to tell which was the "real" one!

--wally.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

My PRK (not a candidate for LASIK) was done about a year ago and has been great.

 

[Kingcreek]

I am 50 years old an recently had to go to bifocals and they're not working well for me for anything but reading. lose most of my peripheral vision and can't even shave with the damn things. Shooting is much better with my single vision glasses or contacts.
I've researched every eye clinic/doc within 100 miles and one guy stands out as tops in vision correction.
I'm going to make an appointment later today!
Thanks for the info folks.

 

[Joey_the_Wolf]

I always like reading threads like this because I want to get LASIK in the near future. I'm almost but not quite 22 (April), but I still have absolutely horrible eyesight. -8.0 in the right eye and -9.0 in the left. Basically, I can't see jack past 2 feet without my contacts in. To add to that fun mix, I'm an avid shooter and I also want to be a cop and am actively pursuing that goal. Problem is, I get halos at night with my contacts on which makes driving a pain (not with my glasses though), and my biggest fear is that Johnny Crackhead will throw sand in my eyes or do something that will cause me to drop my contacts, and I will be in a world of suck at that point. I also fear dropping a contact lens while driving to Wal-Mart or wherever on an average night, and losing %50 of my vision... while on the road. Also not fun... It's never happened thankfully, but it's still on the back of my mind.

So it seems LASIK is my only option at this point in time. Thankfully I've been told I'm a good candidate, and my Rx has been stable for years now. I'm just saving up the cash now though, because as a broke college student, it can be a pretty hefty bill, even with the payment options...