Ever since I was a little kid my vision has been pretty bad. I’ve worn glasses for the past 24 years, and contacts for the past 14. It’s funny how those type of things can shape what we consider normal behavior. When laser eye surgery became widely popular, I always talked about how “one day” I would get it done. It was basically like one of those dreams that you talk about when you know you really can’t afford it. Years later, I’m finally in a financial position where I can afford it and I need to decide what to do. It’s a two-step process really, one step being within myself weighing the rewards and the risks, as well as the financial aspect of the cost of the procedure. Step two consists of the examination by the doctors to see if I’m even a viable candidate for the procedure, and if I can have corrective eye surgery at all.
As far as I’m concerned, the benefits of the procedure would be amazing. I know a handful of people that have had laser eye surgery and every single one of them has raved about the results. They all say they wish they would have done it sooner. That excites me, and helps to make me feel comfortable with the procedure from a risk perspective. I know there are risks, but the risk is mathematically very small to the number of successes. In terms of how it would change my life, I probably can’t really even understand the magnitude of that yet. I mean, how can I really know how waking up in the morning and being able to see will feel? I’ve never felt it before. It could very well be a life changing experience. There’s no doubt that it will be something that I will have to get used to. 24 years of wearing glasses or contacts has created a lot of condition behaviors in me. It’s just like the first month I wore contacts I kept trying to adjust glasses on my face that weren’t there. It will take some time to get used to, but the possible benefit is enormous. That in mind, I don’t really worry about the financial aspect of it now that I have enough to pay for it. I have the money in savings to be able to pay for it all, so it’s just a matter of whether or not I think it’s worth the cost. The answer to that is undeniably yes.
Now whether my vision is going to allow me to have the surgery may be a different story. I have pretty heavy near-sightedness and astigmatism in both eyes, but I think the aspects of my vision that might hold me back from getting the procedure is either my long history of contact wear or a non-stable prescription. When I first starting wearing contacts I was very rough on my eyes, and I hope that I haven’t caused any permanent scarring. At this point I really don’t know yet, but it’s something that I worry about. Another part is my current prescription. I’ve worn the same glasses for about 3 years now, but my last contact prescription was different than the year before that. Personally I think the eye doctor I went to last year didn’t give me the correct prescription because my vision is worse in the contacts he gave me than my previous ones. Either way, I hope that my vision is stable enough to warrant laser eye surgery at all. Otherwise I might just have to wait a little while longer.
The bottom line is that I need to get a consultation and find out the answers to these questions. There’s no use feeling the anticipation of it when I can just go in and find out for myself whether or not I’m a good candidate. Maybe a part of me is afraid of not being a good candidate which would basically kill my lifelong dream of normal vision, and that’s why I haven’t gone in so far. At some point I need to know, so I’m planning on setting something up in the next month or so. I will definitely keep writing updates on my experience so you all can see where it takes me.
Have any of you had laser eye surgery? What do you recommend?
