Board index » lasik-eyes » Enhancement after ASA

2003-10-07 04:35:02 AM
I had ASA (basically PRK) done about 3 months ago. I have to agree
with my OD who kept on telling me that in every week or two it will
get better and better.
For about a month, after the surgery, I used to see double letters
(like shadows), glares on the street lights, hard time to see close
(small fonts), far was just OK but not great etc. All these are
gradually diminishing.
Because of my age (47 years old), I had to wear reading glasses (+100
from dollar store) on the top of my contacts before the surgery so I
should not be blaming surgery for my reading glasses. The same
reading glasses are working just fine these days also.
However, I still don't have 20/20 or even 20/30 vision. My OD says I
do have 20/30 vision but when I put eyechart 20 feet away (at home)
and try to read 20/30 line, I barely can read the first letter and the
last letters the other letters are blurry. Before surgery my
prescription was myopic -6.25 diopters for the left and -6.5 diopters
for the right with small amount (I never asked how much) of
astigmatism on right eye.
What I am concerned about is - on the surgery day the OD had
calculated only 80% of correction for both of my eyes and the surgeon
and the laser tech were also saying right eye -5.2 and left eye -5.0
right before the laser buzzer was applied to my eyes. Is it because
of the less correction that I am not seeing 20/20 or still I have to
wait few more months for decent crispy 20/20 vision?
If I need enhancement when,in general, will they decide? My next
appointment is a month from now. Last time about a month ago when I
asked whether I would need enhancement, my OD said it is way too early
even to talk about it.
I will appreciate very much if anyone who went through similar
procedure or any knowledgeable person could answer my question and
concern.
Thank you.
SKS
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Your OD is correct that it is a bit too early to make a decision about
enhancement surgery. The eye needs to heal more and settle down
before it will be know what, if any, correction is needed.
Being undercorrected can be considered a good thing for someone who is
47 and needing reading glasses. There are two ways to describe myopia
(nearsightedness). One is that you cannot see things far away very
well, and the other is that you can see things close very well. With
a small amount of nearsightedness in the non-dominant eye, you may be
able to forego those reading glasses a little longer. You may want to
read www.usaeyes.org/faq/subjects/monovision.htm
Glenn Hagele
Executive Director
Council for Refractive Surgery Quality Assurance
www.USAeyes.org
www.ComplicatedEyes.org
glenn dot hagele at usaeyes dot org
I am not a doctor.
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sks5702@louisiana.edu (curious2) wrote in message news:<69a8c14e.0310061235.34af6d4@posting.google.com>...
I had the same initial prescription as you (well almost), I was -6.50
in each eye. I had Lasik, not PRK. I did not have trouble reading,
just with distance. I had an enhancement at about 5 months after my
initial Lasik. My choice was whether to accept -1.25 in each eye,
which made it impossible to drive at night or to go ahead and have an
enhancement. I chose to have the enhancement. However it seems to me
that I had a simpler error to correct as I did not have the problem
with reading. 3 months would seem to me to be a reasonable indicator
that you would need an enhancement. My surgeon knew after about 2
months. I have read enough about Lasik though to know that you need to
wait about 6 months to allow your eyesight to stabilize before having
an enhancement. That being said, I went ahead at 5 months and I have
heard of people having anhancements at 3 months! I get the impression
that you don't trust your surgeon. If this is the case, I would seek
other opinions.
Regards,
Linda
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