r/lasiksurgery

Good afternoon everyone I am a 28 y/o male and I am here today faced with the decision on what to do with my eyes. I have long wore glasses like almost everybody else who frequents here probably and have -6 and -5.75 eyes so that places me somewhere in the middle of considering LASIK or ICL. I do not have a history of dry eye either so I do not think that would be an issue for me personally. I understand most patients are completely satisfied but I guess can’t stop thinking about what could go wrong so tell me your honest feelings about YOUR experience with either the LASIK or ICL procedure, thank you!

Hello! 26 year old female. Before lasik I was -4.75 and -5.0. I got lasik in December and was told I had 20/20 vision. Since then my left eye has gotten significantly worse. My lasik doctor said my eyes are still 20/20 but dry eye is causing me to see -.75. Has anyone ever dealt with this? Any tips on how to fix dry eye? It’s been really rough with constant blurry vision.Thanks!

Ok, so I had LASIK 8 and a half months ago, mini-monovision, left eye is left only with -0.5, for reading up close, and the right dominant eye is fully corrected. Pre op -3.25 -1.00 cyl OD, and -3.00 and -1.25 or -1.5 cyl OS. In the beginning, I had interference between eyes, which is normal until the brain adjusts to mini-monovision, and then I was seeing clearly up close while looking at the phone, and without ghosting, and very little ghosting was present in the distance, also, but the mid-range was kinda more blurry. Then, after 4-5 months, I saw consistently clear up close, mid-range improved too, and all seemed fine. Halo and starburst started to diminish, and I felt that I rarely needed drops.

Then 5-6 months later, even tho I was still using eye drops from time to time, I started experiencing ghosting more often, distance or not, the letters would start to drop, but dynamically, dropping then going back to normal, then seeing 30 minutes normally, one hour, then again ghosting, etc. Via day, I can see really well, even at night, a lot of details, strong contours, textures, etc, so it is highly unlikely that some left astigmatism or whatsoever, because when I see clearly for an hour or two, I can see really sharp, small prints in the distance of some menu, etc.

But my question is: has anyone experienced stabilization of ghosting after almost 9 months? Even when I do experience ghosting, when I squint slightly, it goes away, then comes back; it's kinda dynamic when it appears and disappears. Drops do not change that much. It is annoying...I know that for most people it goes away within 10 months, for some after 3, but still. I do not feel that my eyes are super dry, even tho they may be.

I know that when I had eyeglasses with the wrong astigmatism correction, or without them, I would not see the sharp contours of objects. It was a great test, until I got the last pair of eyeglasses, and it all clicked. And I do see, as I said, sharp contours, so I know that it doesn't have anything to do with dioptry or astigmatism.

Any insights or successful stories that resolved over time?

Hi all. I (-7.00 myopia and -1.75 astigmatism L eye. -5.00 myopia and -2.00 astigmatism R eye) underwent femtolasik about six months ago. The procedure itself was swift, and I can't say that I had any serious pain throughout the recovery process.

However, I was surprised to find I had developed MGD by the second month. My assumption was that I probably had it prior to surgery but was asymptomatic (I've never had to use any eye drops in my entire life before the surgery) however after discussing this with my doctor, along with other doctors I had gone to for previous check-ups, I had discovered that I did not in fact have MGD before the surgery.

My doctor explained that if I had MGD, he would not have gone on with the surgery.

Well, whether I had it or not, I am certainly symptomatic now.

I have been on bromfenac eye drops to quell some of the inflammation, then was moved on to cyclosporine drops. I have been on them for three months now and apparently the results have been minimal. Restasis drops thankfully don't burn during instillation, but during month two progress plateaued and I started getting intense itchiness which made me want to claw my eyes out. (Thank god for lotemax. Issue resolved within a week.)

This brings me to the slew of odd sensations I've been experiencing since the surgery. Weird prickly yet not necessarily painful zaps in my eye (decreased dramatically after restasis) and this ridiculous, mild yet ongoing burning I get by the end of the day. Lipid-based drops help for like two minutes. Hot compressions help also, but not to an amazing degree.

I started getting worried about corneal neuralgia which really peaked my anxiety these last four months. I love life.

My symptoms now are mostly managed, but apparently my MGD is not so I'm considering IPL.

My doctor thinks this happened because of inflammation.

I am looking for some insight. If you are an optometrist or ophthalmologist, I would seriously appreciate your view. As well as anyone who may have gone through something similar and what has helped. More selfishly, I would like some assurance that this is just temporary and soon will be able to live my life without having to imagine an time-bomb about to go off over my head.

Please no anxiety-inducing responses. I am worried enough as it is.

Thank you.

My brother is about 7 months post Femto LASIK 👋 and still going through a rough recovery.

He developed what doctors described as corneal neuralgia along with dryness, floaters, starbursts, and migraine-like eye/eye-head pain. Early on it was severe—sharp stabbing pain (mostly one eye at first), burning/foreign body sensation, and pain radiating into headaches.

It’s been very up and down. There has been some improvement, but he still gets flare-ups, usually triggered by poor sleep or stress. Dryness has improved compared to the beginning but is not fully gone, and visual symptoms still fluctuate.

He’s seen multiple doctors and tried treatments aimed at nerve healing and inflammation, including serum tears and gabapentin, along with other prescribed drops. Progress has been slow and not linear, but not completely stuck either.

Mentally, it’s been just as difficult as the physical symptoms—the uncertainty and long recovery time have been a lot to deal with.

Just wondering if anyone here has fully recovered from something like this or found what actually helped them long-term? Would really appreciate hearing other experiences. ✌️

Did anyone have any issues at their check ups with no symptoms? I couldn’t book my one month post surgery check up but don’t have any issues

Bad or great idea to get LASIK in just one eye?

Hi all, I'm a 26 year old female. My current prescription is -4.75 sphere, +2.00 cylinder in my left eye and -1.50 sphere, +1.25 cylinder in my right eye. I've been seriously considering LASIK for over a year now and am now in a better spot financially to really consider it.

However, I've been reading all these horror stories about the risks of LASIK and getting a bit scared thinking about possible permanent effects on the eye. My right eye is mild enough, I wondered if I could just correct my left eye so that I could potentially avoid wearing glasses?

I could not get myself to wear contacts (tried and failed) and mainly I just hate the way I look in glasses and would love to be able to see when I go running (currently I just stay a lil blind while I run without glasses), work out, and hike.

Would it minimize risks if I only got it done in one eye? Has anyone just gotten the procedure in one eye before?