Recently in Lasik Category

I had one more followup appointment this morning with the Eye Center. It's been 9 months since I had Lasik, and this was the last regularly scheduled appointment to follow up on my progress. I don't really have any complaints. My eyes are dry sometimes, mainly the right eye, but nothing horrible. If I look at bright lights at night or on a rainy day, I do seem to see halos, but nothing really bad.
This morning, I really could read the 20/15 line quite clearly. Chalk one up for Dr. Boutros there. Since I didn't have any problems to speak of, the doctor said this would be my last regular appointment, as expected. The cool thing now is that I have a "warranty," so I will go back yearly for regular checkups, so that if anything really bad happens, they wil fix it for me.
At any rate, I'm very happy with the way things have gone with the Eye Center and Dr. Boutros. I'd recommend them to anyone looking to have Lasik.

Yesterday brought me another reminder that, in spite of the dearth of comments on this blog, people do in fact read it. The reader in this case? Dr. Ayman Boutros, my Lasik surgeon.
Yesterday was my three month follow up appointment. I almost forgot about it because I've already started taking my Lasik eyes for granted. Everything has been going very well. I still have a haziness around headlights, or just lights, especially at night, but that is still supposed to get better even up to the next year.
I showed up for the appointment a little bit early, but it didn't seem to matter as the place was nearly deserted, which was a switch from my previous visits. I learned later that it was normally sort of an off day for them, and they just squeezed in a few appointments. They did the same machine tests on my eyes, and then the normal eye exam. This time, I was actually able to pretty clearly read 20/15 with no guessing. So I guess they turned out to be right eventually. The one thing I did notice is that my right eye does seem to still be my "bad eye." It was always worse, but now it's much less noticeable. For a month or so after having the surgery, I was obsessed with covering one eye, and seeing how things looked, then covering the other and comparing. I hadn't done that in a while, so it was a bit surprising that there was a small but noticeable difference.
Then Dr. Boutros walked in. He said that someone from his office had emailed him my blog! Wow, who would have thought? Apparently it's been passed around his office too. I wasn't sure what to think. Is he going to be defensive? Is he going to give me my Lasik for free for the good report? It turned out to be somewhere in between. He very politely explained a couple of the minor things I had maybe complained about before. First, why it seems like they are a factory. I guess my impressions were skewed a little bit because they are very popular (the guy's on the radio all the time), and because the other two places I visited were not very busy at all. They also only have the surgeons work a couple of days a week, and so they pile on the appointments for the time that they are there. I guess it makes sense... He also validated my decision to go with the Intralase. It's a good explanation, so I'll try to relay it here.
Back when Dr. Boutros was first testing the Intralase laser, he was still also doing plenty of conventional Lasik procedures. So one day, he had done a bunch of Intralase with no problems. The flaps were so consistent and easy, he started to take it for granted. Then came a patient who was getting their flap cut with the traditional blade. He cut the flap and started to lift it up, and got that little pitter patter of his heart skipping a beat as there were those momentary questions: Would the flap be okay? What would the surface be like underneath? Of course, it turned out fine, as almost all do, but there were still those questions. With Intralase, there were no such worries, as every flap comes out very consistently. It's not just a matter of making more money, but there's the reassurance that it comes out the same way, every time.
I don't think I really said it here enough, but I am very happy with how everything turned out. The people at the Eye Center were always ready and willing to answer my questions, but I think with my passive personality, I ended up writing about them here more than asking them about my worries or complaints. I made the decision to go with them because I thought they had the best surgeon, and the best and latest equipment, and that they would treat my eyes well. They never let me down, and I would choose them again, and recommend them to my friends. By the way, this is a completely unpaid endorsement. They're not giving me anything for free, and didn't ask me to write this. I'm just very happy with how things turned out.

Almost forgot to give you the one month Lasik update. Things seem to be settling down now. I'm having fewer periods where my vision fluctuates. Usually it's just slightly blurrier than usual for a couple of hours or so, but lately I haven't had too many such periods. The one bad part that I particularly noticed last night was that the halos around lights, especially at night and in the rain, are still prevalent. I suppose that those may go away too, but it's one of those things that I'm prepared to live with if I have to. At any rate, my overall vision is stabilized a lot more than at my last doctor's visit. At that time, they had me reading the 20/20 and 20/15 lines and both were fairly blurry, but I managed to read/guess them anyways. I feel pretty confident that I could now read the 20/20 without guessing, but probably not 20/15. But I think I can live with that.

Today marks the end of my second full week with Lasik eyes.
On Monday, I had another followup appointment, which was largely uneventful. The nurse administered another eye exam, and laughably said I read the 20/15 line. I know I got at least one letter wrong, and most letters I was simply guessing at based on their shapes. I most definitely am not 20/15, but they will probably claim me as such now for their statistics. I was able to see 20/20 more easily now though, even though they were slightly blurry. The individual vision in each eye separately is still slightly fuzzy, but is getting better. With both eyes together, I don't notice much fuzziness or blurriness at all. I still see halos around lights, especially at night, but those seem to be getting smaller now.
I'm due back for a followup appointment in three months. Until then, my vision should be stabilizing and maybe getting better. If it gets worse, I'll go back sooner, but I don't anticipate that happening. I'm pleased with the results, and I certainly wouldn't go back to glasses!

For the first time when I woke up this morning, I could really see well. The past few mornings, my vision has been a bit hazy at first until my eyes woke up. This morning was still a little bit hazy, but noticeably better than it has been.
Without further ado, I give you my tips for surviving Lasik (mainly for my buddy John, who goes under the laser later this week).
- Get home as soon as possible after the surgery. We were off in the estimation of when I would be done with the surgery, and so I ended up stuck sitting in the reception area waiting for Lisa for 30 minutes as the anesthetic eye drops wore off and my eyes started stinging. Get home ASAP, take the Valium, and got to sleep. Sleeping it off is the best way to go.
- Get a good audiobook. The day after, you probably still won't be able to concentrate very long on reading or TV. It hurts and gives you a headache. My recommendation is to download/buy a good audiobook to pass the time. You'll be bored out of your mind staring at the walls otherwise.
- Get good sunglasses. They'll give you some not-horrible sunglasses to wear out of the surgery, but they are not made for long term wearing. I wore them at the beach all day on Saturday, and they really started digging in behind my ears after a while, and they hurt. I need to get some good sunglasses that are comfortable (suggestions welcome) to make it through the summer.
- Don't expect miracles. I certainly don't think anyone will expect to come out of major surgery feeling like roses, and this is no different. The eyes are an amazing thing, and I could see most things pretty well on Friday at my followup appointment, but they too take time to heal.
That's it for now. Good luck John!

It's now the beginning of my first full week with my Lasik eyes, and I'm pretty happy. Still a tad blurry, and man, the starbursts/halos are killing me. Every time I look out at the parking lot, the sun shining off the windshields blinds me. But I've been assured that this should go away with time. Here's hoping.
Last night I had a close call. We were eating dinner and I had a salad with Italian dressing on it. Somehow I managed to flick a bit of dressing off the lettuce and right into my left eye! Damn that burns. I quickly grabbed some eyedrops and cleared the eye out, but I shudder to think about what might have happened if that was a couple of days earlier. As it was, my eye is fine, it just stung a bit. And no more Italian dressing for a while.
Outside of that, my eyes have been doing well. I don't get any more headaches like I did the first day. By the end of the day my eyes are tired, and feel like they did after a long day of wearing contacts. I instinctively want to take my contacts out and give the eyes a rest, but thankfully I haven't poked my eyes out yet. Instead, I just have to put drops in my eyes and basically just close my eyes and go to sleep. A small price to pay for not having glasses and contacts any more.

20/20! Or so they tell me.
I went in for my followup appointment this morning. I drove myself to the office, and since it was dark and rainy, I was very aware of the halo haze around the headlights of oncoming cars. It wasn't terrible, but I was definitely going to ask about it when I got to the office.
The nurse took me back and did the barn test again (for those not familiar, there's a "refractometer" machine that has a picture of a barn at the far end that goes in and out of focus). Then back to the office for the eye tests. Even though I did say it was a little blurry and hazy, I was able to read the 20/20 lines! Cool! She, as well as the eye doctor, said that the haziness should get better as time goes by. The eye doctor then looked at my eyes under the bright light and said that it didn't even look like I had Lasik. Then she told me to look down and saw the burst blood vessels and said, "And now it DOES look like you had Lasik." I knew it was something that would happen, even if it is a little freaky, but she explained to me that it would go away after a time, and that gravity might make the spots move down in the eye, more into view (rather than under the eyelids as they are now). I wasn't too worried. Other stuff: I only have to wear the damned goggles for one more night; I can cut back on the eye drops and just do each one four times a day, pretty much until they're gone. And my next appointment is Monday July 18, so we'll see how I'm doing then.
Overall, it was good news. I drove myself to the appointment, I tested 20/20, even with some bluriness, and I drove myself to work, which is where I'm posting this from. We'll see how long the eyes last today. Yesterday, they were pretty good in the morning, but by the time I went to bed, they were pretty tired, and felt sort of like they do after wearing contacts all day long. I imagine it may be a short day today, but we'll see.

I left work just after lunch, after rushing to finish a bunch of things I needed to get done. We arrived at The Eye Center around 1:30pm, a little bit early. They double checked that I had an appointment (thankfully, no problems this time). I paid the $4000 balance with the aforementioned nifty Flex Spending Visa card. They brought me a glass of water to take the Valium with. Thank god for Valium. I actually checked my pulse a few times to see if I was fooling myself saying I was calm. Before Valium: 100-110. After Valium: 70-80. I really didn't feel nervous, especially after the Valium.
Lisa went off to drop Ellie off at a friend's house. We figured that it would be a good idea for Ellie to be away for a while so that she wouldn't poke my eyes out immediately and I could take a nap in peace. We asked the receptionist, and she said that Lisa should be back around 3pm, and I would be done by then. I went and waited in the chairs for about ten minutes before they called me back. They did pretty much the same tests that they did in previous visits. First was the corneal thickness test (still thick, which is a good thing). Then the test with the little barn coming in and out of focus (I think that was just the prescription test). Then the WaveFront mapping. This one is a red light and two semi-circles that go in and out of focus. This one took a bit longer than last time, because they were being more thorough and did it three times.
After that, I went into the eye doctor's room and she double-checked my prescription again. She also gave me a couple of eye drops. Then she left and I scrubbed my eyelids and eyelashes. Once that was done, a couple of more eyedrops, and they gave me a lovely bluse hairnet and sent me back to the waiting room.
At about 2:20pm, they called me back for the surgery. Lisa's going to be late.
I put on the hair net and went back into the laser room. The nurse had me lay down on the bed and positioned my head in a sort of form-fitting bean bag thing. Hard to describe it, but think of it like that thing on everyone's desk where you stick you face or hand on it, and it makes your face out of metal bits on the other side. Sort of felt like that, except molding around your head. The nurse then put anesthetic drops in my eyes and told me to close them until the doctor was ready so that they didn't dry out. About a minute later, the doctor came and put more drops in. He then took the eyelid speculum and propped the eyelids on my left eye open. Not comfortable. Then the most uncomfortable part: the suction ring. This piece is positioned on the eye itself and creates suction to enable the Intralase laser to cut the flap. For other people, the same device is used to let the microkeratome cut it. Then the Intralase laser makes its way down to the eye. I could see a ring of 6 or 8 bright white lights, and one complete ring of white light which came down centered on my eye. Then I heard the doctor say, "OK, this will be about a minute while the Intralase laser cuts the flap." One minute, wow. My eye was still registering a bit of the white light, but it gradually went gray and then black. It seems like a long time, but it was actually shorter than I expected and he said, "Doing great, 20 seconds to go." Then it was done, and he moved the laser back and I realized that I really couldn't see anything. It was all black. Freaky. He told me to close my eye, and I did. Then it was time for the right eye. Same deal, speculum, suction ring, white lights. The doctor mentioned that it may be a bit more uncomfortable, in his words "just because it's the second eye." Psychosomatic, I suppose. It was a little bit at first, but not terrible. This time he gave me a ten second warning. No trouble with this part, although I did have to remind myself to breathe. Not easy to hold your breath for a full minute. Next was the big one: Lasik.
Dr. Boutros took the suction ring off the right eye, but kept the speculum on. The next part I only know what was happening because I'd seen it twice before. He swung the table under the Lasik laser, and I could see a blinking orange light. It was fuzzy, but there. He then took a couple of instruments (not sure of the technical terms, one was a spatula that he slid under the flap, the other were like pincers he used to grab the end of the flap and lift it up), and did his stuff. Oh, I think there was another drops at this point, can't remember for sure. The flap was lifted, and that orange flashing light was really fuzzy. It moved around a bit (Stay on target!!!), then came into view pretty well. Then we were underway. There was some clicking from the laser, and I vaguely saw some blue dots, I think. Not 10 seconds later, it was done. The flap was repositioned. Another eye drop, and he smoothed it out with a little brush. He moved the table back out from under the laser, and took off the speculum (Thank God! That was annoying.). I opened my left eye, and the speculum went back onto that eye, and he moved me back under that laser. He mentioned that the orange light would probably be clearer this time because the Intralase bubbles created would have had the chance to settle down. It was actually clearer. But then he lifted the flap, and it was blurry again. I should mention that I literally felt none of the poking and prodding he was doing with the flap. Anesthetic drops rule. More clicking from the laser, and not five seconds later (my left eye was better than the right), it was done. More drops, the flap was brushed down, and I closed my eyes, and they moved me back out from under the laser.
The nurse came back and told me I could stand up. I sat up, and she reminded me I could open my eyes now. Boy, talk about fuzzy! I could make out vague shapes and such, but everything was really fuzzy. We walked back to another room, and they gave me instructions on eye drops for the next few days, as well as warning what not to do (no rubbing the eyes, etc). Thankfully, these were written down. I don't think I could have remembered them. They gave me a bag of stuff with sunglasses (not quite the old fogie ones, but slicker wraparound ones so you wouldn't be blinded by the sun), and goggles you have to wear at night so you don't scratch your eyes out accidentally. Then they walked me up front. Lisa wasn't there yet, but that was no surprise, since it was just past 2:30pm. I had the receptionist try to call her, but there was no answer. So I went to sit down with the sunglasses on. The receptionist tried again later to call Lisa again, but again, no dice. Not sure if there was just bad reception on the phone, but she didn't get the messages till she arrived at the office. At 3:10. My that time, the anesthetic drops had started to wear off and my eyes were burning a little bit. I wanted mothing more than to get home, take some Tylenol and the extra Valium, and go to sleep. Which I did.
I slept for about three hours with the goggles on. At first I didn't think I'd be able to fall asleep. They're not exactly comfortable, and one part was digging into my ear a bit. But I slept and felt better. My eyes were still scratchy and burning a little though, and my vision was very fuzzy. It was about 7pm by this time, and so we ate some dinner and gave Ellie a bath. Around 9pm, Lisa went to put Ellie to bed, and I went to bed too.
This morning I woke up and things still seemed fuzzy. After a few minutes though, things got clearer and clearer. I can see pretty well right now, but any light has a haze or halo around it (to be expected as the eye heals), and although most letters and numbers are sharp, there's still a fuzziness, which I think will also dissipate as the eyes heal. Both eyes have this fuzziness, so I'm fairly sure it's not because the eyes were under or over-corrected. But, I can sit at the dining room table, and look the 15 feet at the clock on the microwave and see the time. I can look across the street and read the house numbers. All without glasses. Awesome.
I have a followup appointment tomorrow, when they'll tell me how my vision is doing, and then I'll have another followup next week sometime. I'm eager to see what they say my vision is at. But so far, I'm very happy with everything. Minor discomfort during the procedure, the worst of which was the suction ring (oh, Lisa noticed that the ring caused some blood vessels to burst in my eyes. The spots are normally under my eyelids, so I don't look like a freak, but they really just look like my eyes are bloodshot). Minor discomfort for the few hours I was awake after the procedure, some burning and itching. Today, no pain, no burning, no discomfort. A small headache, like what happens when you get a new glasses prescription and try to read for too long. I haven't been looking at the computer screen so as not to exacerbate this condition. Overall, totally worth it. I can see, and Ellie can't steal my glasses any more!!! Woohoo!

Actually, not the knife but the laser. This is the last entry I'll have time for today as I go in for Lasik eye surgery. That sounds more morbid than I meant it to. I'm really looking forward to it, even if I am a bit nervous. I think I've managed to work myself through all the various stages of being nervous, and now I just want to get it done and over with. The rough schedule: 1:45pm, Lisa drops me off at the Eye Center and goes to drop Ellie off with a friend (so that the first thing that happens after the surgery is NOT Ellie poking my eyes!); 1:45-2:45pm: preliminary stuff, paperwork, preparation for surgery; 2:45pm: Lasik! If I have it right, they'll do the Intralase first, and give me a few minutes after that to allow everything to settle down, then they'll lift the flap that was created and use the laser to do the actual fixing. Somewhere between 3 and 3:30pm I should be back in the car on the way home for a much needed nap. Wish me luck!

I got the mail on Saturday after taking Ellie on yet another walk (she just can't get enough of being outside). I wasn't expecting anything interesting, but there was something from my Flexible Spending Account administrator. Inside was a Visa card. The accompanying literature said that I could use the card for eligible Flexible Spending purchases. Co-pays, prescriptions, etc, just put them on this card and they'll deduct it from your account.
This is awesome for me. I was expecting to have to float $4200 on my own credit card while waiting to get reimbursed for the Lasik surgery, but now I don't have to worry about it. They're usually very quick about reimbursements, but you get nervous floating such a big amount regardless. Now I just give Dr. Boutros this card, and I should be good. Apparently, if it's not something recurring like a co-pay, they make ask you to send them a receipt so that they can verify what you spent it on (i.e. to make sure you didn't buy a pack of gum with that prescription). But that's 10 times better than floating it on my own card.
It's amazing the conveniences they can come up with when they just think about it. "Hmm... This reimbursement stuff has got to be a hassle. How can we do it better? How about a Visa card that deducts right from the account? Brilliant!"

I'm starting to get a little case of the butterflies in my stomach over the Lasik surgery tomorrow. They called my house today to remind me of the appointment and told me to call if I had any questions. Here's one: Can I fast forward to Thursday and have this be over with already? Well, at least I know that they actually have me down for the appointment this time. I've got to read the disclosure form and sign it, and tomorrow I have to put drops in my eyes every 5 minutes or so.
The timing of this couldn't be better. As I'm sure you can guess, Ellie loves to steal my glasses. Most of the time, she just steals them and tries to poke my eyes out by putting them back on. But last Wednesday or Thursday, she stole them while I was distracted and reading some email. Lisa walks into the room and yells "Ellie! What are you doing?" Ellie looks at me and says "Yucky!" and spits out a tiny bit of rubber or plastic. Yep, she bit off half of one of the nose pads. I tried to super glue it back on, but it didn't stick, so I'm just wearing them without it. Lucky for me (and for her!), after tomorrow, one way or another, I won't need these glasses any more.

A week from now, I'll be going under the laser (not the knife!) to get Lasik. And yes, I am still very excited!!!

So, as expected, everything went fine at the medical exam yesterday. They didn't really do a whole lot of tests, but used the drops to dilate my eyes and all that. The scary part was when they asked if I wanted to schedule the surgery. Uh, I thought I did already. Naturally, they had taken my deposit money, but not actually booked the surgery. I'm not sure if this was because they had to wait until the medical exam was done or what, but it was a bit disconcerting to find out I didn't have it scheduled. Luckily, I was able to get the exact same appointment times, so nothing changes. If this had been the surgeon making a mistake, I'd be concerned, but I've just decided that I've made the choice, and I'm going forward and not looking back. 2 and a half weeks!

My big Lasik medical exam is later on today. I'm actually looking forward to it. I almost wish it was time for the surgery! Alas, I have to wait for the Flexible Spending Account to kick in July 1. The surgery is July 6, less than three weeks away.

I decided, after much research and thought, that I will be having my Lasik surgery done by Dr. Boutros of the Eye Center.
It was not an easy decision. The Vision Quest people were really nice, but I decided that the main reason I was considering Lasik after all this time was that I wanted to go with the Intralase over the microkeratome. I spoke with a co-worker who literally just had the same procedure done (by a different doctor), and while it's no less scary, he put my mind at ease a bit by explaining it in more vivid detail. I'm now better prepared for what to expect.
The fact that The Eye Center does Intralase obviously put Dr. Boutros over the top, especially since he was $1000 cheaper (I know, lowest bidder, yikes!) than TLC. In spite of the lowest bidder status, The Eye Center is no fly-by-night Lasik hack joint. They are a bit of a factory, but the staff still spent a good amount of time with me showing me the options and answering my questions, and I felt comfortable in choosing them.
So here's the schedule: I have a medical appointment on Thursday June 16 at 4:15pm. They'll be doing more tests to follow up on the initial results from my free consultation. I'll also be making sure they do and answer everything outlined in "50 Tough Questions for your Doctor". The actual surgery will be on Wednesday July 6 at 1:30pm. This will get it over with soon enough (less than a month from today!) that I won't have time to change my mind. Then on Friday July 8 at 8:30am, I have my followup appointment to see how I'm doing. Hopefully I'll be on my way to 20/20! By scheduling everything this way, I figure that I can go to work in the morning on Wednesday, go home and take a nap and relax afterward. If I'm feeling super, I might go in to work on Thursday, but most likely I'll take the day off. Then I'll see how I'm doing on Friday morning with the followup appointment, and probably go into work that day for a slow first day back.
Phew! This is exciting. But like I said, I've done a lot of thinking and research, and I'm comfortable with the decision. Now I just have to go and do it.
You can read all my previous Lasik reports here.

I didn't expect a whole lot from Vision Quest. I knew that a couple of my co-workers had their eye done there a couple of years ago when we had a discount with them, but I hadn't heard any ads or anything. I've driven by there a lot, since it's right up the street, but that's about all I knew about them.
Thankfully, there was no "consultant", aka salesperson, like at TLC. The eye doctor came right out and started doing a lot of the same tests, but did a few more and was more thorough in explaining the tests and why she was doing them. The results of course were the same: I'm a good candidate for LASIK. My corneas are nice and thick, and my pupils don't dilate into dinner plates.
Vision Quest uses a different laser for their procedure, the Allegretto Wave. It's a lot like the CustomVUE Visx one the other guys use, in that it is individually customized to your eye, not just your prescription. It's German-engineered too, so you gotta like that, especially with a last name like mine. But here's the catch. I called them up after I got back to work from the appointment, because I realized I never asked about Intralase. They don't do it. The doctor explained that her surgeons tried it for a while, but weren't pleased with the results. Patients supposedly reported more haziness 1-2 weeks after surgery, and they were more comfortable with the results with the microkeratome blade. Naturally I was surprised to hear this, so I did some more research and found this article, which says "Electron microscope analysis shows that LASIK flaps created with mechanical keratomes are actually smoother than flaps created using the Intra-Lase product." An article I found here offers a better point-counterpoint. I'm currently browsing "Cataract and Refractive Surgery Today" to learn more about the whole controversy. It figures that I was probably all set to do one thing, and now I'm waffling again.
Bottom line: Allegretto Wave with no Intralase: $4500.
I'm all done with the appointments now. Flexible Spending decisions are due Monday, and kick in July 1. See my previous Lasik reports here.

I had my consultation at the "Tiger Woods" TLC Laser Eye Centers today. The biggest difference was that their waiting room was completely empty. Of course, this may have had something to do with the fact that my appointment was first thing on a Wednesday morning as opposed to the middle of the day on Friday (many people have Lasik on Friday so that they have the weekend to recover).
TLC ran basically the same tests as the Eye Center. The actual eye doctor (as opposed to the "consultant" who has no medical training but can run some of the simple machine tests) did take a closer look at the surfaces of my eyes. They ran through the same explanations that I've heard before, and outlined the procedure in the same way too. The one difference was that the eye doctor was basically ambivalent about the Intralase and CustomVUE procedures (yes, they do offer both). He just said you could do either one and be happy, whereas the Eye Center's people were plugging the fact that "95% of our patients are going with CustomVUE", but if you want that ghetto blade and regular laser, I suppose you can still do that too.
Did I mention that TLC is where Tiger Woods had his Lasik done, back in 1999? He was a -11 nearsighted (I'm a -4 in my bad eye!). And they're pretty proud of that. They've got a whole list of celebrities who have been their customers. And apparently you have to be a celebrity to afford them!
Bottom line: Traditional Lasik with Intralase: $4200, CustomVUE Lasik with Intralase: $5200. And that's with the "discount" for being a Vision Service Plan customer. Ouch.
After all the exams, the consultant did try to get me to schedule the surgery, which I politely declined. She then looked up available dates for the surgery in July, just for my convenience, and asked if she could call me on Monday to check on my decision making. Since my Flexible Spending Account is limited to $5000, and I'd be leaning toward the CustomVUE with Intralase, which costs $5200 there, I don't think TLC is going to be in play. They were nice and all, but I didn't much think they were worth a $1000 premium over The Eye Center at this point.
My last appointment is with Vision Quest on Friday. Flexible Spending decisions are due Monday, and kick in July 1. See my previous Lasik reports here.

Dr. Ayman Boutros, as far as I know, is no relation to Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former Secretary-General of the UN, and source of many a David Letterman Top Ten punch line. He is the medical director of The Eye Center and is locally famous for his Lasik radio commercials.
On Friday, I visited the Eye Center for a consultation and to check the place out. And lucky me, while filling out my paperwork, I looked up, and through the partially opened blinds, I saw a giant TV with a closed eye. Omigosh, he's about to do Lasik on someone! I was repulsed, and yet I could not look away. The next thing I knew, the giant eye opened, and a red crosshairs appeared over the eye, and the doctor started poking. A few flashes later, the doctor was flipping the flap back down and smoothing it out with a brush. Crazy. Do I really want someone doing that to my eyes?
My name was called a short time later, and they took me back to do some exams, rough measuring of my cornea, and some other stuff. Everything looked good, so they took me back to the doctor's office. The fine print of the forms I filled out told me that I could have an optional full exam at this point, but if I didn't get Lasik through them, it would cost $100. Obviously, I'm still in information gathering mode, so I just talked to the doctor for a few minutes, and she explained the different options they now offer for Lasik, including Intralase and CustomVUE. Intralase is when they use the laser to cut the flap. It actually shoots a cold laser just beneath your eye's surface, which creates a series of tiny air bubbles, thus creating the flap. CustomVUE creates a fully laser mapped picture of the eye, and can correct a greater range of vision problems. The big plus to this part of the procedure is that it can greatly reduce the occurrence of night vision problems like halos and starlight. Since Lisa has trouble driving at night, I may just have to get this as well.
Bottom line: Traditional Lasik with Intralase: $3250, CustomVUE Lasik with Intralase: $4200. If you use their financing or insurance, you lose the "discount" and pay an addition $400 and $600 respectively. The max I can put aside for Flexible Spending is $5000, so that pretty much uses up the allotment for the year.
Naturally, since Dr. Boutros had just finished a Lasik procedure, they used that opportunity to bring him in to talk to me, so I got to meet the celebrity. Nice guy, and like the rest of the staff, he gently nudged me toward getting the full exam soon so that they could make sure I was a good candidate for Lasik and they could get me started on the road to 20/20.
I liked the Eye Center. They never pressured me to make a decision on the spot, and understood that I was shopping around. They're obviously confident that they have a good product that sells itself. At the same time, the waiting room was jam-packed, and they're obviously a factory, churning out $4000 procedures efficiently all day.
I have appointments with TLC on Wednesday and Vision Quest on Friday. Flexible Spending decisions are due Monday, and kick in July 1.

I made appointments to have Lasik consultations at a couple of different places. I'm going next Wednesday to TLC, where Tiger Woods had his eyes done way back in 1999 (not that having famous people as your clients should be a dealmaker). I'm not 100% sure if they do the Intralase, but they do custom eye mapping, which is interesting. Vision Quest is right up the street from us, and a couple of co-workers had their surgery done their a couple of years ago. Again, not sure that they do the all-laser version, but I'll give them a shot too. I'm going to see them next Friday. I'm waiting for The Eye Center (around here, their Dr. Boutros is famous and always on the radio) to get back to me. I know they do the full-laser option, since Dr. Boutros said so in the ads. Update: The Eye Center had some cancellations for this Friday, so I'm going there first. Exciting!
After checking with some of the people at work, I found out that one of the guys is going in for Lasik next week at the Millenium Laser Eye Center. He's getting the full treatment done, with "CustomVue" and the "Intralase" which cuts the flap with a laser. Total cost? $5000! Youch. At that rate, I may wait until next year to get this done and hope for the prices to come down a bit. Either that, or I hear that Lasik is really cheap in Miami because of a lot of competition...

Our company's open enrollment period for health benefits and the like is going on for the next two weeks. One of the things you can sign up for is Medical Flexible Spending. Money gets taken out of your paycheck pre-tax and you get reimbursed for any medical expenses you incur over the course of the year. This includes things like co-pays, glasses, contacts, anything that's not fully covered by your medical insurance, and Ellie's quack doctor appointments. Also possible is Lasik eye surgery.
I've been extremely lazy. The last time I went to the eye doctor was probably almost two years ago. I've been wearing the glasses I have ever since then, because, like most annoying glasses shops, they didn't give me my prescription, and a contact prescription is extra and separate from a glasses one. I think I eventually got something out of them, but I've still been too lazy to order contacts, so I just squint whenever I walk out into the sun, like I'm a vampire or something (and judging from the color of my skin, that's not farfetched). This, combined with the fact that I'd like to spare myself the endless glasses cleaning required when you have a toddler, has led me to finally really consider Lasik.
When I went to a "real" opthamologist in Michigan not long after college, he tried to convince me to get Radial Keratotomy. I even watched a video on the procedure, and it freaked me out so bad I think it's why I haven't considered Lasik till now. It works basically the same as Lasik, but they use a knife throughout, instead of a laser. Plus, it was developed in the Soviet Union (shudder). They now have a version of Lasik that's all laser, including cutting the flap of your cornea. It doesn't freak me out any less though. But by now I figure that they've got it figured out pretty well, and there's a lot smaller chance that they'll screw it up.
So, I'll be asking around here at work, since I know quite a few people who have had it done, and sometime in the next two weeks, I'll try to figure out how much it's going to cost and put the money into the Flexible Spending Account. Hopefully by the end of the summer, I'll be seeing clearly without glasses (except for when I want to wear sunglasses!).