Musings

Lasik - The first consultation

Okay, so, I had my first official consultation at Millennium Laser Eye Center today! The people there were really, really, really nice which made me feel very comfortable. When I got there, all I had to do was undergo a few eye tests on some crazy machines. Nothing difficult, nothing painful. Then, I went into one of the doctor's exam rooms where he did a couple of more tests. All told the testing itself probably only took about 10 minutes, if even. The doctor then reviewed all of my results and let me know if I was a good candidate for Lasik or not and if I was, which type of procedure I qualified for.

The results:
So, it turns out that 3 to 4 days wasn't enough time for me to be out of my contacts because my eyes still hadn't returned to their "normal" shape. Apparantly, the touric lenses I wear really change the shape of my eye more so than regular contact lenses would (I have really bad eyesight plus astigmatism). So, I'm going to have to come back again and have some of the tests repeated. Aside from that, however, here's the rest of the results...

I qualify for intralase which is the new way they cut the eye. Instead of using a razor, which they've done in the past with earlier Lasik procedures, intralase uses a laser. The advantages being that it creates a thinner flap, has few complications, and is more precise. The reason I only qualify for intralase and not the razor cut is because my eyesight is so bad that I need a loooot of layers shaved off in order to correct my vision. That means I don't have many layers of eye tissue to spare therefore, the thinnest flap that is possible needs to be made and the intralase laser makes a thinner flap than the razor. That's cool. That's the procedure I wanted for making the flap anyway.

Now, the bad news...I don't qualify for the new custom wavefront Lasik. This is the Lasik that uses a more detailed map of a person's eye than the conventional Lasik. From what I understand, with conventional Lasik, your current prescription is plugged into the computer and then the laser just does its thing. Whatever is programmed in, goes. With custom wavefront Lasik, however, the numbers are also plugged in and the laser is set to do its thing, however, while it's working on your eye, it also keeps track of the tiny eye movements your eye makes during the surgery and send signals back to the computer to compensate and adjust those original numbers based on those slight movements. It's a slightly more accurate procedure because it maps your eye in more detail than the conventional Lasik. To use an analogy, custom wavefront is like buying a tailor made suit while conventional Lasik is like buying off the rack. The reason I don't qualify for the custom Lasik is because my vision is outside its parameters. In other words, my eyesight is too bad to be corrected by it. The doctor told me it would actually make my vision worse to use custom Lasik. I'm sort of glad I don't qualify, though, because it's $400 more PER EYE to get that done. I should point out, though, that conventional Lasik has a 94% success rate with no enhancements needed while custom Lasik has a 98% succes rate with no enhancements needed. A slight difference but since I don't have a choice, I don't even have to think about those numbers.

So, the doctor was really very patient with me during the entire consultation and answered all my questions and explained everything to me. I felt very comfortable with him and was happy to see that I wasn't being rushed at the door for the next patient. I'm happy, in general, with MLEC. Even though they are super expensive ($2325/eye), you can't trade comfort for cash. I found another place through my insurance that would do it significantly cheaper but I wasn't really happy with the way they did their business. It was wierd...you had to call an answering service that was completely unaffiliated with the eye center to schedule an appointment. The woman could give me the address of the eye center but couldn't give me a phone number. So, I couldn't even speak to someone who worked at that particular eye center till the day I went in for the consultation! Plus, they only do consultations and eye exams at 10 o'clock on Thursdays...so the earliest I could get in for my initial visit was August 18! I booked the exam since I was already on the phone and had given the girl all this information but I also had to put down a $250 deposit to hold the appointment and I realize now, there's just no way I'm going with them. They may cost less but the impersonal treatment and the money upfront is just ridiculous. Plus, I KNOW Millennium Laser Eye Center has a good reputation. They've been around for years and the doctor has done 25,000 surgeries. I feel comfortable knowing that I'm working with the best.

Okay, so I scheduled another appointment for the end of this week since they need to wait for my eyes to completely settle back into their original shape before proceeding. Yipee, I get to wear my glasses for another few days!

posted by Jen Larkin @ 12:45 PM