LASIK Surgery - Huntsville,AL

I hope you are able to have this surgery - it is life changing! I had mine 12 years ago and I'm still 20/20. Ask around and you should get some good recommendations. Check with the Better Business Bureau for any complaints on the doctors you narrow it down to. It will be expensive - would you really want to go cheap with something as important as your eyes? Mine was $3400, and that was a long time ago. The price did include all follow up visits. It was worth every penny. Good luck to you!

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I had lasik surgery done on March 29, 2007. This was my 30th birthday. I joke that for my birthday I gave myself the gift of sight. I started wearing glasses in second grade too. I was extremely near-sighted and had a very large astigmatism. I went to the lasik surgery twice before surgery. The first was my initial visit and they do a lot of testing to see if you are a good candidate. The second one was right before surgery to check again to make sure my prescription had not changed. I went in the morning of the surgery and they gave me a sedative. I asked for 2 because I was extremely nervous. Then they put in numbing drops in my eyes. Once my eyes were numb we went into the O.R. The whole procedure took about 20 minutes from start to finish. The actual time the laser was doing its thing on my eye was about 1-2 minutes each. When I sat up I had almost perfect vision. I could read the clock on the wall across the room. It was AMAZING. I had to wear these really dark glasses and they sent me home and I slept all afternoon. When I woke up I felt pretty good. Never had any real pain. I went in 24 hours later and my eyesight was 20/20. I then went back 3 days later and 2 weeks later. Everything healed up perfectly and I have had no problems at all. I did not have vision insurance. I paid out of pocket for it and it cost me about 4000.00. My only advice is to make sure you find a very good surgeon that has done thousands of procedures and ask him what his outcomes have been and how many of his patients had complications following surgery. I even asked my doctor if he had it done on himself. He said, no he was blessed with perfect vision but he had his wife get it done. I figured if he was referring his family members then it must be safe.
As far as activities. I went on a cruise about 3 weeks after the surgery. The only thing I could not do was scuba dive due to the pressure. And I had to stay out of chlorine pools for about 2 weeks I think. Other than than no real restrictions.

Good luck,
Lisa

Have had several friends who had this done and LOVED it! I do know that your prescription in your eyes MUST be stabilized and not have changed for a few years to be a strong candidate. Otherwise, the surgery would not be a success if your needs were changing still.

Hey S.. Been there, done that. I too felt like I was blind before I had my Lasik surgery. But now my vision is great! I went to a place called the Vision Lasik Institute in Phoenix, AZ (if you go on there website, you can see if there is a clinic near you). I decided to go there because a friend of mine had had his surgery there. First I had a free consultation which included them checking my vision (to see how bad it really was lol) and them letting me know whether I could get the surgery or not and which kind of surgery I would be getting.
Then the actual surgery wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. You can't feel anything, you can see the doctor messing with your eyes (duh) but it's pain free. And the same day before I went into surgery, they gave me the prescriptions for the drops and medications I would be needing right after the surgery. That was nice of them I thought.
Once we left the clinic, my eyes just wanted to stay closed. No matter how hard I tried to keep them open they just wouldn't. It wasn't painful, but they itched really bad and would tear up every time I tried opening them.
We had to stay there that night because I had my followup appointment the next day and then if I remember right, my next follow up was 3 months later.
I wasn't aloud to wear makeup of any kind for I think two weeks, I couldn't rub my eyes for anything for one month and I had to be careful that when I showered not to let the water hit me in the face. AND the most important thing, you must always wear sunglasses to protect your eyes from the sun, wind, dirt or anything else that could hurt them.
Now I have my regular eye appointments to make sure my vision is still ok. My optometrist even told me she couln't tell that I had had Lasik done. :)
And if I remember correctly (this will be 3 years in December) it cost me $2800.00 but in payments and NO interest as long as I paid it off in one year. Pretty cool huh.? Anyway, I tried to answer all your questions, but if I missed one just right me back and I will try to answer it. Good Luck to you if you go through with it, I totally recommend it.

I just read what Dawn B. wrote, and yes I agree with her too.

p.s. my little brother got his surgery done at the same time as me too except that his procedure was a little different and he had a more painful recovery and different followup appointments. but once you go visit a clinic, you can get the exact names of the two procedures that the doctors due.

Everyone else pretty much sums it up. My husband had it done and it too was amazing. He has better vision than I do and I have 20/20....lol. At any rate, the only thing I would add other than doing it, is to put your drops after the surgery in the fridge. He really liked applying them when they were cold; more soothing, especially the gel drops. Otherwise, he could see immediately and had only a couple days down time.

My husband had his done last year & LOOOOVES it! Our price was different because our eye insurance gave us a discount. However all follow ups are included in most lasik centers you go to. My husband's eyes looked pretty bloodshot for about 2 weeks. The day of his surgery he mostly had to rest with his eyes closed and covered, and I think for about a month?? until things healed he had to wear sunglasses if he was outside to make sure nothing actually touched his eyes while things were healing. My husband is a police officer and in the national guard and the surgery didn't affect anything he needed to do for work or anything though (except the bloodshot eyes possibly freaking out anyone he pulled over during that time. lol)

I had it done the first time in 98 (I went from a -14 left eye and -12 right eye (my initial focal point was at about the tip of my nose) to 20/20 vision) and it cost me about $3000.
In 2007 my right eye went a little more near sighted again, so we did that one eye one more time and it was about $1500. Both times was in the Wash DC area, and I imagine there might be a regional price difference to a certain degree.
For a few days after the surgery, my vision was fine, but I wanted to wear sunglasses all the time - my eyes didn't want any bright light.
There's the initial eye exam, the surgery, then follow up visits at 1 day, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 1 yr. Price of those follow ups are included in the up front price, and they are just to check if you are having any problems and to make sure you are healing up. It takes about a full year for complete healing and for your vision to stabilize, but most of that you won't even notice after the 1st 2 weeks. I had a slight star burst rainbow effect during low light situations (night driving) that went away after about a year. I've had no problems (I'm very happy with the results), and most people I know who had it done had no problems.
One friend of mine had a very bad dry eye situation after her surgery and has had to live with it ever since. Her case is fairly rare.