Lasik / flying?

I had Lasik last September.

It took ten minutes.

There was no recovery time after the anesthetic wore off in about two hours.
There was no pain ever and there were no complications. I LOVE seeing 20/20.
I do have to wear close up readers, but I had to do that anyway.

Karl
"curator"



"Richard Riley" wrote in message
oups.com...

wrote:
?
-c

I had PRK (the pre-cursor to LASIK) 10 years ago, and I still have
20/15 vision and almost no astygmatism. It was well worth the money.
I have been flying since 1991.

I also had PRK. The recovery time is longer, but the complication rate
is virtually zero. The complication rate on LASIK is low, but PRK is
lower.

Very happy I had it.

"Richard Riley" wrote in message
oups.com...

wrote:
?
-c

I had PRK (the pre-cursor to LASIK) 10 years ago, and I still have
20/15 vision and almost no astygmatism. It was well worth the money.
I have been flying since 1991.

I also had PRK. The recovery time is longer, but the complication rate
is virtually zero. The complication rate on LASIK is low, but PRK is
lower.


Do you have a cite for that?

I did it. best money I've EVER spent.

I was a medical person, and already flying, when I underwent the
surgery. I was VERY cognizant of the risks... maybe a little TOO
cognizant.. but it IS our eyes we are dealing with here.

I did two freebee screenings at two different places months apart until
I got the nerve to do it.. went someplace that was able to explain not
only that I was a good candidate, but WHY I was a good candidate: things
such as corneal thickness, zone of correction, slope of the cornea.

I had mild side effects that cleared within 2 weeks. If I understand
correctly, most people have some sort of side effects immediately after
surgery (starbursts, halos, shadows, night "blindness" and it clears..
only in the odd/rare chance that it DOESNT clear is it considered a
complication.

I was self grounded 3 weeks. I went to my surgeon and he said that he
had done other pilots before.. so i kinda relaxed..

Then after two weeks went back to him (after followups) with a
boilerplate statement I needed him to put on a letterhead so I could
send it to the FAA (AOPA Medical website has good guidance on this)..
and he had a cow and was clearly unprepared to sign what I had brought
(certifying absense of side effects, etc.. nothing untoward..).

He waited one more week, then I sent a copy off to OKC and resumed
flying without any probs. Reported on my next medical app as "previously
reported" and no probs since. That was 5 years ago. I'm still 20/20.
from a previous 20/200 to 20/400.

My Advice. If you do it, get the language of the statement you need the
surgeon to sign in advance from AOPA, and show it to your surgeon before
you consent to the procedure so that he understands what you require of
him/her.

Dave

gatt wrote:
Anybody had lasik surgery?

My vision is stable, correctable to 20/20, but things like pollen or the
neighbor mowing his yard can bother my contact lenses. Glasses suck and
contacts aren't good for your eyes over time, so my wife is encouraging
lasik. The #1 facility in the region is half a block away from my workplace
and they have a deal with our company which is why I know so many people
who've had it, but I'm still undecided.

Everybody I've known personally who has had it done raves about it, no bad
experiences at all...but none of them fly.

Thoughts?
-c

Matt Barrow wrote:


Do you have a cite for that?

Was told to me by Dr. James Freeman, an opthamologist and pilot
(Cirrus, RV-8 and Air-Cam) from Memphis. He was one of the first to do
LASIK and does a lot of them, but my correction was fairly small so he
recommended PRK. He posts to the rec.av groups on occasion.

Basically, with PRK you're waiting for the epithilium to re-grow, and
that takes a while. With LASIK you aren't waiting for it, but there's
a possibility of the flap getting a wrinkle when it's replaced, being
mis-positioned, that kind of thing.

Matt Barrow wrote:


Do you have a cite for that?

Was told to me by Dr. James Freeman, an opthamologist and pilot
(Cirrus, RV-8 and Air-Cam) from Memphis. He was one of the first to do
LASIK and does a lot of them, but my correction was fairly small so he
recommended PRK. He posts to the rec.av groups on occasion.

Basically, with PRK you're waiting for the epithilium to re-grow, and
that takes a while. With LASIK you aren't waiting for it, but there's
a possibility of the flap getting a wrinkle when it's replaced, being
mis-positioned, that kind of thing.

john smith wrote:

One thing to consider is your age.
If you are in your 20's, early 30's, 50's or 60's, it may be worthwhile.
If you are in your late 30's or 40's, you eyes may soon or are in the
process of changing. In which case the benefits may be short lived.
Do you wanat to pay for the procedure twice in a short time span?
Also, there are occassions where the procedure may need to be repeated
to get the correction right.

I had mine done in my early 40's, on the theory that when I needed
reading glasses, I just wanted magnifiers, not bifocals. I ended up
with a little "monovision" - one eye is slightly nearsighted. I'm now
46 and don't need reading glasses yet. I know they're coming, but the
monovision should put it off for a few years.

"Richard Riley" wrote in message
oups.com...

Matt Barrow wrote:


Do you have a cite for that?

Was told to me by Dr. James Freeman, an opthamologist and pilot
(Cirrus, RV-8 and Air-Cam) from Memphis. He was one of the first to do
LASIK and does a lot of them, but my correction was fairly small so he
recommended PRK. He posts to the rec.av groups on occasion.

Okay.


Basically, with PRK you're waiting for the epithilium to re-grow, and
that takes a while. With LASIK you aren't waiting for it, but there's
a possibility of the flap getting a wrinkle when it's replaced, being
mis-positioned, that kind of thing.

IIRC, the slip-ups with PRK could be even more devastating.

wrote on 06/02/06 13:13:

gatt wrote:
Anybody had lasik surgery?

My vision is stable, correctable to 20/20, but things like pollen or the
neighbor mowing his yard can bother my contact lenses. Glasses suck and
contacts aren't good for your eyes over time, so my wife is encouraging
lasik. The #1 facility in the region is half a block away from my workplace
and they have a deal with our company which is why I know so many people
who've had it, but I'm still undecided.

Everybody I've known personally who has had it done raves about it, no bad
experiences at all...but none of them fly.

Thoughts?
-c

I had PRK (the pre-cursor to LASIK) 10 years ago, and I still have
20/15 vision and almost no astygmatism. It was well worth the money.
I have been flying since 1991.


Similar here. I had PRK 15 years ago, still have 20/20, the docs can't see any
evidence of the surgery in my eyes. Flying since 1995, without problems. The FAA
of course knows about the surgery, no problem from their side. They gave me a
letter to inform them of changes.

-Joe

Thank you everybody for your information! Still haven't decided to make the
jump, but I've yet to hear a real horror story so I'll continue to look into
it.

Looks like it's getting pretty competitive, down to under $300 per eye.

-c

gatt wrote:
Thank you everybody for your information! Still haven't decided to make the
jump, but I've yet to hear a real horror story so I'll continue to look into
it.

Looks like it's getting pretty competitive, down to under $300 per eye.

It's not something I would go bargain shopping for. My opthamologist
has a nice business patching up people that did it on the cheap. If
they're charging less that $1500 an eye, they're cutting corners.