The Initial Consultation

OK, now that I have a few minutes, here's another piece of the puzzle.

As I mentioned on one of the earlier posts, I've had a few eye problems in my life. And ever since Lasik became popular, I've been tempted to look into the possibility for myself. I don't really know much about the origins of Lasik, but I do know that it was developed, or at least refined, in the country of Colombia. Since I used to work an issue that sent me to Bogota on occasion, I decided to be evaluated while I was there. This was in 2002, and I went to a doctor my coworker recommended, since she had the procedure performed there the year before. To sum up, he said that I could do Lasik but that he could only "guarantee" about a 90% correction, meaning I would still need contacts or glasses. Obviously, not good enough, and I was nervous about the idea anyway. So no deal.

However, last spring my fiancee (now my wife) decided to have Lasik, and went to LasikPlus in Alexandria, VA. She chose LasikPlus because her insurance offered a discount there. I think she ended up paying about $1700 an eye, including lifetime touchups. She was thrilled with the outcome, and routinely comments on her "bionic" vision. She read something on a car's bumper sticker this morning that I couldn't even identify as letters. It just looked like a white blurry line. So she has been suggesting to me that I should get Lasik. So the next time I went to my optometrist, I asked him about it.

He said that it was possible that I could be a candidate. He recommeded two surgeons in the DC area, the guy who did Tiger Woods, and another doctor who I have occasionally heard on the radio. Let's call him "Dr. Bob." My optometrist said that both of these guys would give me a good evaluation, and could offer me alternatives (if need be) that the "Lasik Factories" would not. The difference between them, apparently, is the use of the microkeratome by the Tiger Woods guy, or the use of the Intralase Laser by Dr. Bob. Apparently, most of the errors with Lasik (though there are extremely few) seem to come from a malfunction of the microkeratome (a small blade that creates the Lasik flap). Since I wanted to reduce all possibility of error, I made an appointment with Dr. Bob.

On the day of the consultation, I had several tests done, few of which I can accurately remember. One involved measuring the topography of my eye, one measured the thickness of my corneas, and a few others involved various blinking lights. The very nice technician then had me watch a video on Lasik, and went to talk to Dr. Bob. After a few minutes, I was called back to see the Doctor himself. When the nice technician stayed in the room, and Dr. Bob mentioned that she was staying to learn about the procedure he was recommending, I knew that something was amiss...

Dr. Bob did not think that the tests showed me to be a good candidate for Lasik. He said that the amount of cornea that would need to be burned would take me close to the minimum recommended amount, and that touchups would be very tricky. He did mention that I could go to one of the aforementioned factories and they might accept me, even within the ethical boundaries, but that he wouldn't recommend it if I were his relative. Instead he recommended the Visian procedure. At this point, I could go into detail about what he said, but most of it is covered by the links under "Other Visian Resources" on this page. So if you're not familiar with the procedure, go ahead and browse to those sites. He did say the procedure is more expensive, but he took pains to state that he doesn't make any more profit from this than he does from Lasik. He mentioned that the surgery is very easy, but made a point to caution me that one of the pre-operative procedures, the iridotomy, is uncomfortable and bothers some people. More about this in a later post, as this particular point is what prompted me to start this blog. Finally, I asked him how many he'd done, since the procedure was only approved by the FDA about 18 months ago. He said he'd done about 50 procedures. But apparently nobody in the DC area has done more, and it's very similar to cataract surgery, of which he had done many. In fact, upon further investigation, he had done the cataract surgery of my beloved pediatric opthalmologist, who did my strabismus surgery when I was six. Not only that, but he took time to see my mom, who was undergoing neurological tests for headaches. He identified her problem as a vision issue, which her own opthalmologist had missed. So the fact that Dr. O trusted Dr. Bob meant a lot to me.

I left the office with a DVD (the office's only copy, so I had to return it) showing the procedure in more detail. It even had a video of the surgery on it, which the technician made me promise not to watch. I was a little shell-shocked, because I thought that I had learned as much as I could about Lasik, and was expecting a simple yes or no answer. I tried to research the procedure as much as I could, but unfortunately found very little (ok, zero) patient-based information. I couldn't find any first-hand accounts of the procedure, how happy people were, etc. All I found were the ridiculous videotaped stories posted on the STAAR website. If that's not propaganda, I don't know what is. But after thinking about it for quite some time, talking to friends and family, and particularly my wife, I started to think more positively about the procedure. In the end, what I couldn't get over was what is so promising about Lasik- the thought of being able to see without contacts. I wouldn't have to close my eyes when white-water rafting, fearing that my lenses would come out. I could actually wear sunglasses on the beach, and be able to see while swimming. And maybe, just maybe, I could see the baseball a little bit better at the ballpark. This was all an unreachable dream. But maybe not any more.