My LASIK Experience I had my
original LASIK surgery in March of 2000, and my complications were due to
the disparity between my pupil size and ablation zone and also a high
spherical aberration count. My pupils dilate between 7.0- 7 .5mm and my
effective optical zone was approx. 6 mm, and this (along with the
spherical aberration) caused me to have very bad night/low light vision. I
had large starbursts off any light source at night time/low light
(worse the darker it was), along with some ghosting and haloes. For
example, if I would look at a street light from about 50 feet away with no
other light sources, the starbursts (spikes)
would extend almost to the ground. Oncoming
headlights from about 35-50 feet away would starburst and block out the
car they were coming from and the roadway/area around the car for 10-15
feet. White letters on a dark background in even low light resulted in
horrible ghosting, this was mostly noticed while watching movies/TV. I
hated going out at night because all sources of light, including anything
that light reflects off of caused starbursting. Overall my
visual acuity was greatly reduced by just being inside with artificial
lighting. Being inside the office with those common ceiling lights we all
know without many windows (with light coming in), would cause my acuity to
drop off and people's faces for example would start to blur at only 15-20
feet, and everything in general was fuzzy 10 feet away and further. After my
Wavefront "off-label" treatment I noticed a big improvement
after one day (I had one eye done at a time). Not only was my acuity
better than 20/20, my starbursts changed into a much less intense (and
smaller) glow as opposed to large, dense starbursts. My visual acuity does
not decline in low light night-time conditions (no more -fuzzy look inside
and the haloes/, ghosting were 95% gone. At
the time I'm writing
this my left eye is 55 days post-op and my right eye is 15 days out and I
am seeing a solid 20/15. I still have some side-effects as far as light
sources at night time, I see alight glow (which has improved over time
with healing) pretty much off of everything.
However, my problem with light sources in low light / nighttime are
about 85% better, and that makes a whole world of difference. The easiest
way to put it is, now the problems with lights at night is slightly
annoying at worst. The treatment reduced my spherical aberration by half,
and smoothed out my periphery, "expanding" my effective optical zone to better
handle my larger pupils. I am very satisfied with the procedure, I see
well again at night, and am confident in my vision once again. I would
just like to thank the Surgical Eyes website, Dr Salz, and his staff
because without any of them, I would not have a positive story to be
writing about now (with a smile on my face). Sincerely, Chris A. |
