Can anyone share their experience with LASIK? primarily:
1) What was your prescription before?
2) What were you corrected to after the procedure?
3) How long did you experience halos and starbursts?
4) What was your general hearing time, and how quickly did you get back to flying?
(any other information you would be willing to share would be greatly appreciated, I am trying to weigh LASIK's pros and cons. I have a -7.00 in one eye and -6.50 in the other, astigmatism, 39 years old, currently have a 1st class medical but in my last exam I did miss one letter, so I am not a perfect 20/20 with glasses or contacts, yet want to keep my 1st class for airline jobs next year!
Cheers and thanks for sharing your experiences.
1) I have no idea, it wasn't huge though. -2 I wanna say in the worst eye, a little better in the other?
2) Initially 20/10 in one eye, and very close to 20/10 in the other (couldn't quite get every letter on the line, but could get 4 outta 5). Then 20/15 a few years after. It's been 8 years, and I'm 20/20. One eye I did get a minor glasses prescription for driving as the astigmatism is back, I haven't really used it yet though as it's hard to get used to. It's like -.25 or something for the astigmatism and I don't need it, it's just "helpful" for the computer/driving in theory but, also so hard to get used to again and it's not bothersome enough that I bother. But the glasses were basically free with insurance, so, figured I Might as well grab em. If it gets seriously worse, I might look into a touch up at some point.
3) Officially, never! The FAA does not like it if you experience halos and starbursts. I had some a day after the procedure and my AME made me go back and get a letter saying they had gone away. Realistically, your night vision is going to be not exactly what you're used to for about 6 months to a year, especially when your eyes are dry. I carried eye drops around for about 6 months and if my eyes were tired or dry, they helped immensely.
4) I'd personally try to take a week off. Less is doable as long as you don't have any complications, but it takes a hot minute to get "used to" your new vision and your eyes are tired and dry at first, as well as it's just a bit intense if you're going from bad contacts 20/20 vision to 20/10. Felt like my brain almost had to rewire and your ocular muscles are getting re-used to focusing on stuff that's far away. You can drive the next day after the procedure, but I'd still take it easy as your body is healing. I felt like "full full" recovery where I never needed eye drops etc took like 8-9 months. Just be cool with having to use eye drops for a long awhile, other than that you'll be set.
It's really no big deal, the surgery itself I was in and out in about 8 minutes, and only a few seconds of that was "laser on eye, look here, okay now look here, okay that one's done". You'll be shocked at how fast the procedure is for something that costs roughly 4k...