I go see the eye doctor once a year for a regular check up. My vision remains 6/3 (UK scale) which is 20/10 on the US scale.

I was about to recommend the doctor who performed my surgery. I Googled him only to find that he died a few months ago of cancer.

RIP Professor Joseph Colin: http://www.aao.org/member/obituaries.cfm

If you are a software developer, as many of us, you really don't want that. Nor do you want dry eyes, specially when staring at a screen under air conditioning.

If someone really wants to do the operation anyway, then get a LASEK. This won't create the never-healing flap, with all its complications. Recovery time suffers a bit, but that's a minor issue, considering the long-term benefits. Less dry eye.

Halos might still be present though.

I would be upset on a daily basis that my eyesight is irreparably damaged.

There was one downside to the operation and that was if I stared at a screen for a long amount of time, or worked too many late nights, I suffered from really dry eyes. It was almost painful. Fortunately some drops that I kept with me for about six months took the edge off of it and now I don't suffer with this anymore.

The Halo thing is definitely a side effect. As other people have pointed out, it's no worse than contact lenses/glasses.

I now no longer have to worry about looking for my glasses first thing in the morning. I can play any sport without fear of losing or breaking my glasses.

Wearing non-prescription sun glasses is something I now take for granted and a complete joy.

I genuinely do believe that my overall quality of life has improved as a result of the operation.

- Increased self-confidence, this is subjective, but I prefer how I look without glasses. (check)

- Going out to nature is awesome, as you can see everything without a frame in your view. You feel more immersed in reality. (check)

- Swimming is less fuss, as there is no need to switch between glasses / prescription swimming goggles. Just swim. (this is a sore point for me I have to use goggles or the lenses wash away. In a swimming pool it's no problem, but at sea I feel uncomfortable)

- I have started exercising more thanks to the above two things. (check)

- You can see immediately when opening your eyes in the morning. (minor inconvenience. I usually have my lenses on five minutes after I wake up, tops)

- No frustration or time wasted looking around for lost glasses or needing to think about where to place them at night, before taking a shower or changing clothing. (minor inconvenience. if a lens falls to the ground it can be very annoying)

- No risk of accidentally stepping on your glasses. (check)

- No money wasted on renewing glasses or buying contact lenses, although later on I may need reading glasses, but for the next 10 years I should be good. This may end up saving enough money to just about pay for the cost of the operation. (3000$ dollars are 15 years of lenses at current prices for me)

I suggest, to those considering surgery and coming from glasses, to spend some time with contacts. You get to try many of the benefits without ¨committing¨.

I've been wearing soft contact lenses for 7 years and yeah putting them in / out everyday is a bit annoying. My optician recommended I try hard contact lenses as she uses them. Apparently you can wear them for a month continuously without having to take them out.

I am considering PRK (LASEK), but have not yet made my mind about it, as it is a procedure that is done less frequently than LASIK, so there might be issues that haven't been found yet.

The halo thing honestly isn't a big issue, but I didn't want to hide the whole truth when writing that post.

So blasting my eyes with lasers at this point seems kind of extreme, IMO.

my 2c.

Mine were Toric, I replaced them every 3 months more or less (it was per usage count, really)

I can say I was very satisfied with them, but the dry eyes are an issue

So, I'm considering Lasik now (day by day usage I have glasses but it also has some problems)

Edit: toric lenses have and added PITA: placing them in the correct orientation/axis. And no, the manual for mine didn't state it 100% fully how to do it

In the morning or on days that I don't have to conduct business (I'm a student), I just wear my glasses, which frankly have superior optics anyway. For sport, and for activities where I have to present myself to others, contacts are unbeatable.

I have somewhat dry eyes also, but my eyes seem to be generating more moisture because I am used to wearing contacts by now. I also use Blink eyedrops very occasionally, because they're not something I want to have to rely on, but are useful in an emergency.

To be honest, I'm not hugely against laser eye surgery, and I'm considering having it down sometime before I'm 30. I'm also strabismic in one eye and although I have relatively strong eye muscles, it's something I was also considering fixing via surgery.

Did you have any complications? Is the procedure any more risky than LASIK?

A few years later my retina ripped at the back and inside of my eye. That can happen when you've got -13/14. They were able to operate on me because the doctos knew I could take it, I've had these implants and was like a statue then. Only difference was, that time it lasted 3 hours, was during midnight and they drained my eye. (Lesson: Don't take static black spots lightly).

You are not supposed to see halos if your prescription is correct. You might get some artifacts if you look through your glasses at an angle, but that's it.

Halos are an artifact of LASIK, usually when the pupil is large enough that it expands past the area of the cornea which was "corrected".

I started wearing glasses when I was 9. I got contacts at 16. It was a great improvement, and I was quite happy with contacts. Two years ago, I got wavefront-guided epi-LASEK. It is without a doubt the best money I've spent.

Glasses have obvious problems, but even contacts come with significant disadvantages. They can dislodge unexpectedly. Doing anything in the water risks losing them. They can trap particles or chemicals against the cornea, causing irritation.

Corrective lenses also tax your mind with more logistics. An overnight trip requires saline solution, extra lenses (and/or backup glasses), a storage case, and some way to clean your hands. This sucks some of the fun out of camping and other activities.

Meanwhile, people who've had corrective surgery wake up and see. It's miraculous. Their eyes just work.

Many people will want to go through with the surgery anyway. Which is fine, but do the research. It is surgery in a very delicate part of the body and, as surgery, it carries risks. And there are many common possible side effects. You eye will get dryer. You may get halos or starbusts, specially at night. They might be minor, as the OP, or they might be debilitating. And if so, there aren't many options to correct those. Specially since, if you are getting halos, your pupil is probably large. Burning more cornea won't be an option, not if you don't want to risk structural failure (there is a name for the condition, which I forgot now). The operation is not reversible.

Also, do the operation one eye at a time. You never know if you are about to be lasered by a malfunctioning device. That way, you'll still have one eye.

And be skeptical about claims of 20/20 vision after the surgery. Those measures do not take into account any side effects you might have, only if you are able to see the letters, no matter if their outlines are blurred to hell, or if there are halos.

Especially eye doctors.

A former gf worked on clinical trials for a group of eye doctors. She'd only consider having surgeries the docs would have done on themselves.

I forget which is which, but she was very impressed when a surgeon teaching others advances in LASEK (?) and had actually had the surgery herself.

Getting eye surgery has by no means made my life twice as good, but it was a slight improvement worth the money.

I use Air Optix (http://www.airoptix.com/safety-information.shtml), they say up to 6 nights is fine for their baseline version, with up to 30 nights for the Night & Day product. Not affiliated in any way, just a customer.

Got LASIK at 25 (i'm now 36). BEST DECISION EVER. I had it done in Manhattan - cost was about 4500 but I paid it via an FSA which reduced the costs further.

I did have the "Halo" effect for about 6-8 months - especially on traffic lights at night, but it eventually went away.

The only downside is that my eyes can feel dry from time to time - not sure if that is due to LASIK or just from being tired [I have 5 year old twins;)].

I am curious/nervous that the effects will wear off - but even if they do and I need to go back to glasses the last 10 years have been more than worth it.

So people born with "perfect" vision. If you stand outside on a dark night and stare at a street light, is the separation between darkness and the light completely crisp, or is there a halo or a starburst of some sort?

However, as my eyes healed, vision degraded a bit and the halo and starburst distortions came back. Nine months later I got a free followup surgery, but that didn't improve matters any.

It's still improved my life a lot, but it sucks going back to distorted vision after seeing perfectly. Also, Lasek sucks. Lasik wasn't an option for me but reading about procedures now I think PRK would have been a better choice (or some laser-only surgery, but I wasn't given that option either), and I certainly wouldn't have gone through a second surgery if I knew it wouldn't help.

As far as I know, there are no halos if you really have perfect vision. Cataracts and minor vision problems (such as a small amount of astimatism) will cause halos, even if the subject claims to see fine otherwise.

If you are doing such a poll, it would be helpful to ask, along with the presence of halos, when it was their last visit to an optometrist. If you believe you have perfect vision, you are not going to see one (even though periodic visits to an eye doctor are indicated, for checkups).

I'm generally happy with it; it's a bit of a miracle. But my eyes are often fuzzy in the morning, they stream tears when it's windy (and they're correspondingly dry afterward), I see halos, and most distressingly my night vision and contrast are worse. I notice "floaters" a lot more, which can be really annoying. I also wonder what I've forfeited in future correction possibilities. So it's really a mixed bag.

When I go in for tests they claim I have 20/20 vision, but that test is very limited, and due to issues above I simply cannot see as well as a person with 20/20 vision (though I can see better than many people who don't bother to wear glasses).

To be honest, I quickly took for granted the miraculous "waking up and being able to see." The main reason I got the surgery is I couldn't decide what style of glasses to get, and I hated what they were doing to my nose bridge, and finally I wanted to try something transformative for my life, which it hasn't really been, though it has certainly made it a bit simpler.

Doctors screen for that.

Anyone having a link to the original?

Astigmatism gives an anisotropy to the distortion, so on one eye it's stretched vertically, on the other, stretched at an angle

I was only able to observe the halo effect added from the image manipulation when I physically blocked my view of the "O" with a piece of paper, stopping at the edge of the character. When only viewing the black area the modification became obvious: there's a gradient around the "O" which fades to black.

So the good news: it may not be anything about your monitor. The bad news: it may be your eyes! :)

It is not that strong, but you can check with a color picker app or with a paint program that yes there really is one there.

I can't see any different. Maybe I am affected or my ~3 year old lcd monitors are failing to display the colors correctly.

Good news is it can be corrected, the bad news is I had to live with an eye that is useless for small text on a monitor. It has been very aggravating but not aggravating enough to go buy a prescription pair of glasses just for the correction in one eye.

Also keep in mind all of the follow-up visits you need to do to keep your "lifetime correction" warranty so get your Lasik done at a place near your house.

Well, after this tough period all the irritation gone, my vision was improving everyday and now, 3 years later I think that it was the best decision ever. Specially if you like to ride motorcycles - and use helmets - it makes a lot more practical.

In dry weathers I fell a little bit of dryness in the eyes _ I manage to hack myself by forcing some tears. Sounds strange but it works.

With LASEK there is no cutting of the eye, so there is no risk of halos or of the flap coming loose later in life. Something like 80-90% of the complications are from the flap, so LASEK is much safer. It takes a day or so longer to heal, but the results are worth it. One of the coolest things I've ever done, and zero negative side effects. Infact, for the first 6 months of so I walked around NYC like I was on acid - just amazed at how clear everything was and being able to see things like bricks on the top corners of buildings 60 stories tall.

Also, the feeling of waking up in the morning without my eyes all f'd up from sleeping in contacts is priceless. I literally found myself crying tears of joy and gratitude on several occasions for how amazing this was. I was happier simply from being able to see better. And it's helped a ton with my ultimate frisbee game and helped me better deal with sand for beach sports.

If you want a laugh, google Dr. Emil Chynn -- he is a brilliant doctor but also a bit eccentric. He was recently on Howard Stern offering $100k to help him find a wife ;) and then book an appointment to see him.

If you'd like a personal introduction to him, feel free to email me ([email protected]) and I can help you get a free consult and friends & family discount. He also has financing available.

Seriously, if you wear glasses or contacts get this done as soon as you can and look into LASEK (no cut, no flap). If you are in NYC check out Park Avenue Safe Sight (LASEK) and Dr. Emil Chynn.

EDIT: I should mention that with the "HD Upgrade" that I got you get a level of clarity that is impossible to reach with glasses or contacts. It's supposed to be 25x more accurate a prescription because they do a laser scan of the entire surface of the eye, and then create micro prescriptions for every area -- sort of like dimples on a golf ball vs. 1 lens like glasses or contects which basically takes the average prescription for the entire eye. LASEK is superior - more accurate, no halos (since no scar tissue), no flap to fall off, better than 20/20 vision, less risk of infection.. Really an amazing technology (oh and I got a DVd of my eyes being lasered ;) )

But not dry eyes, and no flap dislocation. If that flap DOES dislocate (usually, because of trauma), you are screwed.

It works similar to PRK/LASEK in that instead of cutting and reattaching a flap of the cornea (which can heal in place incorrectly, or even come loose if you rub your eyes) they remove a thin layer which then heals back cleanly. It's better than PRK in that instead of removing the layer with alcohol and manually marking an area, all that is dealt with a computer-controlled laser, which supposedly increases the precision, minimizing the affected area and makes healing much quicker and less painful. The biggest downside compared to LASIK is you have to sit in a dark room for 3 days listening t audio books while your eyes slowly and painfully heal, and then wear sunglasses outdoors when there's bright sunlight for a couple months.

After spending a week reading in detail about all the different methods, the possible side-effects or failure modes, etc. I think I'll stick to contacts for now...

I looked into PRK and was on the fence about it, was unconvinced that there is a big difference besides the psychological benefit of "no cutting". Lasik had no pain either during the surgery, so I think considering the slower recovery PRK would have just been more painful total.

Beware the advertised pricing. $2000 LASIK means 'per eye', and you have to add another $1000 for wavefront and another $1000 for laser-cut flaps instead of blade-cut. It ended up being $6,000 which wasn't said until the day of the procedure.

I was told that they didn't expect to give me 20/20 vision, I ended up around 20/40, good enough to legally drive without glasses but I squint a bit. I still have a slight astigmatism in one eye, and that throws me off quite a bit.

The first 6 months during healing were bad - lots of halos, sensitive to light, very poor night vision, especially when driving. But 18 months later Id on't have those problems anymore. I did lose my very close (~6 inches) vision which was very sharp before.

My biggest complaint is dry eyes. I'm not using eyedrops 4-6 times per day, it doesn't help to be in front of a computer screen as much as I am, and it's worst in the mornings and night.

I haven't been sold on LASIK because of the risk of permanent side-effects, such as the light haloes, starbursts, night vision issues, and dry eye.

I tried orthokeratology - wearing a special prescription hard lens for eight hours a night to gradually reshape the cornea. I liked the idea that it was completely reversible, and the downside of wearing the lenses at night wasn't a big deal for me (they were never completely comfortable, but they didn't bother me after the first couple nights).

The problems I experienced with the ortho-k lenses were two-fold, which would have affected me permanently had I went with LASIK: 1) my cornea is too thin for the large amount of correction I need, and 2) my pupils are too large.

1) Thin cornea: ortho-k and LASIK require material with which to work. When there's not enough cornea to mold/burn, the procedure results in weak correction. Solution? Wear contacts. Lame. We're back at square one.

2) Large pupils: my pupils are apparently freaky large in low light. The area of the cornea that gets molded was large enough for normal-to-bright light, but in low light the molded area was too small. That resulted in terrible haloes. Solution? Take glaucoma eye drops that shrink one's pupils for 8-12 hours. I didn't like being dependent on a drug in that way. After three attempts over many months to enlarge the molded area, we gave up. My cornea was just too thin to be able to mold a large enough area.

My eye doctor said that because of my thin corneas and large pupils, if I got LASIK surgery I would have suffered the same problems with weak correction and terrible haloes and other vision artifacts in low light.

So I'm very glad I went the non-permanent route first. Luckily with ortho-k, I just had to stop wearing the sleep shaping lenses for a week to revert to my normal nearsighted vision. I'm back to my monthly disposable contact lenses, and am happy I can see the stars clearly and be able to drive at night again.

I would definitely recommend checking out ortho-k, though - I wasn't a good candidate, but I'm sure many people are.

The glare is annoying, but I purchased a new set of glasses (I know, right?) with no correction and anti-reflective lenses. These help quite a bit when driving at night or working on the computer when my eyes are tired.

Going into my surgery, I told the doc I didn't care if I needed reading glasses (we all probably will), glasses to drive or to work at the computer. Having gone from between a -5 and -6 to 20/15 vision, I am very very happy with the results.

Of course my expectations for vision are probably too great, and certainly I'm currently in the "normal" range (with glasses).

Also I'm personally quite interested in IOL/ICL/Visian, their advertisements make it look really attractive. But they don't afaik yet correct astigmatism, so that's not an option for me yet.

I just bought a new set of glasses with progressive lenses. I hated them. Oh nos! Oh, wait, I took them back and they replaced the lenses with single prescription. Free. Problem solved.

Not at all to discourage anyone from getting lasik, but this is how I look at the risk from that procedure, for me and my prescription. Possible permanent issues vs just changing my lenses. People with worse prescription than mine might think differently.

the halos are because of how the photoreceptors work everyone gets lingering spots of 'colour' when you look at a bright light then look away - note that these bloom out as well, and as they fade they spread for the same reasons. its the surrounds of the 'correct' receptor sucking up the excess energy thats been pumped into that area of the retina coupled with the impossibility of consistently perfect focus

And this is how you over-nerd nerds, ladies and gentlemen :)

I am thinking about this surgery, but I'm afraid of the possible sideffects, unless they're as described in the post.

It is difficult to say. I used to never ever need to wear sunglasses, even in the Portuguese summer. Now, I find them comfortable on very bright days -- not that I can't do without, it's just comfortable. Might be psychological, might indeed be somewhat increased sensitivity to sunlight.

I was on the fence for four or five years, until I decided to go at it. Best 3000€ I ever spent.