I had it done, and am so glad that I did. The procedure was a snap--the post-surgical period of recovery, where you have to keep your face out of the shower and the pool and be very careful to protect your eyes, was only mildly inconvenient. Getting up every morning to "yay, I can see!" more than made up for that. I had no real problems afterwards--my eyes tended to be dry for some months after the surgery, but I used drops and eventually started taking fish oil supplements, and the dryness went away. (I also live in a dry climate, which doesn't help.)

Hahaha oh wow, strange coincidence! I just abruptly decided to retry contacts, got my eyes retested and have an appointment for fitting next week.

o.O

I had it done, um, ten years ago? I had no pain and amazing recovery time--days kind of thing rather than weeks. I did lose close-up vision of very small things (that being the only thing I had left with my -8 eyes) and now I have to wear reading glasses (but that's because I'm getting old). But it was totally worth it. As smallbeer says, getting up in the morning and already being able to see? fucking amazing.

I AM SO JEALOUS! (Or would that be envious?) My eyes are too screwed up for the surgery, and I want it so bad! You are going to love being glasses-free!

Yeah...eyedrops are your friends. Buy the biggest box of them that you can find. I went through a few boxes of them after getting lasik done.

I have a friend who had this done four years ago - and her sight has regressed to what it was before she had the procedure. She's wearing glasses again. She also had a lifetime guarantee etc, but what she found out was -

* if she had eye exams anywhere but the Lasik place, the guarantee was void
* if she had any eye *problems* that weren't dealt with by the Lasik people, the guarantee was void
* if she didn't have eye exams etc on the schedule the Lasik people determined, the guarantee was void
* the guarantee only covered the technology that was used when she had the procedure done. The Lasik place had new technology now - better technology - but she would have to pay for the use of the new technology.

Her Lasik place wasn't actually fly-by-night or anything - it's a very reputable place (to certain definitions of reputable). But these are apparently common growing pains in the Lasik industry. I'm sure there are lots of really good Lasik places - I'd just be sure to read all the small print and maybe ask the Lasik people what their stance is on the things that were problems for her?

I had mine done 5 years ago last week. My post about it is here (http://zoniduck.livejournal.com/16557.html), if you care to read about it. I still think it's the best money I ever spent, and I'm sorry I didn't do it sooner. The only real complication I had from it is that I'm not about to focus on things that are very close up. Once something gets closer than 10" or so to my face, I'm not able to focus on it. I count this as an incredibly minor issue, and I hardly ever notice it. My eyes were a little bit dry for about 6 months after the surgery, but I just used saline drops until it cleared up.

I have recently noticed that my vision is declining a bit, but I'm not surprised by this. I expected that I would need reading glasses at some point, though I had hoped it wouldn't be this soon. My vision was pretty bad before the LASIK, so just needing glasses for reading and maybe driving at night is a vast improvement.

I'm sure my eye doctor will tell me that he can go back and correct some more, but I imagine it will be a while before I can afford another $3,000 or so.

I had it done about 14 months ago - scrip wasn't as bad as yours, but bad enough that had to wear glasses/contacts for anything that wasn't reading a book and had been since 10 years old. Totally totally worth it. The first few days were the most miserable for me, especially since my doc told me no computers or reading for 48-72 hours and I'm a computer teacher. :) But my eyes were definitely bruised from the procedure for about 3 weeks (had splotches on my eyes) but they weren't painful past about day 3. Dry eyes still happen even now, so I keep sterile eye drops in my purse and next to my bed just in case. I have the same follow-through that it sounds like you do, and luckily my insurance covers that doctor anyway.
The only real difference/downside I've noticed is halos at night. It was really bad the first couple months, to the point where I did not want to drive at night if I didn't have to. It is better, but not great. I was told they may clear up over time, but I haven't noticed much improvement in about 6 months.
Also, I was told up front that my eyesight may deteriorate as i get older and may end up needing reading glasses, but my family has horrible eyesight anyway, so I was originally expecting to get bifocals by the time I was 40. Hopefully this staves it off until I'm like 50. :)
If you do it, have someone who can pick you up, take/bring you home, and stay with you (doesn't have to be the same person). I couldn't see anything for the first few hours after the procedure - getting into the car was trouble enough. Eating and drinking was by rote, not because i could actually see anything.

All the talk about seeing halos reminded me of what I saw as a result of my eye playing tricks.

I have keratoconus so for me at this time, Lasik surgery isn't an option. I did however have a cornea transplant in the eye that had gotten really bad. Keratoconus has its own craziness. A year before I had to have the surgery, I was with some friends in San Francisco driving around at night. I looked to the sky and saw that the moon was full. It was so beautiful and bright and was surprisingly huge since we were still within city limits and OMG there were two moons not overlapping but side by side in the sky! Clear as day. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Apparently my friends couldn't either and asked me to share whatever I was taking. *smile* The weird thing was when I looked at the moon again, I only saw one normal size and brightness. After that my left eye seemed to go downhill fast. I still have to wear a contact in that eye because of a slight astigmatism but sometimes I see better without it.

I am entirely too squeamish about my eyes to ever even consider this procedure (I'm waiting for the corrective eye drops phase and even that will have to pass a rigorous time test before I try it) but I know merryish did it and has been gloriously happy.

I'm excited for you! Hope everything goes well. I think that if I had the money (which I won't for a LONG TIME), I would take the same leap. However, it looks like my next step will be to contacts.

I had it done about three years ago, with the (at the time) most advanced super fantastic procedure. Although they had to give me a monster dose of valium to keep me from freaking out about someone CUTTING MY EYE OH MY GOD, the surgery itself was absolutely painless and very quick. My prescription before surgery was the same as yours; I was 20/10 for about six months after the surgery, then stabilised at 20/20. Dry eyes for about six months, night halos for about three. The only slightly negative (imo) side effect is that my very-near vision (say, three inches from my face) is worse than it was; objects that close are now as blurry as far objects used to be. That's a very minor quibble, though; it's still the best money I've ever spent.

even though I have no advice, my eyes are worse than yours, and I had to wear glasses and contacts since I was 8, too.
Living in Germany, its definitely more costly than in US, as I would have to pay the same amount of money , only in Euro...

but I really hope, and want it for me!

I will cross my fingers for you though for positive comments!

I had my eyes done in January and it's been *awesome*! It was *so* worth the money, trust me!

I had this done about 15 months ago and it's the best money I have ever spent. I had a prescription of -9.25 so I was just on the threshold before the prescription was too severe (threshold was -10.00) to have the surgery.
I had very irritable eyes about an hour after the procedure and it was like looking through a smokey room, but I could see clearly immediately, then after a sleep of about four hours the cloudiness had disappeared. By the next morning I drive myself to the doctor for the follow up appointment (even through my mom had come to stay with me during postop) and when my eyes were checked they were already 20/20.
The only sign of the surgery on my eyes were a couple of red blood blisters on the whites of my eyes, but you could only see them if I was looking down as they were behind my eyelids.
I did have dry eyes for about 6-8 months afterwards, but I just keep using the tears given to me by the doctor. My eyes have stayed at 20/20. My far vision is still fine, I just have a ittle problem focussing on tiny print, especially if the print is against a colour background - like yellow text on a green or blue backgound, and especialy if the room light is not very bright.
But that's a small problem to live with when I've been forced to wear contacts or glasses for 30 years. I just wish I had done it sooner.

This is relevant to my interests. :) I was born with astigmatism and have had my glasses glued to my face for so long, my friends don't know how my eyes look like. Maybe in the future I can get this surgery done. My friend did it a few months back and she has had no side-effects so far.

I had waveform lasik, and based on that experience:

1. When they put the metal thing in your eye to keep you from blinking, you really don't have to blink. Don't try to blink while the laser is fixing your eye up - you really, really don't have to blink bc of the drops they put in your eyes, and bc of the metal thing holding your eyelids apart, you can't blink anyway.

2. I had my surgery around 6 P.M., and the rest of the day, my eyes were incredibly sensitive to light and watered like hell. I was at my parents' house for dinner and we turned off all the lights except the dim one right above the dining table, I was wearing sunglasses, I closed my eyes, and it was STILL too bright for me. So, yeah. Light sensitivity like woah. On that note, if you eat something after getting Lasik, make sure it's not soup. Trying to eat soup with your eyes closed is difficult.

3. The next day, though, I woke up and I could read the spines of my books from across the room, where I was lying in bed. No light sensitivity, no headache, nothing but sight. I was at -4.5 and -5.0 for my eyes (hey, my dominant eye was also my weaker eye!), and then suddenly, I could see.

4. The night halos--whatever. No, seriously, whatever. The techs and doctors talked about night halos as a possible side effect, and then after I got lasik done, I was like, "...seriously? Light halos? I can see night lights clearly for the first time since 1993. I've had light halos ALL MY LIFE AND THOUGHT THAT THIS WAS JUST HOW LIGHTS LOOKED AT NIGHT." In other words, there were no night halos.

Also, just, the benefits were apparent immediately. When I went in to have Lasik, a nurse/assistant-person sat me down and explained what the procedure would be like and checked my vision again one last time before the Lasik. Then, I had the Lasik done. Then, the same nurse explained what I should do (no swimming for a while, no rubbing my eyes for two months, etc.), and the whole time I was thinking, "You're beautiful."

That sounds weird, but what I mean was, before I had Lasik, when the nurse talked to me I didn't have contacts or glasses on and all I saw was a big, vaguely human-shaped, blonde-ish blob. I couldn't make out what she actually looked like at all. After the Lasik, I could see what the nurse looked like, and that was amazing. No glasses, no contacts, and I could see. Then, the light sensitivity kicked in and I mostly kept my eyes shut, but the whole drive home from the doctor's, I read the names off of street signs to my mom, who was driving. It must have been annoying for her, but for me, it was nothing short of miraculous: I'd never been able to read a street sign without corrective lenses. By the time I got my driver's license, I'd had glasses for years.

I had lasik as an 18th birthday present. i had 20/400 vision and gone through every glasses type imaginable except I couldn't put contact lenses in.

so i had lasik.
problems:
*I have really weird eyelids that hate being held open and a reflex to blink like nobody's business. so they actually had to stop the procedure five times to say "please stop blinking, you're going to ruin it" (even though they taped my eyelids open I still managed to blink the tape off) they just kept saying "look at the blue light, don't move"
*afterwards, it was like having sand under my eyelids. and i'm wearing these weird ridiculous goggles so i can't scratch my eyes and everything is blurry anyway.
*I had to go back for checkups I think: 4 weeks after, 1 month after, 3 months after, 6 months after, a year after. and each time they put this yellow eyedrops in that would make my tears urine-yellow for a few minutes and numb my eyeballs BUT I WOULD STILL BLINK.

pros:
*When I took the goggles off the next morning, I could SEE. and i didn't have to reach for glasses that get smudged randomly or fall off and shatter or lose parts or have the arms snap off or get made fun of or interfere with my eye makeup... I looked out my window and for the first time I could see the MOUNTAINS.

i think the pro outweighs the con.