Lasik Surgery

[Splat762]

You can't really, it's being pushed down and held in place.  Besides you really can't take you eye off the flashing red hot laser that is about to slice your eye...lol.  ;D

[rootbeer]

I've wanted to do this for some time, now. I'm a trucker. My livelihood depends on being able to see. I know the success rate is near 100%, but what if I'm the one in a million that somehow has a screw-up and I lose my vision? I would love to do it but the risk, however small, keeps me from going ahead and getting it done. Even Tiger Woods did it, but I'm hesitant. I do envy those of you who have had it done and are now enjoying a new freedom in your vision that I may never know...

[RitterKreuz]

Your eye is NOT being held in place by anything but YOU and a slight suction.

it is up to the patient to concentrate on a small light about the size of the "O" on your keyboard.

That device does hold your eye in place but mostly it simply keeps your eye from closing.

The suction of the device is weak and you CAN look away from the light but all the while the doctor is controlling the laser by a foot pedal, if your eye veers even slightly off course (Like mine did a couple of times) he will release the pedal and the laser will pause.

Also the laser does NOT slice or cut your eye, it "sculpts" the corneal stroma from an oval shape to the more rounded natural shape it should be. You CANT feel that happening, there is no heat, no slicing feeling, and no cutting feeling while the laser is on. and the tissue being removed is only micrometers thick. The eximer laser system measures your eye movement up to 4,000 times per second and adjusts the laser accordingly about every 10 to 20 nanoseconds.

The only cut that takes place is a semi-circular cut around the cornea so that it may be opened like a small door. Your eye will heal from this cut very quickly. I recall my doctor asking me if i have ever had a cut on my eye from a piece of sand... i said that i have... he said do i ever remember that cut lasting more than a day or two? and i did not remember it lasting very long... much shorter than say a cut on the roof of your mouth. he explained that the eye tissue is some of the fastest healing tissue in the human body.

There are risks and complications involved. Things can go wrong with any surgery. So if your considering this procedure do your homework. I can only speak for myself. My Aviation Medical Examiner every eye test he does he says "Well you tested to 20/15 very easily... your vision is probably better than that but my machine wont test vision better than 20/15 but it would be interesting to see what it really is." so therefore i am thrilled over the past 8 years with the success of the surgery i have experienced and with the consistency of my vision. and i was absolutely blind! i had to hold typical 10 point, paper back novel print about 5 or 6 inches from my face in order to be able to read it without glasses or contacts!