Chicky Monkey wrote:Thanks for your response PRK!
Yes, my surgery was definitely supposed to be monovision. I wore specs around their office to see if I liked it and signed all kinds of paperwork in regard to the monovision. I walked in wanting it and that was all we discussed from day one. When I talked to the surgeon about getting the monovision "reversed" after my unsatisfactory results, he never said "whoa, whoa! you don't have monovision! We didn't talk about that!" Rather, he said "wait another month and think about it." What was he going to do had I returned and said yes, I want it reversed? Why the shadyness?
Ask him if he even programmed monovision into the laser. If not, he owes you a refund for one eye since it was his fault. I would hope the surgeon programs -1 for both eyes if I do go ahead with PRK.
And Yes, your dad is right. My expectation was 20/20 vision. These doctors have a "20/20 vision or your money back" guarantee. You have to pay extra for that guarantee though, which in and of itself seems silly (we'll only get you 20/20 vision if you pay us more?) and I did not pay the extra for it. I may not have even been eligible because there are restrictions.
Most people won't pay for the guarantee if they believe the 98% chance of 20/20. How much extra was that guarantee? Maybe I should pay for them to guarantee ill end up between -0.5 and -2.5. Should be cheap since the odds are good ill end up in that ballpark. Much easier than trying to end dead on plano. Ill be worried if they can't even guarantee ill end between -0.5 and -2.5.
My expectations were also based on the following statement from their website:
98% percent of our patients see 20/20 or no worse than 20/25 after their first treatment.
What would most people expect with a statement like that? 98% SURELY I'm in 98%, right?
Funny not everyone is eligable for the guarantee if they are so sure almost everyone gets 20/20. Im thinking *maybe* that 98% odds only applies to those that *are* eligable for the guarantee. If you aren't eligable, you can bet they think your odds are much lower. My own laser center pretty much said the same, they also said 70% end up 20/15. At least I believe them when they said only 4 ever got 20/10 out of 16,000+ you can pretty much bet that getting 20/10 is almost as slim as winning the lottery. I doubt ill get better than 20/20 BCVA anyway as I don't correct to 20/20 now with glasses, my retina might not be capable of such perfect vision as 20/20.
And my favorite statement, right off their site:
We put ourselves in our patients' shoes and realize that if you are best corrected at 20/20 now with glasses or contacts and only achieve 20/30 or 20/40 with laser vision correction that you will not be happy.
I for one wouldn't be happy to see 20/40 from near since I see almost 20/20 near without glasses(at 8 inch) or with computer glasses at about 2 feet. I do not want to need reading glasses to have crisp near vision. I know my distance vision won't be 20/20 if my near vision is 20/20 but presbyopes can't have both. They can either have 20/20 distance vision(plano or 0.25 diopter) or they can have 20/20 near vision(if -1, then at 1 meter) I can tell you right now that no presbyope will be happy if they end with any hyperopia.
Nope, you're right! Not happy!
Well your choice is either 20/20 distance vision if your enhancement goes perfect(but then your near vision will be poor) or stay where you are and have 20/20 intermediate vision(1.33 meters)
So, I flip flop back and forth every day whether or not to go back in and try to get that right eye fixed to perfect vision or leave my 20/40 eyes alone and wear glasses for anything more than 20-25 feet away.
We can see how it turned out the first time. My dad said he would never touch a -0.75 correction. There's no guarantee youll be 20/20 in the right eye, in fact there's no guarantee youll even be 20/40 if you end overcorrected or have a complication. I know there's no guarantees if I do go ahead with PRK. Id like to find out my odds of ending between -0.5 and -2.5 and see if I can insure that in case I end outside that, id want a full refund of surgery costs. If they say 99% chance, then insurance should not be more than 2% the cost of surgery. This will give them 2:1 profit.
For me, that means glasses while watching TV, every business meeting (I can't read the words on the projector), grocery shopping (can't read the signs above the aisles), driving, etc. So I went from comfortable disposable soft lenses that I had no trouble with and perfect vision near and far to glasses 1/2 the time? Whoopee! Let me see if I can contain my excitement a bit.... :-/
Couldn't you simply sit 10-15 feet away to see clear? I am wondering why you choose laser surgery if you could tolerate contact lens, wouldn't they have kept you out of glasses with a minimum of hassles? There doesn't seem to be much benefit to laser surgery for contact wearers. Much more benefit for us glasses wearers. Couldn't you still wear one contact lens in your dormant eye for distance?
Is it really ok to tell someone 98% of people get 20/20, and you should be happy with your 20/40 just because it's better than you had before? Yeah, it's better, but I wanted what I was told I could have.
They have no right making that 98% claim if something like 50% of random people end up 20/20 short term and long term. This causes people to have unrealistic expectations. My expectations are to simply reduce my dependancy on glasses and be 20/happy(being able to see the computer without glasses)
And I feel like there's been something strange going on when my monovision eyes turned out not monovision and NO ONE TOLD ME.
You need to insist on an explaination. Let us know what the surgeon says.
Would I do it again? Yes, hmmmm. I waffle between I don't know and probably. But I wouldn't go to this surgeon, and I can't in good conscience recommend them because I don't think they've done right by me.
You should tell people the 98% figure for 20/20 is nonsense. I am making a guide that ill post(I can email it to you if address is provided) and you can print it and show others. Basically they need to expect to still wear glasses(reading glasses if presbyopic and not myopic), just not as often. Also they can expect a big improvement(if their vision is bad) in how well they see without glasses. Basically if they aim for plano, they can expect to be between -1 and +1 after laser surgery. If they aim for -1, expect plano to -2(which is the case for me)