Laser eye surgery

[dubc80]

Hey all,
Looking to get my eyes zapped in the New Year.

Everyone I talk to who has gotten it has very good things to say about it. Guess they must do a pretty good job pre-screening you to ensure you're a good candidate and to ensure a high success percentage. With that being said, Im sure there are folks out there who know someone who got it with mixed results...

My doctor is at that eyewear chain, Iris. They are partnered with their own clinic, with their own doctors. They say their machines are state of the art and "way better" than Gimble. Only kicker is that their clinic is in Vancouver so there would be travel involved. Around $4000 to get it done, which is more that Gimble, I think.

Has anyone on here gotten the procedure recently, either through Iris in Vancouver or Gimbel here in Calgary?
Care to share some feedback and costs?

Thanks!

[OilersBaby]

I got laser eye surgery 2 years ago in San Jose California. My doctor was from there (he did all of his education in the USA but was raised and worked in Cowtown before he moved to Californai and used to work for the Gimbel Eye Center there. He was awesome. There were 2 appointments prior to the procedure with him (and 2 with my regular optometrist). The actual day of the "surgery", it only took 5 minutes per eye! The day after, there was a followup appt with the doctor and about 4 followups with my optometrist (but those took place over a year).

I paid $3200 for the entire procedure and I got 10% off through my husband's work's insurance, so a little less than 3000 total.

My prescription was REALLY bad before and it didnt correct all the way, so about 10 months later, I got it redone (free of charge as they have a lifetime guarantee) and now its PERFECT!!!!!!!!!

No longer do I have to worry about falling asleep in my contacts or lugging around cases, solution etc for those contacts.

Again, though I didnt get this procedure done at the actual center you mentioned, my doctor was from there and had worked there for years!

So the day I got the procedure done I slept and took some medicine and put drosp in my eyes. My eyes were so responsive to the treatment that the very next day, I was able to go to the followup appt without bandaging my eyes (thats how I thought it was going to be, boy was I wrong!). I just wore my sunglasses.

Here is his website in case you want to read about different procedures:

http://www.furlongvision.com/

[Rathji]

My father in law did Lasik and his eyes have been perfect from the next day. They also have some sort of lietime guarentee deal.

[boobaloo]

I had mine done at Gimbel's. Dr. Kassab did an excellent job. She said there was a 50% chance she'd have to redo my right eye because of the astigmatism. Didn't happen though . I got a discount because my husband was a City of Calgary employee, and another one for having my own optometrist do the post-op care. Don't remember exactly what that discount was, but I know my own optometrist charged less than they took off the price. Seems to me the total was about $1800 after the discounts (I think they were worth about $700). It's been 7 years since my surgery. One of the best things I ever did. The only thing about it is, they can't stop you from getting old, and I need reading glasses now . Oh well, at least it's only part-time.

[OilersBaby]

Originally Posted by boobaloo

I had mine done at Gimbel's. Dr. Kassab did an excellent job. She said there was a 50% chance she'd have to redo my right eye because of the astigmatism. Didn't happen though . I got a discount because my husband was a City of Calgary employee, and another one for having my own optometrist do the post-op care. Don't remember exactly what that discount was, but I know my own optometrist charged less than they took off the price. Seems to me the total was about $1800 after the discounts (I think they were worth about $700). It's been 7 years since my surgery. One of the best things I ever did. The only thing about it is, they can't stop you from getting old, and I need reading glasses now . Oh well, at least it's only part-time.

Do you have a lifetime guarantee? There's something that Dr. Furlong told me they can do to your eyes so that when you need reading glasses, you wont! I forget what he said but there IS something.....

[Kipper is King]

I don't have good things at all to say about it. Two years ago, I had PRK done on both eyes. Now, I'm awaiting a corneal transplant in my left eye which is legally blind, and I'm seeing 20/50 out of my right with glasses on.

I don't mean to be a fear-monger, but you gotta be careful with a surgery like that. You have a big advantage over my situation already if you are getting LASIK done, because LASIK has less of a risk of corneal scarring.

I stress this above all else, however- get one eye done at a time (Insist on it!). That way, you will ensure you have good vision in at least one eye in the unlikely event that something goes wrong.

Things will go well for you, I just was an unlucky fluke case. But please get one eye done, then go back and do the other once you know that eye is OK. That way, you won't end up in a mess like me.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by OilersBaby

Do you have a lifetime guarantee? There's something that Dr. Furlong told me they can do to your eyes so that when you need reading glasses, you wont! I forget what he said but there IS something.....

Laser eye surgery will not eliminate the need for reading glasses. I've had the surgery and now use reading glasses. LES cannot fix that.

[I_H8_Crawford]

Originally Posted by Kipper is King

I don't have good things at all to say about it. Two years ago, I had PRK done on both eyes. Now, I'm awaiting a corneal transplant in my left eye which is legally blind, and I'm seeing 20/50 out of my right with glasses on.

I don't mean to be a fear-monger, but you gotta be careful with a surgery like that. You have a big advantage over my situation already if you are getting LASIK done, because LASIK has less of a risk of corneal scarring.

I stress this above all else, however- get one eye done at a time (Insist on it!). That way, you will ensure you have good vision in at least one eye in the unlikely event that something goes wrong.

Things will go well for you, I just was an unlucky fluke case. But please get one eye done, then go back and do the other once you know that eye is OK. That way, you won't end up in a mess like me.

Just curious - what procedure did you have if it wasn't LASIK???

Sorry for your situation, that really sucks.

[tete]

My husband and I had laser eye surgery this summer/fall at Gimbel. I had PRK done, he had Intra-Lase Lasik. My recovery has been slower than his, but that was to be expected since I had PRK done instead of Lasik. Overall, no regrets at all - I'm almost 4 months post op and am basically 20/20 in both eyes. Hubby is over 3 months post op and over 20/20. I was able to drive within a week and a half post-op, hubby was cleared in a week. I still have a regime of eye drops and you may find your eyes are more dry than before and require drops frequently - i'd say that has been my husband's major issue.

I had Dr. Gimbel himself do my surgery, hubby had Dr. Kassab. '

Good luck with your decision.

[OilersBaby]

I think the PRK procedure takes a little longer than Lasik. My sister had the PRK and hers seemed to be a bit painful the next day and for me, I couldnt feel a thing!

[Kipper is King]

Originally Posted by I_H8_Crawford

Just curious - what procedure did you have if it wasn't LASIK???

Sorry for your situation, that really sucks.

It was PRK (The one where the laser just reshapes the cornea, and there's no flap cut.)

The situation really sucks beyond belief. I had just graduated from high school, and I thought it would be cool to get rid of my classes. Now, it will take me years to recover from a very painful and somewhat risky surgery. But I need better eyesight than what I've got now.

[Knut]

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...=laser+surgery

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...=laser+surgery

Here are a couple of other threads on this. There is a tonne of information in here about it.

I am an optometrist, so if you have any more technical questions feel free to PM me or post them here.

[Sample00]

Originally Posted by boobaloo

I had mine done at Gimbel's. Dr. Kassab did an excellent job. She said there was a 50% chance she'd have to redo my right eye because of the astigmatism. Didn't happen though . I got a discount because my husband was a City of Calgary employee, and another one for having my own optometrist do the post-op care. Don't remember exactly what that discount was, but I know my own optometrist charged less than they took off the price. Seems to me the total was about $1800 after the discounts (I think they were worth about $700). It's been 7 years since my surgery. One of the best things I ever did. The only thing about it is, they can't stop you from getting old, and I need reading glasses now . Oh well, at least it's only part-time.

I concur. I had my eyes done about 12 years ago at Gimbels in Edmonton. It was about $4000.00 back then. Worth every freaking penny!!
but as you said, they cant stop you from getting old. I dont need reading glasses yet, but I suspect in a couple more years I will.

[worth]

Do some searching on the internet about the type of surgery you are doing. There are a lot of people out there with a lot of horror stories. And there are a lot of people out there who are pleased. But there is risk involved, which you know. But I read some boards about it and I think that kind of turned me off surgery.

[Knut]

The Demong eye center in CAlgary has open seminars for people to attend. It is a good idea if you are at all wavering on the decision.

http://www.demong.com/seminars/index.aspx - Register here....


http://www.demong.com/documents/lase...al_results.pdf Here are some number from the surgeries conducted at the Demong center. It will likely be similar for Gimbel

The results for people with their eyes being better than 20/40 post surgical (meet driving requirements) is 99.7 to 99.3 percent depending on your initial Rx.

Also to note is that 88.2 (rx greater than - 8.00) to 96.7 (under -3.00) will acheive 20/15 to 20/25 vision ( or never need glasses for distance tasks)

[habernac]

I wish I could get surgery to fix mine. My dominant eye is 20/15 and my lazy eye is 20/200. But it's not a lens problem so unless they pick it up early, there's not a heck of a lot they can do.

[Knut]

Originally Posted by habernac

I wish I could get surgery to fix mine. My dominant eye is 20/15 and my lazy eye is 20/200. But it's not a lens problem so unless they pick it up early, there's not a heck of a lot they can do.

Yeah... unfortunately a time machine is all than can help your lazy eye... i have to same issue.

[habernac]

Originally Posted by Hesla

Yeah... unfortunately a time machine is all than can help your lazy eye... i have to same issue.

I used to wear glasses, one huge bug-burning lens. It just gave me a headache. I stopped wearing them more than 20 years ago. Didn't hurt my hand-eye co-ordination at all, really. I just have to be very careful that I don't do something to injure the good eye (hense the reason I wear a full cage playing hockey now).

[BOSSY]

I had the "old fashoined" Lasik done (no Intra-Laz) because I'm cheap!!! Done by Dr. Gimbel about 2.5 years ago... One eye 20/20 the other a little better than that - best thing I ever did/best money I ever spent... I think it was $2200 for both eyes... No problems at all... YET!

[chuckchick]

2 girls I work with had it done in the last couple weeks(one just on Friday), both at Lasik MD. Lifetime guarantee. Both had great results. Lasik MD offers free assessment. I will be looking into it as well in the new year. Good luck!!!