lklebauskas wrote:
> The reason I prefer Visian is it seems the surgery is less invasive and
> quicker to recover from. I'm a big baby, and found all the tests they
> did during the evaluation to be very unpleasant, though never painful.
> They had to keep re-doing many of the tests to get good measurements
> and readings. Is that common?

The Visian is less invasive, and you spend more time recovering from the
surgery drugs than from the surgery itself. If not for the IV, you
could practically drive yourself home from a Visian surgery. However,
our experience is that the easy surgery might come at a cost of some
night vision artifacts.

My tests were re-done at least three times. It is somewhat annoying,
but it is in your best interests that they get the measurements right. :)

> I'm not looking forward to the next step, the iridectomy. I'm thankful
> for you bloggers who have posted all the technical details because now
> I have some more questions to ask the Dr. before I make my final
> decision.

In the grand scheme of things, the iridotomy is not that bad. It was
the most unpleasant part of my surgery, though. It made me nauseaous...

> I'm told I likely will not get corrected to 20/20 unless I have a
> follow-up laser treatment (because of the astigmatism). I'm not
> terribly concerned about that because I don't think I've ever been
> 20/20 even with glasses or contacts.

You might talk to your doc -- I understand that toric lenses, if not
available already, are somewhere in the pipeline.

Still, as you said, even if you can't be corrected to 20/20, you'll at
least be able to wear much thinner glasses!

> I'm at that age where presbyopia will be coming on, so expect to have
> to wear reading glasses.

You will lose your super-human ability to focus in closely on things.
Even if presbyopia hasn't hit you yet, you'll still find the need to add
a magnifying glass to your stuff around the house.

> Is it ok to talk about what doctors we're using? I'm going to someone
> in Massachusets.

Mine was in Denver, and I'd strongly recommend him. I've hesitated to
mention doctors by name, though. I want to avoid anything that would
look like spam on our list. I'd like this to be a place where people
can get honest, open discussion about PIOLs.