Many of the individuals below are frankly damaged. Others exhibit what is known as cognitive dissonance, meaning that they minimize the significance of their complications to themselves and others, or even deny that they've had complications at all. Inevitably, patients who are severely injured end up wishing that those they'd talked about LASIK with before their surgeries would have revealed the true extent of their injuries.
Lasik Complications aren't rare. They are EVERYWHERE!
Here is a list of the people I have encountered with LASIK complications since my surgery a number of months ago:
1. A young man (mid 20'S) sitting in my surgeon's waiting room with me also had large pupils and has severe night vision starbursts and halos from LASIK. For him, the TV screen has huge smeary ghosts extending beyond the set itself. The night vision complications are a problem since he must travel a great deal at night for his job.
2. In the office of one of my 2nd opinion docs I met a young woman who had LASIK resulting in blurry vision in one eye and double vision in the other. A young mother and a real shame.
3. A technician in the office above, sporting a button that said "Ask me about my LASIK" was blinking uncomfortably from dry eye because she had taken a cold tablet. She admitted that she was eyedrop dependent. And only in her twenties... what will happen to her as her eyes dry naturally with age?
4. I went to an optometrist for glasses. He is only in his 30s but has dry eye from LASIK and must wear lower plugs. Since when do young males have dry eye? Can you say "LASIK CORNEAL NERVE DAMAGE"?
5. My dental hygienist is uncomfortable driving at night after her LASIK.
6. I went to a hair salon for a cut. The proprietor has a sagging eyelid from LASIK and dry eye for which she has been cauterized - and she takes the expensive Restasis eye drop regimen. She reports loss of contrast sensitivity and night vision problems. She had double vision for a while, luckily that went away.
7. Same salon, an employee had LASIK and has dry eye.
8. A sales rep I deal with often is married to a man who had a horrific post-LASIK visual and dry eye experience. They took me out to lunch to tell me about it. He still has blurry vision in one eye and has plugs. He is in his mid 30's. He said the psychological strain of the problem nearly pushed him over the edge.
9. A man in the building across the street from where I work had a bad LASIK with blurry vision at all distances. He claimed that he was misled by the practice. "What they tell you before [surgery] and what they tell you after are two different things" he said. I can second that, because my surgery was at the same practice, same surgeon.