Good for you, Jim!! That sounds like something that I might consider. My vision is definitely declining. Loss of acuity and astigmatism.
I was working on an eye doctor's house a couple of years ago and he was telling me about this surgery. Tells me it's the bulk of his business. He didn't talk price or recovery, so I'm curious if anyone can share any info on those 2 aspects?
I guess it varies with the doctor and locale or probably what insurance will pay. The first one was right about $5000 all told, that covers the pre-op evaluation, surgery and a post-op visit which I had this morning. The surgery doctor works with my normal optometrist, I'll be seeing him in a week and again in a month, and he charges separately but from what I can see that's just two normal office visits. My insurance from work covers 80% pre-deductible on all of it so it was right at $1000 out of pocket for the first one. They show you up front what the cost is and the second one was only $4000 for whatever reason, perhaps they didn't need to repeat some things, and since I've met my deductible for the plan year the out of pocket was $500 this time.
Well worth it from where I sit now.
Recovery is no big deal. For the next two weeks I'm not supposed to lift anything over 20 pounds and avoid "dirty" work where debris or dust could get in my eye. Otherwise you just go about your daily life starting the very next day.
"Tells me it's the bulk of his business." Speaking of, it's definitely assembly line surgery. Not to complain, the staff at the surgery center was great - competent, professional and still caring and personable, but they must do 10-20 of these in a morning since the actual procedure only takes about 10 minutes. They put you in a room and place five or six drops of stuff in your eye and let those sit for 20 minutes, then stick an IV catheter in your arm and take you to the actual OR. Your head is immobilized and the eye area painted with iodine, then they put numbing drops in the eye. Just before everything begins an anesthetist squirts some fentanyl and something else in your arm and it's happy time for a while.
I didn't remember the first one but was quite conscious of this one. You don't feel a thing, you just see shadows, but I remember them saying it's all done and having me sit up, getting into a wheelchair to go to post-op and talking to the nurse while I waited for my ride home. Getting up and walking feels like you've had about 2-3 stiff drinks on an empty stomach so I was quite jovial with everyone walking out.
You go home, take a nap, stay indoors for the day, go to bed and then wake up with everything bright and clear. Pretty neat.
