I need HELP!!!

[sugar_ray]

Hi.... I am considering eye laser surgery to correct my shortsightedness (http://www.***********/procedure.php) (-3.25 in both eyes); however, i'm type 1 diabetic. I would be greatful if anyone could let me know whether or not being diabetic could cause any additional complications with my eyes. Eye nerve damage and blindness is already a big deal when you're diabetic and i wouldn't want to have the surgery (http://www.***********/procedure.php) to find that i end up with worse sight than before or going blind. Any comments would be appreciated. Thank you! :-*

[Brensdad]

Do you mind if I ask how old you are? If you are pretty young, then I say go for it. If not, then you might want to think about it some more. Retinopathy, studies show, is more a function of how long you've had diabetes, and not necessarily how well-controlled it is.

[hypercarmona]

The only opinion I've heard about laser surgery is from my (non-D) father. It corrected his nearsightedness (which was severe) but caused him to have terrible night vision and starbursts when looking at lights. That scared me off from considering it. (When combined with the video of how they do it. :eek: I'm a big chicken! :D)


Retinopathy, studies show, is more a function of how long you've had diabetes, and not necessarily how well-controlled it is.

That's sad, but I have to agree. It's a crapshoot.

[munchkingirl]

My mother is not diabetic but she had Lasik eye surgery and she is perfectly fine. The only thing is now she has to wear reading glasses when she's doing really close-up work like cross-stitching, other than that she is VERY happy with the surgery. I have no idea how it'd affect us diabetics, though, if it would at all.

I'd talk to several doctors around your area to get several opinions. :D

[Volleyball_Chick_15]

My dad is 40 years old and he's been diabetic since he was 9 months old and last year he had 3 eye surgerys and i believe they were lazor surgerys but im not really sure but he is fine now he is just sensitive to bright lights but he can see much better.

[allena]

Well I know one of my friend's dad had a eye surgery's and it is a lazor surgery's he is fine and better able to see now This is him first surgery which
effect a lot in first time only

[rickst29]

pay extra to be done by one of the newer, fancier, and ultra-expensive machines. "VIS-X" or newer, you're looking for 3rd-order correction in the computers calculations.

On the newest machine, out of about 100 people (studied and operated on at a University in the Bay area), the AVERAGE result was 20:15, NO ONE had worse than 20:20, and NO ONE had halos at night. That's the results you want (I saw this during a long "Medical Education TV" lecture, not on an infomercial.)

You can't tell by price-- although all of the low-budget operations are using "hand-me-down" less accurate old machines, a lot of Docs with old machines are charging premium prices anyway. You've got to ask, "exactly which machine", and then look up it's characteristics.
- - - - -

But I note that the Air Force uses only PRK, not LASIK. It'll cost more, and recovery is slower, and you want a highly skilled and experienced surgeon for that procedure-- but that's what THEY do, when they've already "invested" about $2M in training a pilot and his eyes go bad. Either they think it's worth paying extra (for a good reason), or they're just a slow-moving bureaucracy which refuses to move to LASIK just because they're slow-moving and haven't figured it's "just as good" yet. Before I would have LASIK done, I'd take some time to learn exactly WHY the Air Force doesn't use it.