LRI then PRK

[Fuz]

I was born with severe astigmatism in my right eye, and tried wearing glasses when I was young but stopped due to how heavy they were on the right side.  I am now 37 and decided to be checked out by a popular eye surgeon where I live.  I have looked into other eye doctors but basically been told I am not even close to being a candidate for Lasik. After the initial consultation I was told that he MIGHT be able to do something, but wouldn't know for sure until more in depth tests were run. After those tests he told me that he sees someone like me about every other month, and that there were procedures that could help as long as I have patience.  Being this was the first time anyone said they could help me I have signed up for the procedures (all other times I had hard contacts or new eye glass prescriptions pushed, which I have tried but am not interested in. I also realize those were more Lasik specialists than eye surgeons. This doctor also does lots of cataract surgeries.)

I have now decided to educate myself as much as I can about my upcoming procedures and if anyone has any suggestions for things I should consider I would be grateful.
I now know that I have a prescription in my right eye of around +5., -6, axis 26 deg...I am not sure exactly what he measured me at, but going back through military medical records the prescriptions varied a bit and were between +4.5-+5, -5.25 to -8.00, and the axis was normally the same since age of 18. From an intensive eye mapping I had in the in 1994 it says my pupil diameter was 5mm. My good eye is either listed as -.025 for first number or pl (plano?).
I now know I am an amblyope, but use my bad eye for peripheal vision on that side. I also was able to read the eye chart fairly well when corrected through the eye machine.
He has stated that we would do LRI first, wait three months then PRK and three months after that re evaluate my eye to see if anything else can be done.
His website lists that he is using the Alcon Ladarvision 4000 ( I assume that would be for the PRK?) and I did notice that there were some issues with malfunctions a few years back listed on the FDA website and intend to ask him if anything has been done to correct those.
My end goal would be for me to be able to drive with that eye if I needed to, but considering the vision out of it now as long as I don't lose my peripheal vision any unaided correction would be great.
Anybody have any thoughts or advice?

[JohnHaganMD]

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[JohnHaganMD]

No comments since 2008 doubt you will get any follow up

[rrgg]

I've been reading through a lot of old comments like this.  I'm interested to know how these things turned out now that some time has passed.  We usually only read about the immediate few months post-surgery and not whether any problems occurred in following years. Thanks.

[SoftwareDeveloper]

Unfortunately most people stop posting if they are doing well, or even if they aren't if they don't need more info. Online comments don't give an accurate sense of how common various results are. The best way to assess overall results for various technologies are the results of studies, though unfortunately often there aren't multi-year folllowup studies for many treatments, and rare issues often aren't the subject of such studies because they are rare.

[Fuz]

That sounds like a very good idea. I did see that he is listed on the aao.org website as Comprehensive Ophth / Refractive Surgery, and will look there for a second opinion as well. Thanks!

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

My thought is you are not an ideal candidate and I would strongly urge you to at least get one more opinion from another Eye MD opthalmologist that does refractive surgery.

JCH III MD