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LASIK Surgery Testimonial

Whitney Tilson

Sept. 25, 1999

I had LASIK surgery done last Thursday afternoon in Toronto and I'm pleased to report that I'm not blind! In fact, when I went in for my postoperative checkup yesterday morning, 16 hours after the surgery, I had 20/15 vision in one eye and 20/20 in the other! Two days later, my vision remains perfect and I'm experiencing no discomfort whatsoever. Yesterday, my eyes were a bit tired and slightly dry, but eye drops took care of that. In short, this is AWESOME!

[Note: as of Jan. 20, 2000, my vision had stabilized at 20/15 and the mild dryness, which required an eye drop in each eye every morning for a couple of months -- the only side effect I experienced -- had disappeared.]

I didn't have bad vision to begin with -- in fact, it was at the limit of whether they would even do the surgery. I had -1.0, -0.75 with a slight astigmatism. In plain English, that's 20/50 in one eye and 20/60 in the other. I decided to have the surgery done because I never liked contact lenses -- they irritated my eyes, so I gave up on them. And I found glasses to be a hassle: always lost, dirty, getting scratched, occasionally breaking, etc.

But the deciding factor was the particular hassle when I was playing sports: basketball, skiing, tennis, etc. Glasses or goggles hampered my peripheral vision and fogged up or became smeared with sweat.

As you can imagine, I did a great deal of research before deciding to blow $2,700 and, more importantly, let a laser within 100 miles of my eyes. I read lots of articles, visited the Web sites of many laser eye centers and spoke with a number of doctors as well as patients who had had the procedure done.

Suffice it to say, I became a believer. The surgery is quick, nearly painless and the results are immediate and almost always outstanding for someone with a mild prescription like me. Even for people with moderate prescriptions, there is a good chance of perfect or near-perfect vision. For those with very serious vision impairment, 20/20 vision is an unlikely outcome -- 20/40 is more likely -- but that's a whole lot better than 20/200 or worse.

But what about the risks? There are many things that can go wrong, but assuming you have the surgery done by an experienced doctor, the risks are negligible and, most importantly, there has never been a single case of blindness after well over 1 million patients. You can get more info about all of this at the Web site of the place that did my surgery, the Gimbel Eye Centre (my doctor was Richard Bains, who was great; here's his bio -- and, no, I don't get a commission).

You may be wondering, why Toronto? Quality and cost. The procedure has been done longer in Canada, so you tend to get more experienced doctors, and it was half the cost of the U.S. procedure (good 'ol Canadian health care!). In the U.S., the cost is a pretty uniform $4,500 to $5,000 for both eyes. At Gimbel, it's C$1,200 for each eye, or about $850 in the U.S. Add the $1,000 for preoperative and postoperative care in New York City (I'm sure it would be cheaper elsewhere) and the total was $2,700. And since I was in Toronto anyway for a conference, there wasn't even any incremental cost for the airfare.

I'll admit that the surgery itself made my heart pound, despite the fact that I took a slightly-milder-than-Valium sedative they recommended.

First, they use a little device to hold your eye open (can't have any blinking). Then, they have to peel back the top layer of the cornea before using the laser, so they apply a suction cup to the entire eye (which causes your vision to distort or blacken completely) and then you hear buzzing as the machine cuts a flap, which the doctor then pulls back.

Then, you have to stare intently at a red light while the computer-programmed laser zaps your cornea. The laser was remarkably fast -- it was only on for about five seconds per eye (of course, stronger prescriptions require a bit more time). Finally, the flap is put back in place where it heals with no stitches.

They do one eye first and, assuming it goes well, follow immediately with the second eye. I was only in the surgical room a total of 20 or 30 minutes. Then, they put funny sealed goggles on my eyes and put me in a taxi to the hotel. Shortly thereafter, I was watching TV with no problems.

The only thing I would do differently in retrospect is to have one eye done and then wait a day before doing the second eye. If anything is going to go wrong, the doctor should be able to tell within 12 to 24 hours, so it's safer to wait until you're sure you have a good result with the first eye before having the second one done.

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