Dinhternet

In continuation of yesterday’s post…

Besides the tests to make sure that you can safely have the laser surgery, there are some considerations you should have in mind. They basically break down into medical and lifestyle, but these are pretty broad categories.

For medical, you want to think about any medical you have or you have a family history of that might cause problems for you:

Like Mei S mentioned on Facebook yesterday, you should have a stabilized prescription. No point in getting surgery if you’re just going to need it again in a couple months, right? Most surgeons look for prescriptions that haven’t changed in two or three years. Luckily, mine hasn’t changed in about four years. A rule of thumb I learned is that by about 25, your eyes should have finished all the growth (and therefore size/shape changes) that they will go through.

My whole family has really bad allergies, so brought that concern up to the doctor. I was given generally the same answer by all the surgeons – it would be smart to avoid avoid getting the surgery during the height of allergy season, but they give you steroidal anti-inflammatory drops to use whiel the eyes are healing, and they should basically eliminate any potential problems. I just had to be careful about using the drops regularly and not rubbing my eyes.

My mom’s dry eyes were aggravated by her LASIK procedure, so I brought that up, too. The doctors performed tear tests and told me I shouldn’t have a problem based on those results.

Then there is the other category, lifestyle, which is possibly even more generic. Basically, you want to think about any work or hobby activities or environments that might cause problems with your eyes. Anything involving hot, dry, dusty environments or activities involving potential injury tot he eye or eye strain.

I told my doctors that I wanted to get back into martial arts and was worried about an injury to the eye. I got three basic answers.

The first answer was that yes, there is a very slight chance of injury to the eye, and you will find horror stories if you go looking for them. But basically, you have to suffer a significant hit directly to the flap they cut into the cornea to displace it and have a serious problem. If that happens, they can redo the surgery (after allowing time for the cornea to heal up first.)

The second answer was that if I get LASIK with IntraLASE, meaning the flap is cut with a laser instead of with a blade, it will heal better than normal LASIK and injury will not be a problem. Apparently, NASA recently approved LASIK only with IntraLASE for their astronauts. However, this claim was disputed by a couple other doctors I saw, who said there are no definitive studies showing better healing after LASIK with IntraLASE, so take that as you will.

The third answer I got was that instead of LASIK, I could consider similar laser eye surgeries such as PRK. In PRK, instead of cutting a flap in the cornea, the top layer of the cornea is actually removed and it has to heal back after surgery. Since there is no flap to potentially displace, it is a safer operation.

Oh, and of course, there is always the consideration of cost!

From the places I visited, I found that traditional LASIK should run about a thousand dollars. (There are cheaper places, but they are generally surgeons with less experience and/or less than state-of-the-art equipment.) Wavefront procedures run four to five thousand. (Remember, Wavefront is customized to your eyes’ specific shapes, not just your prescription, and generally has better results and fewer side-effects like impaired night vision.)

LASIK and PRK, if both are offered, should be the same price. (Both come in traditional and Wavefront forms.) LASIK with IntraLASE generally costs a little more than LASIK with a microkeratome, but it shouldn’t be more than a couple of hundred dollars, which you should be able to negotiate down to no difference.

If you have a very high prescription and need the Allegretto laser, expect to pay up to a thousand dollars more.

When comparing prices, be sure to ask about the costs of follow-up visits after the surgery, medications you will need while healing, and enhancement procedures. (Enhancements are when you go in for another round of laser surgery because you did not reach optimal results the first time.)

I think that’s enough to chew on for now. Next, I’ll compare the doctors I went to.

My mom got LASIK before we moved to Sacramento, and I’ve been thinking about it for several years now. Since I recently got a decent and stable paycheck, I decided to finally do some serious research on it.

I went online to see what the state of the art treatments were and how much it was going for. Then I scheduled a series of consults with doctors in the Bay. Some friends saw my series of tweets about the consults and asked me to write a post about it when I was all done. This is my attempt at summarizing everything. (Please keep in mind, I am not a medical professional and these posts are merely my recollection of personal experience.)

When I went in for the initial consult and screenings, the different doctors basically all did the same tests on me:

First, I had to look into a machine that measured my basic eye prescription. This is the one that has a picture of a red barn or hot air balloon on the horizon and goes in and out focus as you stare at it. Some offices confirmed this by measuring the prescription of the lenses on my glasses. I believe the standard surgical lasers can handle prescriptions of +/- 10.0 and astigmatism of 5.0. A couple doctors told me that they had a specialty laser, the Allegretto, which can do up to +/-12.0 and 6.0. if your prescription is beyond these numbers, I don’t think you can get laser eye surgery right now.

Then there was a a trippy machine with a red laser in the middle of concentric glowing circles that flashes some green lasers into your eye get a Wavefront scan of your prescription and your corneal thickness. The Wavefront scan gives a much more detailed measurement of how your eye is misshapen, and Wavefront correction is much more expensive than regular laser eye surgery, but is supposed to have much better results and much less chance of side-effects such as glare, halos, etc. at night. Corneal thickness is important because the surgeon will be cutting into your cornea to correct your vision, so you need enough for the doctor to work with.

Some places use the puff machine to test the pressure in your eyes, but some generations of the trippy scanner do that, too, apparently. Laser eye surgery increases pressure in your eyes during the procedure so they want to make sure you aren’t going to have any damage from that.

A common complaint from LASIK is dry eyes, so they will also do a tear test to check if you already have dry eye issues.

A lot of issues come up if the flap cut for LASIK is smaller than your pupil when dilated, so the doctor will also dilate your eyes and measure the width of your pupil. They often redo the prescription tests/scans with your eyes dilated, too.

These tests are usually done by techs or assistants, but then you go in and either the surgeon or an ophthalmologist will do the usual reading letters tests and look into your eyes for signs of pre-existing conditions or diseases such as glaucoma that could cause problems for the surgery.

Every doctor I went to also checked which eye is my dominant eye, but I’m not sure why that was done.

Then the surgeon will talk to you a little about any personal concerns you have, make a recommendation, and then send you to some administrative assistant to talk about costs.

Still with me? That’s basically what I went through every time at each of the consults I did. Next post: my personal issues and choices.

I just crossed #66 off my bucket list. Well, I didn’t call it that at the time, but I suppose that it is the accepted nomenclature now, so that’s what I’ll use. Just in case you are too lazy to click through or have troubled with numbered lists, #66 was a hot air balloon ride. Since my dad’s, Dong Ha’s, and my birthdays are bunched up together near Mother’s Day, we usually do something nice together as a family. (And jokingly call it the “Everyone But Gio Linh Party.”)

Since my parents will be moving away this summer and I’m not sure we’ll be able to do this in the future, I wanted to do something special this time; preferably something highlighting California awesomeness for them to remember when they are in Minnesota. At first, my sisters and I planned on a wine tour in Napa, since the scenery is awesome and my parents enjoy wine. We checked out reviews on the best vineyards to visit and photographers in the area who do outdoor portraits. Also looked into the Wine Train, since dad does love trains.

But then I found something even better… a deal on a hot air balloon ride over Napa Valley! At first, both sisters were apprehensive. (I did not realize Dong Ha has a fear of heights!) But I bit the bullet and booked us anyway, since it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Man, was I right to do so! The flight was awesome. And that’s despite having to wake up at 3 to get to Napa slightly before dawn. Our pilot was really funny and entertaining, and our balloon was first up and (almost) last down. The scenery was amazing! And we had quite an adventure at the end as we almost landed on a church and then almost some trees as we were trying to land.

Afterwards, Dad said he loved it and compared it to riding a motorcycle in the sky. I mentioned that I was excited that I could cross something off my bucket list now, and Dong Ha said it was on hers, too. (Gio Linh says she hasn’t made a bucket list yet, but I’m sure it would have been on there for her to cross off now.) Mommy didn’t know what a bucket list was, but basically described the same thing in Viet, so consider it crossed off her list, too. Score! The post title may be a bit eerie or morbid, but it is quite fitting.

I highly recommend the experience to everyone. And if you are scared, don’t be. Dong Ha said she was scared of falling, but the basket is four feet high, so you’d have to be actively trying to fall overboard. There is absolutely no risk if you are just standing around. Also, there was no motion-sickness, either. The baskets do not sway in the wind at all, and the sensation of going up and down is lighter than it is in an elevator.