The personal writings and photos of Jonathan Smith.

My consultation with Premier Eye Care today went as expected. They performed the usual tests and dilated my pupils and took some cool photos of the topography of my eye. The results show that I am a candidate for LASIK or PRK. 

I was told that which ever I chose, I would probably need reading glasses in my 40′s. Unless I chose to only have one eye corrected for myopia. Then I could use one eye for focusing close and the other for focusing far away. They recommended trying to wear just one contact for a few days to see how it feels.

Next comes the price. Premier seems to be a lot more expensive than I had anticipated. Here’s the prices I was quoted.

Intralase LASIK
iLASIK with Intralase FS, Visx Star4 and Advanced CustomVue: $2,495 per eye 

PRK
Epi-LASIK and AST (Advanced Surface Treatment): $2,295 per eye

Enhancements: $190 

That is a lot more than what I was looking at spending. But now I can try a few other places and see what works best. I’m not necessarily looking for the lowest price. But I do want to see what my options are.

I’ve been wearing glasses for a few years now. It wasn’t much of a deal at first. But over this time I’ve found how wearing glasses or contacts can be a hassle. I tried contacts for about a year but because I have dry eyes they seem to bother me more than they are worth. Glasses tend to fog up in humidity, slide off my nose on hot days, get in the way when trying to look through the lens of my camera, one last thing to put on when I put my motorcycle helmet on and prevents me from wearing sun glasses. So I’m considering having Lasik eye surgery done to correct my vision.

I’m considering going with LasikPlus as they have an office in Harrisburg which is convenient for me. I’ve read their site quite a bit, requested some more information on their procedures, and received a phone call from them. I know it’s not cheap. Probably $1,000 to $2,000 per eye. And my health insurance doesn’t cover any of it. So it will be all out of my pocket. But I’m starting to see it as an investment in my quality of life.

Money aside, I’m curious what other people’s experiences have been with Lasik surgery. How has life been after the procedure? Have there been any complications? Has anyone else used LasikPlus?

I’ve had asthma for most of my life. Ever since I can remember. For most of my late 20′s I thought it was under control. But recently it seems to have gotten a lot worse. My allergies are often the cause of my asthma getting worse. So I have been taking allergy medicine since April. But I stopped taking my allergy medicine about two weeks ago and I haven’t had any allergy symptoms since that time.

The heat and humidity this weekend was extremely difficult on me. In these conditions I feel that the air is so heavy that I can’t breathe outside for even two minutes. Yesterday I went to work and the walk from my car to the office at 8am had me gasping and I could feel a tightening in my chest. I soon decided that I should go home and rest in front of some air conditioning and drink plenty of fluids.

Later in the day I ended up going to the emergency room at Harrisburg Hospital. I was still having some trouble breathing and every so often I would feel some pressure in my chest. They gave me a nebulizer treatment, ran a test on my heart to make sure nothing was wrong there, and gave me two Prednisone pills. I was breathing ok after that.

This morning I met with my doctor and we discussed my asthma. I am very aware of what causes my asthma to act up and do what I can to prevent those things. But for some reason my asthma is out of control. She asked me if I am under any stress. There are some things that stress me out but I don’t consider myself to be under a lot of pressure. But maybe I am miscalculating my own stress. Stress and anxiety can lead to asthma attacks. So we are going to try treating my stress and anxiety to see if that relieves my asthma symptoms. This weekend I will be starting Lexapro to see if that helps my anxiety.

As I drive down Front Street and see all of the people out walking their dogs, running, and riding bikes, I feel jealous that I can’t enjoy those things in my present state. Hopefully some day I will be able to enjoy these things again.