Lasik Surgery - Did it help your pool game

M

maxeypad2007

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm sure some of you have had this surgery performed.

Just curious what the results were. I have good vision now (I don't need glasses).

What was your before and after vision with the surgery?
 
maxeypad2007 said:
I'm sure some of you have had this surgery performed.

Just curious what the results were. I have good vision now (I don't need glasses).

What was your before and after vision with the surgery?
Click to expand...

Both eyes worse than 20-400. My hand in front of my face was blurry.

Right eye corrected to 20-13 and my left eye to 20-15.

I just couldn't shoot with glasses. The balls were warped and too small.

With contacts the best I could get to was 20-25, on a good day when my eyes weren't dry.

Did it help my pool game? Hell yeah.

If nothing else you don't have to go around constantly putting eye drops in your eyes and taking your contacts out for a while during a long tournament.
 
whitewolf said:
Both eyes worse than 20-400. My hand in front of my face was blurry.

Right eye corrected to 20-13 and my left eye to 20-15.

I just couldn't shoot with glasses. The balls were warped and too small.

With contacts the best I could get to was 20-25, on a good day when my eyes weren't dry.

Did it help my pool game? Hell yeah.

If nothing else you don't have to go around constantly putting eye drops in your eyes and taking your contacts out for a while during a long tournament.
Click to expand...

My vision is 20/400 in one eye, 20/300 in the other. I am getting Lasik this summer and I can't wait to be able to see the balls clearly when I play. I've always had bad vision since I started playing and have never been able to play with glasses.
How long was the recovery time from the surgery?
 
thebigdog said:
My vision is 20/400 in one eye, 20/300 in the other. I am getting Lasik this summer and I can't wait to be able to see the balls clearly when I play. I've always had bad vision since I started playing and have never been able to play with glasses.
How long was the recovery time from the surgery?
Click to expand...

there really isnt a recovery time, vision improves immediately
 
I've been thinking of getting Lasik for years now as well and I have always said the longer I wait the higher the success rate will get.

could people also post what they paid and what their prescription was and maybe where they had it done?

Thanks
 
Dr. Lawrence Katzen Is The Man For The Job.......

Luxury said:
I've been thinking of getting Lasik for years now as well and I have always said the longer I wait the higher the success rate will get.

could people also post what they paid and what their prescription was and maybe where they had it done?

Thanks
Click to expand...
I had Lasik done in January of 2000. My vision was 20/300 in both eyes before correction with severe astigmatism. My vision was corrected to 20/15 less than 30 seconds after surgery and I never had to take the pain medication the doctor gave me to take home. The entire procedure took less than 20 minutes for both eyes. This included the time it took the drops to numb my eyes for the procedure. My doctor was Dr. Katzen in Boynton Beach, Florida. He did John Walsh from America's Most Wanted. At the time I had the Lasik done, the cost was 4K for both eyes. I would do it over again in a heart beat.
 
I wore extended wear contacts for years, toric lenses to correct for my astigmatism. Those lenses are weighted so they sit on your eye in a certain orientation. I wore them longer than the prescribed time (a no-no, I know) and eyes felt great. The dryness of certain places, smoke from a pool hall, etc. would sometimes dry them up a bit, but nothing too bad.

Got Lasik maybe 5 years ago (I'm 40 now), weird thing for me was I quit playing pool, then got Lasik, then took it up again a little about a year ago and seriously 6 months ago. I noticed it too a little adjustment, since I was technically seeing differently than I did before, but that probably had to do with the elapsed time between playing. I also got a great deal, knew someone who knew the doctor and paid about $1200 for both eyes. Don't think I could get away with that now.

I would recommend to anyone to get it done, as long as they have their eyes screened properly. Most of the problems come from improper screening or improper after care. Other than that the other things that can possibly go wrong are truly very rare. And it is very cool to start the procedure and 10 or 15 minutes later you sit up and can see everything without your glasses or contacts.

Scott
 
Again?

Well you could have done a search cause this comes up quite often, but I will state the same things I stated before. LOL

My vision was also 20/400 in both eyes prior to the surgery. I had the surgury done in 2001 at age 25.

Most males vision stablize at about 22 and stay stablized about 20 years before starting to go bad some more. (This is a generalization and just the average. So check into this if it is important to you.) I state that because most people into their 40+ might decide not to do it out of fear that a year after the surgery their perscription will change again.

Also it is quite often that a couple years after the surgery that your eyes will change again as a result of the surgery. Meaning that they are reshaping a part of your eye, and your eye might adjust.

Ok, that being said I got 20/10 in both eyes after my surgery. Almost two years after the surgery I needed a little bit of a correction, but it was paid for because I chose a provider that covered everything Pre and Post op for 2 years after the surgery. It cost me about $2500 seven years ago. The same surgery now at the same place is running $1500 now.
 
Other things

Some things to think about when looking for a Dr. are like I said your age.

How many surgeries the Dr has performed and with what success rate.

Also whether you are near or far sighted. My Aunt was far sited and I am not sure why but if she had the surgery done all they could do was make her near sited!

After the surgery use the drops as instructed by your Dr. However, once the eyes are healed properly get yourself off of the natural tears drops as quick as possible or your eyes will get addicted to them.

I have seen a few of my buddies that can't live without the natural tears cause they got hooked. Me on the other hand I weened myself off of them as quick as possible.

They also have another option for people that aren't a canidate or for people that their perscription isn't stablized. It is a perminant contact that goes under the clear portion of your eye. So no cleaning no removing for bed, etc, etc.

Just goes to show you that they are making big strides in that field of medicine!
 
Game

Now you asked if it improved your game? Hell yea it improved my game! I went from getting rid of glasses and the glare of the lights to 20/10 vision in both eyes! I still have 20/10 vision and I don't have any regrets from having it done. I would gladly do it again if I needed to in order to keep from going back to glasses or contacts. I wore glasses since 3rd grade and even with glasses I couldn't tell a traffic light was a bunch of LED's behind a lens. All I could see was one big green or red light, so it looked like an incondesent behind a lens instead of hundreds of LED's.

Anyway, if you are thinking about it do your research on Dr. and cost. Then don't hesitate in my opinion!
 
Yes

I had it done about 3 years ago. Greatest single thing to improve my game.

I improved my game a ball, maybe 1 1/2, within a week.

I am 13/20 in both eyes. I have better vision at 44 than I did anytime in my life.

HOWEVER, MY UP CLOSE VISION IS WORSE, AND I OFTEN USE VERY WEAK READING GLASSES.

Before I never needed them.

I AM A LITTLE MORE LIGHT SENSITIVE TOO. I WEAR OAKLEY SUNGLASSES WHEN I AM OUTSIDE. I CAN GO WITHOUT BUT IT IS MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THEM.

Ken
 
Ken_4fun said:
I had it done about 3 years ago. Greatest single thing to improve my game.

I improved my game a ball, maybe 1 1/2, within a week.

I am 13/20 in both eyes. I have better vision at 44 than I did anytime in my life.

HOWEVER, MY UP CLOSE VISION IS WORSE, AND I OFTEN USE VERY WEAK READING GLASSES.

Before I never needed them.

I AM A LITTLE MORE LIGHT SENSITIVE TOO. I WEAR OAKLEY SUNGLASSES WHEN I AM OUTSIDE. I CAN GO WITHOUT BUT IT IS MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THEM.

Ken
Click to expand...

Glad you brought up about the light sensitive. What most people don't think about is how regular glasses and contacts have protective coatings in order to protect your eyes. Therefore when you have lasik and no longer need these glasses or contacts you become more sun light sensitive! I am not light sensitive at all, it is only sunlight. So yes I wear shades all the time now. But think about it, I had glasses since I was about 8 or 9 years old and all my glasses and contacts had protective coatings to protect my eyes from light!
 
txplshrk said:
Some things to think about when looking for a Dr. are like I said your age.

How many surgeries the Dr has performed and with what success rate.



After the surgery use the drops as instructed by your Dr. However, once the eyes are healed properly get yourself off of the natural tears drops as quick as possible or your eyes will get addicted to them.

I have seen a few of my buddies that can't live without the natural tears cause they got hooked. Me on the other hand I weened myself off of them as quick as possible.
Click to expand...

BE AWARE HOWEVER THAT SOME SURGEONS ONLY WORK ON PERFECT CANDIDATES AND HAVE NEAR PERFECT RECORDS ACCORDINGLY.

WEAN YOURSELF OF EYE DROPS!: THIS IS PURE BS. YOU HAD BETTER USE THE TEARS AS LONG AS THE DOCTOR RECOMMENDS TO. LATELY RESEARCH HAS BEEN SHOWING THAT HAVING DRY EYES AFTER SURGERY IS STARTING TO SHOW UP MORE NOW. DR. WHITTEN, WHO OPERATED ON TIGER WOODS AND WHO IS ONE OF THE PREMIER SURGEONS IN THE US, SAYS THESE PEOPLE SHOULD USE THERA-TEARS CAPSULES AND EYE DROPS TO COMBAT THE DRYNESS. I HAVE A FRIEND WHO RECENTLY GOT SURGERY DONE FROM WHITTEN AND THIS IS WHAT HE HAS TO DO. PERSONALLY, I LIKE THE CAPSULES BECAUSE THEY ARE LOADED WITH OMEGA 3 FATTY ACIDS AND THIS IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEART, AND BETTER THAN ANY EYE DROPS COULD EVER BE.
 
It completely ruined my pool game. I don't wear glasses, and I have 20-15 in both of my eyes. But my wife got it done a few months ago. Now everytime I'm "running to the store" she can see me grab my cue case and knows I'll be gone all night.

I highly recommend not letting your significant other get it done. ha ha.
 
I would never consider Lasik in my current situation. The risks are too great IMO. I can get to about 20/20 or 20/25 with contacts, which is enough to play reasonably well and exeprience a normal daily life.

The long-term effects of Lasik are unknown. In the short term, there are reports of between 3% and 5% of Lasik patients experiencing *unresolved* vision complaints six months following surgery. These include halos, starbursts, night blindness, excessive dry eye, etc. The true rate could be higher. Also, there's no going back if the surgery doesn't work out.

As for me, my vision is fine with contacts, and there's no chance in hell I would roll the dice for a 1/20 chance of permanent vision loss just to save the inconvenience of wearing contacts. In fact, there are only two situations in which I'd recommend a surgical procedure like this:

1) if the person's livelihood depends on perfect vision, such as a *professional* pool player or other professional athlete, or
2) if the person has such difficulty seeing that the risk of permanent vision damage is outweighed by the benefit of greatly improved vision.

Going from 20/25 to 20/15, for me, is entirely not worth the risk.


Select Lasik complication reports:

http://home.arcor.de/pinnipedii/poppayette.pdf
http://www.usaeyes.org/lasik/faq/lasik-complications.htm
 
Well done. You just talked me out of it. Now I have more money to spend in Vegas next month.

tsw_521 said:
I would never consider Lasik in my current situation. The risks are too great IMO. I can get to about 20/20 or 20/25 with contacts, which is enough to play reasonably well and exeprience a normal daily life.

The long-term effects of Lasik are unknown. In the short term, there are reports of between 3% and 5% of Lasik patients experiencing *unresolved* vision complaints six months following surgery. These include halos, starbursts, night blindness, excessive dry eye, etc. The true rate could be higher. Also, there's no going back if the surgery doesn't work out.

As for me, my vision is fine with contacts, and there's no chance in hell I would roll the dice for a 1/20 chance of permanent vision loss just to save the inconvenience of wearing contacts. In fact, there are only two situations in which I'd recommend a surgical procedure like this:

1) if the person's livelihood depends on perfect vision, such as a *professional* pool player or other professional athlete, or
2) if the person has such difficulty seeing that the risk of permanent vision damage is outweighed by the benefit of greatly improved vision.

Going from 20/25 to 20/15, for me, is entirely not worth the risk.


Select Lasik complication reports:

http://home.arcor.de/pinnipedii/poppayette.pdf
http://www.usaeyes.org/lasik/faq/lasik-complications.htm
Click to expand...
 
Luxury said:
Well done. You just talked me out of it. Now I have more money to spend in Vegas next month.
Click to expand...

That's a wise move. People tend to forget that Lasik is surgery, and as with any surgical procedure there are always risks of complications. Undergoing elective surgery on something as vital and sensitive as your eyes is a major decision.
 
I'm one the few with a less than perfect outcome from the surgery.

I could barely see 1 foot in front of my face prior to surgery (heavy astigmatism as well), so in some ways, it was good.

I can now function without glasses, just have a hard time playing pool, or reading things, but at least can walk around without stumbling.

After 3 years of suffering through 20/60 & 20/80 after the surgery (as compared to 20/twohundredsomething) I finally bought some glasses.

The surgery decreased the "correctability" of my eyes, but I can see 20/10 in one eye and 20/40 in the other with glasses. I also have multiple images (everything looks like it has 5 ghost images around it), as well as halos and decreased night vision.

in all, i guess it was a good thing, but don't have high expectations, especially if your vision is bad to start out with.
 
OneArmed said:
I'm one the few with a less than perfect outcome from the surgery.

I could barely see 1 foot in front of my face prior to surgery (heavy astigmatism as well), so in some ways, it was good.

I can now function without glasses, just have a hard time playing pool, or reading things, but at least can walk around without stumbling.

After 3 years of suffering through 20/60 & 20/80 after the surgery (as compared to 20/twohundredsomething) I finally bought some glasses.

The surgery decreased the "correctability" of my eyes, but I can see 20/10 in one eye and 20/40 in the other with glasses. I also have multiple images (everything looks like it has 5 ghost images around it), as well as halos and decreased night vision.

in all, i guess it was a good thing, but don't have high expectations, especially if your vision is bad to start out with.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry to hear that, although I don't think your outcome is as rare as people make it out to be.

May I ask - how was your vision with glasses before surgery? Is it better with glasses now, or better with glasses prior to surgery?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top