Lasik Eye Surgery, 1/8/08

My eyes were about -5.5(R) and -5.75(L) diopters with a slight astigmatism in my left eye. Contacts caused a vein to appear in my right eye due to lack of oxygen to my cornea. I wore glasses for the past 2 years, but ended up with an eye callus due to sun exposure. Seems like either you should wear glasses with lenses that darken in the sunlight or get laser eye surgery.

I had lasik with intralase (laser only) and customVue (wavefront guided) technologies at the Maloney Vision Institue near Wilshire/Westwood. It cost $6,400, but insurance covered $600, and I had a flexible spending account for a 30% discount on the rest.

On 1/9/08 I had 20/12.5(L) and 20/15(R), which is better than normal vision (20/20) and better than I have ever seen (even with glasses and contacts). At first my vision was a little hazy, but it pretty much just looked like a smoggy day in LA. :) On 1/29, my vision was measured as 20/16 in both eyes, and it appears to have stabilized. The haze disappeared after about 2 weeks, and the night time halos disappeared about 3 weeks post surgery. While lasik came with a pretty big price tag, it's amazing to re-see beautiful places like Joshua tree.