Lasik and SCUBA

[ljwillia]

Curious whether anyone had monovision PRK/Lasik done and how that came out.

I currently wear contacts that correct my right, dominant eye for near vision (distance to computer monitor) and the left eye for distance. Normally, the dominant eye is corrected for distance but my brain had no problem with the reverse and this makes more sense for me. Depth gauge/dive computer is on my right, Navi in a car is on the right right, pistol sights are on my right, and so on. Especially for shooting, monovision allows to have both close and far in focus, something even younger eyes could not do.

I had PRK last year with mono vision. At first it was amazing. However as healing continued and my vision changed it became apparent my surgeon under corrected. By the time my vision fully stabilized I was wearing readers again.

I had lasik 20+ years ago for my distance vision. As time went by I needed a bit of a correction. PRK was my only option since I had lasik previously. The healing process is much longer and the regimen much more involved. I loved the brief period when I was able to ditch my readers.

My surgeon has offered to correct one eye but I am not prepared to go through that all over again.

 

[taimen]

SMILE surgery (small incision lenticule extraction) has become a really popular alternative to LASIK in Europe. It does not involve a corneal flap and recovery times are faster. AFAIK it is now becoming available in the US after recent FDA approval.
I have several friends who are extremely happy after their SMILE procedures. Some of them have had monovision SMILE for presbyopia with good results. Personally I stick to my prescription masks or contacts.

 

[MichaelMc]

I had normal binocular PRK done. I was far sighted and it went well, likely 20/15 results. But I've regressed back to a bit far sighted, plus mid/reading glasses but not contacts. I was at the limits, and far to normal is the harder correction to keep. I think I was told to wait a month post operative for diving.

Both done simultaneously and then single fixes to each, but eyes were very light sensitive and dry for weeks, and about a week of hard recovery. But it did correct mild astigmatism, so I have better and easier results with contacts than before. Usually I just dive with neither contacts nor mask lenses.

I've used multi focal contacts and mono-vision contacts with good results, but lately I just deal with one pair of mid/reading glasses. Mono vision was an experiment I am unwilling to burn permanently into my eyeballs.

I'll wait for something binocular that fixes presbyopia before getting any more changes.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I had lasik more than 15 years ago. In my case, I immediately needed reading glasses but diving was amazing. As the years went by, my need for magnification in my mask had become quite significant which I dealt with by diving with a magnifying glass.

Interestingly, my eyes are now developing cataracts and I no longer need readers nor my magnifying glass but I do have to wear glasses for distance. While it's awesome to be able to see the tiniest things whilst diving, seeing far sucks. I'd get a prescription mask but I'm supposed to be having surgery for the cataracts at some point in the not too distant future. I'm told I'll be ecstatic.

 

[covediver]

Had my Lasik procedure about 10 years ago. I am a three times a week swimmer, so I had to stay out of the water for about four weeks to prevent infection from critters that might be present in the water. Since then, doing 20 to 40 dives per year, no problem except to discard my prescription masks (I hate parting with serviceable dive gear). No more glasses between dives (I do wear reading glasses) on dive boats. Hope your procedure goes as smooth and is as productive as mine seems to have been.

 

[maj2]

I had mine done or 8 years ago.
I was out of the water for about 4 weeks. However, I did go on a roller coaster a couple of weeks post-op and my corneas did not blow off .
I have not required readers underwater yet. I use them on land to read a book, etc., but can see my dive computer, gauges, etc. just fine underwater to date. I know that it is just a matter of time though...
I had prescription lenses added to my mask aftermarket five or six years before getting LASIK. For some reason, I held on to the factory lenses for the mask, so was able to keep the mask and swap the original lenses back in.

 

[chillyinCanada]

I hadn't added to my earlier post, that I suffer halo effect on lights, more light sensitivity, have an astigmatism that I didn't have before, and have dry eyes now but that is a fairly recent change so perhaps not related. After reading this article, I realized that potentially my cataracts are forming early due to the LASIK. Hard to know for sure, though the article does address it! In any event, thought I'd share this with you because you wanted to be (fully) informed:

Lasik’s Risks Are Coming Into Sharper Focus

http://flip.it/osK3v4