diver's who has had laser eye surgery, how was your experience?

[jcaplins]

Had Lasik about 10 years ago; one of the best decisions I ever made.
I had something over 20/200 vision before. (I couldn't even read the big 'E', or see the whole chart for that matter). Now it's 20/20.
Oddly enough, I never needed contacts or a special mask underwater, I could see just fine; even better after lasik.

 

[Oldbear]

I had the surgery about 7 years ago ... best decision I ever made. I had been wearing prescription glasses since high school, about 30 years). I learned to dive with contacts. I was worried about my lifestyle and would I loose it if the surgery went wrong. Not only did I dive, but fly small aircraft, play softball, and am active in shooting sports. 20/15 still after 7 years...but I do need 1.5x cheaters to read a book (51 yo so I expect that).

 

[TMHeimer]

I had Lasik 10 years ago right now (then age 51), which was 2 weeks prior to taking the OW course. I kept my eyes closed for all the no mask drills (I do anyway today in the pool as I hate chlorine). You have to wear the super dark sun glasses outside for a week. For several months I had some "fog" around street lights when driving at night (it did clear up). As for diving after that, the only problem was that before the surgery I was near-sighted. When snorkeling, the mask in the water caused me to see perfectly underwater. Since I had needed reading glasses for eight years before that, my now almost 20-20 vision caused my vision underwater to be about the same as topside--ei., I would need reading glasses to see small numbers on dive computers/gauges, similar to reading a newspaper topside (other than in bright sunlight). I tried the stick-on "bifocals" in the mask and didn't like them. They either fell out or I wound up just looking through one since I felt they were just awkward. So, I have a dive computer that has nice big numbers. I have memorized my analog gauges for depth, PSI and water temp., so I don't have to see precisely what is what (it's not a risk--for example I can tell you that I am down 93 feet and I have a little more than 1500 PSI). My compass is easily readable, though I really have to strain to see the numerical headings (I rarely use them anyway--I head SSW or SE, etc.). Going this route for me, is better than the fuss and cost of a prescription mask. One of my eyes is a little off from 20-20, so everything at every distance is very slightly out of focus-- sort of like jagged edges. But it is so slight that they advised not to go for a free "touch up" as it could make things worse. All in all, it's a million times better than those *&^%ing glasses for 40 years......

 

[Frosty]

I was lucky enough to have my eyes done pre lazic. I had the radial kerototomy-which is using a knife.
Mine were done when I was 20.It lasted until 2 years ago when I started wearing glasses again. so nearly 30 years
I plan to go and get lazic done

 

[gcarter]

Did my OW Sept/10 @ 51. Both eyes were -10. Liked my 4!!!!! dives so much I had lasik Dec/10.

I logged #201 and #202 on Sunday. Best thing I ever did was get my eyes "fixed"

 

[KevinNM]

I had issues with my corneas so I wasn't the ideal candidate. I could no longer wear contacts. But the my cornea opthomlogist and the lasik optomologist were willing to give it try (I used the guy recommended by my cornea specialist, who had done her eyes). It didn't go as well as I'd hoped, ended up with a few months of intensive treatment with steroid drops and ointments on the eye to deal with the reactions.

LASIK guy says he normally would tune it up a bit, but given the issues I had he feels this would be unwise, so we haven't.

Vision is vastly better than it was, and when my eyes are not dry (like at the end of the day) they are pretty good, but when they dry out vision isn't really great. Still vastly better than it was, but I carry glasses to help with vision when driving and need to read street signs or see smaller type on presentations.

i would still do it again, but I would be more aggressive in dealing with the initial symptoms that not all was right. Not sure it would have helped, but it might have reduced how long I had to fight it.