Well, if you are this paranoid about it. I suggest that you don't get it. As the first few weeks post-surgery of PRK is pretty much a living hell. Dry eyes, light sensitivity, halos and star bursts (at night) is VERY COMMON. You definitely won't be feeling the best and would be in a shitty mood most of the time. Your eyes will fluctuate everyday, some days are better than others. Some days you can read and watch TV, other days you can't.

However, if you can overcome all of this, and stay positive, then go ahead and get it done. For most people that have done it would say that it's one of the best investments they've ever did.

yea they said there shouldnt be any halo, starburts because im getting the Advanced PRK

i think recovery all depends on how well you take care of your eyes post surgery, some people take care of them for a bit then stop before they are done healing


the difference between advanced and regular prk is (what they told me) is that the advanced will cover your whole pupil and make sure to leave more for later years if you need too, where as the regular prk will take a chunk out of the center and leave the outer parts of the pupil and creating halos and what not

i went to London eye 2 years ago and paid about 2700. I have heard good things about Coal harbour, but I have never had to pay any follow up appts with London Eye centre. They have a lifetime warranty as well, and I even went in for additional eye exams because I needed them to fill out a form for work, and they had no problem doing so. From what I believe they are the pioneers of laser eye, at least in BC.

I've been to both Coal Harbour and Pacific Eye Centre for consultations.

Coal Harbour

Pros - Staff were knowledgeable and you go through many machines and tests. They dilate your eyes and check everything as almost you're about to go to surgery. I was suggested to use PRK with tissue savings. They say my cornea is thick enough to do lasik even though I have a high prescription but they work on a conservative basis and recommend me PRK. Place is very organized and new.

Cons - Didn't get to meet the doctor. Everything else seems good.

Pacific Eye Centre

Pros - I met with Dr. Holland, very friendly man. Very confident on that I will have PRK and i'm a very good candidate.

Cons - Staff weren't too great. Didn't go through as many machines as I did at Coal Harbour. My eyes weren't dilated this time so I guess my consultation was very light. One thing I didn't like was I sat through 10 mins of video watching in the beginning. it was more of a commercial of athletes telling me how great it is.

The risk of Halos and stuff exists but it's very minimal. I think it's more of post-surgery care than the surgery itself.
Coal Harbour quoted me 1750 and Pacific quoted me 3900. I'm not price sensitive but I feel Coal Harbour would take care of me a lot better.

Plus I have a friend who went there and it was fine with her.

Definitely consider the risks of unwanted side effects. May also want to look at statistics of complications if there are any available on the net. 1% complication rate is still a risk that you have to consider; it's your eyes, you only have one pair.

My girlfriend works at a specialized optometry office and they get a lot of post-lazik complication cases to try and fix with glasses or contact lenses.

Having said that though, of all the friends that I know that have had it done, they love it and haven't had any complications (or don't want to share) yet...

There are risks, but there are probably mre risk wearing contacts since most people don't take care of their contacts.

i used the contact cleaner were you put it in the case and you have to leave it sit for x amount of hours or else it will burn the fuckin color out your eyes cuz its not done and my eyes still got fucked from wearing contacts =|

appointment for coal harbour tomo and now im thinking of cancelling my one over at pacific from what i just heard from highfive

i am booked to get mine done at lasik md in surrey for sept 30 but im still looking around mostly for pricing but lasik md does price match and give lifetime free of charge touch up as long as you go to the optometrist every year

I'm also in the same boat as you guys.. i went to coal harbour for a consultation last week and was advised that prk would be the best method for me. I also put down my $300 and am anxiously waiting for the date to arrive in October. There was an opening end of august, but they said that since I haven't been contact lens free for long enough, that i would have to wait 8 weeks! So now in the months to come, I am also questioning it as well.. but I also know of people who have done it here and have come out with great results, so I'm just hoping for the best here..

If you have time, just go to Pacific Eye Centre. (It's Free. Lol) They were the first people to bring the laser eye surgery to Vancouver. I think Dr. Lin was part of the laser research etc... But it's best to everyone here to not wear your contacts for a while before going to see the specialist. The only thing that makes me want to consider Pacific Eye Centre is the doctor is good IMO.

At Pacific Eye Centre, Dr. Holland only work Tues/Fri. Whereas Coal Harbour, Dr. ______ (forgot how to spell his name) works all the time and he's the only doctor there. The ppl there told me he does around 20 surgeries a week. I believe 3/4 of them are PRK. So he does have lots of "practice"? lol

My friend's co-workers went to Coal Harbour and she got good feedback from them too.

Like I hear stories good/bad from all of these places. I have ppl who said London Eye Centre is good, but they have so many doctors there, you don't know who'll be helping you.

oh ya, consultation for london eye was free too.. and they got me in literally, 2 weeks from the day of my consultation.

gdoh:

i bought that cleaner once thinking it was just another disinfectant/storage liquid... i thought the container was cool.. i put my contact in after only 3 hours because i was going out and fucken hell i thought i went blind when i felt that searing pain in my eye!!!! i had to pry my out open rip the contact out lol... everyone i know who has used that has done the same not realizing you HAVE to leave it soaked for at least.. i think it was 8 hours so the ph neutralizes... everytime i see people use it, i cringe.

Last Summer I did lasik while my wife got PRK done with Dr Lin, I was able to drive the next day but I didn't, I did drive the day after and went to work!

best money spent, too bad my eyes didn't really stabilize until a year ago or else I would have gotten it done sooner!

Had a friend do PRK at coal harbour and his eyes are fine as well, told my other friend to just go to coal harbour since its halft he price of Pacific Eye Center but he said he dont care about $$

so i just got back from coal harbour and i liked it especially how much experience the surgeon has =] they seemed very professional so i think im gunna cancel my appointment with lasik md and get it done here because the small differences that made me change my mind

Had a friend get PRK done at Coal Harbour Eye Centre.

He said the first day after the surgery his eyes hurt like hell. They give you two drops for pain, one for mild and one for extreme pain. He couldn't really describe how the pain felt but it was more so of a shampoo in your eyes kind of pain he claimed.

Other than that he's extremely happy he has gotten PRK. His vision actually got WAY better, saying that its 20/25 (Correct me if I'm wrong) now.

I'm thinking about calling in for a consultation as well to Coal Harbour.

^pain differs from person to person

get prk then you dont have to worry about getting hit in the head and fucking your shit up

prk the first 2-3 days was not pleasant that is for sure.. i refused to use the drops for pain but i did take the t3s that were prescribed. if you play any type of sports or are active, go with prk.

20/25? Was his eyes really bad before? because I would expect my eyes to be close if not better than 20/20 after laser eye... My one year followup I was reading from the 20/15 with either just my left or right eye... I had the snellen chart done again just a couple months ago and was reading off the 20/10 line for each eye (a couple mistakes though) but I could easily read from the 20/10 line with both eyes open.

I was about-3.75 each eye with astigmatism before the prk

http://www.mdsupport.org/snellen.html

Good. Glad you liked them. They were very professional when I went. IMO much better than Pacific. Although, I didn't get to see the doctor, did you see him today? When's your surgery date? (if you booked it)

One thing I forgot to say, I have bad vision ok. And at Coal Harbour, the guy kept making me read these small dinky lines..i believe on the right side of it, it's 21 or 22 or 25. Are those letters for 20-15? like better than 20/20 vision?

Cuz at Pacific, they made me read it off the line at 20 which I could easily. My gf was laughing at how I only got some of the ones right at Coal Harbour and all of them right at Pacific.

Im 20/25 on my right eye. Some people won't get perfect vision if their prescription was really bad before.

Of course it does, I'm just mentioning how it turned out for my friend lol.

I'm not exactly too sure if I have the numbers correct, but his vision is better than 20/20. If I've been told correctly, you can achieve better than 20/20. He can literally make out a persons mouth movement from inside their vehicle pretty far away. Helps a lot for the field of work he's in.

no i never saw the dr and i booked it for oct the 17, they are all booked until oct

you can be better than 20/20.. the second number would be lower the better yoru acuity is... mine is at 20/15. i am going to print the snellen chart off at home and see if I can make out the majority of the 20/10 line lol.

Haha I see. Sorry for the pun.

I called Coal Harbour yesterday to double check my surgery date in September. I end up asking them what's the difference between regular/advanced prk. The woman said advanced prk is wavefront. If you don't need it, they wouldn't recommend it to you. So I'm not really sure what to say now..maybe I'll just talk to the doctor about it on that day.

its an extra 150 per eye

yeah. I'm only paying more for the tissue savings.

getting my eyes done tomo =] excited