LASIK Surgery: A Personal Point of View from One Health Blogger
Hello, everyone, Heather Stone, medical writer and blogger for Creative Weblogging here. I have been contributing to this blog on LASIK and other refractive surgery for several months, and I'm enjoying not only the writing but the process of educating myself on all the new and innovative facets of this cutting edge medical technology.
The world of technology, medical and otherwise, is rapidly growing and changing, and I cannot stress more the importance of taking the time to engage in constant self education and exhaustive research before choosing this elective refractive surgery procedure.
I was only into my LASIK blog for about a month before I learned several important facts about the procedure, the most important being that the corneal flap created with LASIK will never heal.
This is elective surgery, people. You have all the time in the world to do research and consider the consequences of LASIK vision correction before going under the microkeratome.
It is extremely important to deal with ethical doctors and surgeons, and I agree that they should be held to task if they don't give their patients up-to-date statistics on success rates and complication rates, warning them of the possible life-debilitating consequences of failed LASIK procedures. USAEyes.org, a LASIK patient advocacy website, is an excellent resource for learning what to look for in a doctor or surgeon. They also screen surgeons, preventing many bad experiences for people out there determined to undergo refractive surgery. Because remember, there are real, life-debilitating risks involved.
And I do mean life-debilitating. You could go through the rest of your life without vision, or without clear vision, preventing you from working to support yourself. Preventing you from enjoying your family. Causing safety risk to yourself and your family. Even stopping you from making social connections, having your desired relationships, achieving your personal goals, or taking care of your dependents or loved ones.
All over they web there are people out there decrying the surgeons and doctors as unscrupulous—where are their Hippocratic oaths? They're greedy, they're lying, they didn't tell me this was going to happen, etc. But where's the personal responsibility?
Yes, some doctors are in it for the money. They're all those things above and more. But where is YOUR research? How much time did YOU spend looking for the very best surgeon? How much time did YOU spend learning about the anatomy of your eye, the procedure in question, the risks involved?
My feeling is that yes, there are people who were taken advantage of, people who have suffered and are still suffering real consequences, some that perhaps had LASIK before there were enough statistics to know safety and risk factors. My heart goes out to these people for their suffering.
But today there is no excuse. There is so much information out there available for anyone willing to take the time to sift through it. My advice is this:
Spend several months researching. Learn about your eyes. What makes them tick (no pun intended). Learn about the procedures. Learn to read medical abstracts and ask your doctor to explain terms you don't understand, and also look them up! If you decide to have LASIK, spend several more months checking out the surgeons. Talk to his/her previous patients.
LASIK is elective. That means you don't have to get it. It's not like appendicitis, or removing a cancerous tumor. There is no time factor.
Many people have benefited from this surgery. Some have not. There are good and bad surgeons. Some procedures are better for some people than other procedures. Everyone's different. LASIK is a personal choice.
For my part, I will try the utmost to bring you accurate information on LASIK and all other related topics on this blog. If any doctors out there see something inaccurate in my explanations, please feel free to contact me via the comments feature. Anyone with personal experiences can also feel free to let me know what they think.
Good luck and good researching!
~Heather Stone
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