Don't Say They Didn't Warn You

Last week I heard something on the radio about the FDA taking another look at the safety of Lasik. I never did catch the full story, but was sufficiently curious that I checked out the Washington Post's archive and found a few articles about it.

Apparently "in fury and despair," some angry Lasik patients went before federal health advisers to recommend that the government warn more clearly about the risks of the surgery.

I don't get it--anyone who does two seconds of research about Lasik knows about the possibility of halos and dry eyes. A few months ago I wrote about my Lasik experience and the resulting dry eyes and less-than-perfect vision. I mean, I guess I could hold the surgeon accountable for my complications--one of the main reasons I wanted Lasik in the first place was because my eyes were so dry contacts were a nightmare. Also, I had large pupils. He did know about these things and still did the surgery--but then again, I knew about these things and still elected to have the surgery.

How much of this is about the doctors wanting to make a profit and risking patients' eye health as a result and how much is it about people wanting perfect vision at any cost? How many patients, if told by a doctor that they weren't good candidates for the procedure would seek another opinion and, if that doctor told them it would be fine, would go ahead and have it? I'd be willing to bet at least half would go ahead despite the warnings.

I--and I'm sure I'm not the only one--just wanted what everyone who opts to get Lasik wants: to be able to see perfectly without glasses or contacts. Was I guaranteed a perfect, complication-free result? Absolutely not. Sure, chances were that I'd be fine like the majority of people who have it and wake up with 20/20 vision and never give it another thought--but did anyone promise me that? Not at all. Granted, while they don't gloss over the warnings per se, they do do the "don't worry--complications are very rare" thing.

I'll tell you one thing, though--they sure won't touch my eyes now. I've gone back a few times hoping they could "tweak" my vision--which I think is about 20/40 but they now claim I have a predisposition to complications and am no longer a candidate. If that's not a cover your ass, I don't know what is--but somehow they didn't realize I had this "predisposition" to complications before I had the surgery. I guess you can only be predisposed AFTER you've already had the complications.

At any rate, even with my dry eyes and halos and need for light prescription contacts or glasses, if I could go back in time I'd still have had the surgery. To me while yes, it's annoying that I don't have 20/20 vision with no dry eyes at all, it was crippling to have vision so bad I couldn't see my glasses on the table in front of me or read a shampoo bottle in the shower. Before I had Lasik, if I had been on a desert island and my glasses had broken I would have been totally SOL; now I'd be fine, and to me that's worth having to use eye drops and wear contacts or glasses if I want to see 20/20.