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| - I am three days post-surgery -- and extremely pleased, even considering I had a post-surgical complication with my LASIK flap, as I will explain.
I went to another laser center (I will not name it here or speak too much about my issues with them, but I will post my review of them on their yelp page) and the my consult resulted in me being told I was not a candidate for LASIK, but that I would need PRK if I were to have refractive surgery. I accepted this and moved through their process to prepare for surgery, scheduling it a few months ahead into the new year. Long story short, I decided to shop around and check out some other places before the surgery to increase my comfort level. To be real, eye surgery is an intimidating prospect and people owe it to themselves to be 100% confident in their provider of choice. I called up a super cheap place and a more expensive place (Schwartz) just to get the feelers out there. I ended up canceling my consult with the super cheap place because it creeped me out but kept my appointment with Schwartz due to the level of professionalism I encountered just speaking with the front office staff.
I went in for a consult and was told I was a great LASIK candidate. In shock, I mentioned that the competing facility had told me I could only do PRK - they said my eye was too unstable for LASIK. Dr. Schwartz told me the number of surgeries he has personally performed and I thought, well, you know, the only person I spoke with at the other facility was an optometrist, not the actual surgeon. He offered to take a look at their records, to see if maybe their machines picked up something different, but he really didn't see any indicators that lead him to believe he couldn't perform LASIK on me, given his experience.
Again, long story short, I ended up going to Schwartz. I ended up finding out the other facility just has an extremely low risk tolerance (probably because the optometrist is the one 'prescribing' the surgery, not the surgeon...the surgeon will review the plan, but at a later date, who knows when) that more in favor of the facility than the patient.
Now I am post-surgery three days and on the normal path of healing! I did have a complication in the eye the other facility disqualified me for LASIK, but it was super easy for Dr. Schwartz to fix! The night of my surgery I ended up dislocating my flap (my eye dried out during my post-surgery nap and when I opened my lid it pulled the flap up a bit). But when I went in the next morning for my follow up he re-wet it, put it back in place, and put a temporary contact on to hold it in. Could I have been mad that I wasn't like the other 9 of 10 patients who walked in and out that morning? Sure. But here's the reality: if I had PRK, I would have had temporary contacts on BOTH eyes until tomorrow. I would have had blurred vision until tomorrow, and based on the description of a friend of mine who had PRK, I would have been more uncomfortable until tomorrow when the contacts came out (I believe she has has a great tolerance for pain and said she just slept through her four days after PRK because it hurt and the temporary contacts blur vision so much you can't really see anyway). Plus - while PRK can yield great results, based on the technology of Custom LASIK, I believe I will ultimately have better vision when all is said and done. I just had the temporary contact removed and am quite pleased. This flap complication may have been what the other facility predicted, but it was so easy for Dr. Schwartz to fix that even with the complication LASIK was easier from the patient's side than going through PRK.
In short, I give Schwartz Laser Eye Center five stars for professionalism of ALL the staff (you feel like you are in a doctor's office rather than a car dealership), the surgical talents of Dr. Schwartz, the talents of the surgical team at keeping me calm during the surgery (I was scared to pieces because I have eye phobias, but during the procedure there was a 'nurse' who provided wonderful instruction to me in a very soothing voice and kept me focused), and the great follow up I've received from the staff post-surgery.
My advice for anyone shopping for LASIK - you owe it to yourself to shop around. Find somewhere you are comfortable and don't just take the word of the facilities you visit. You may need multiple professional opinions to make the best choice for yourself. I paid more for surgery with Dr. Schwartz, but he was actually able to do the surgery I wanted, so it was worth it to me. And if I did go the PRK route, he actually would have been the same or cheaper than the other facility I went to, but I thought he was more honest and straightforward...so even if I went with PRK I probably would have gone to Schwartz anyway.
Best wishes to all in your quest for a life without contacts or glasses!
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