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Refractive surgery |
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In 1993 I had both my eyes treated with excimer laser to get rid of my myopia. Unfortunately the
result was not very successful and has led to several problems.
At first the main purpose with this site was to find other people with similar experiences, by
media and fancy broschures it seemed like I was unique. By now I now that I am not.
I've put up the english version here since I found that many of my visitors are english-speaking since
Surgical Eyes Foundation
(That I by the way would like to thank for allowing me to use some of their pictures.) and some other sites
has put up links to my site. The english version is shorter than the swedish, I have
skipped most of the general information about eye surgery and focused on my own story.
The ugly copyright-text on the pictures on this page are there because someone once made a complete
rip-off of my site and published it as his own. Feel free to use them for legitimate purposes.
Below is the story about my eyes from 1993 to present.
It's a little different from the patient-stories you might have red on the clinics web sites.
Before the first surgery my right eye was -5,5/-0,25x5° and the left -7,0/-0,5x40°.
With glasses my vision was 20/20 for both eyes. I didn't have any other eye problems
except that my contact lenses wasn't working well.
1993
In January I had surgery on my right eye and in March my left. The surgerys were performed
at Klara Ögonklinik in Stockholm.
The surgery was unpleasant of course, and very painful when the effect of the
anaesthetic drops disappeared. Well, that only lasted for a few days, now I just had to wait
for the final result
Both my eyes became long-sighted after the surgeries (which was normal for a shorter
period). I also had double-vision, ghosting on my left eye.
I spent the rest of 1993 waiting for a normalized vision. In the beginning it was getting
better and better but the progress was slowing down more and more and my vision was far
from good. Normally it took about six months for the vision to stabilize, but I had been
warned that it sometimes could take a year or even longer. I was not worried then, time
would heal my eyes and the ghosting would go away. However it was tough to have eyes
that always felt dry and strained.
1994
More waiting... My vision didn't improve anymore, both long-sightedness and ghosting
was still there. The doctors still thought the final result would be good, I was
getting more nervous, but still hopeful.
1995
I had realized that this was the final result. Both my eyes were still long-sighted,
long-sightedness could not be treated in -95. I thought then that all my problems
would be solved as soon as that would become possible.
However a doctor at Klara ögon tried to remove the thin cell-layer
covering the cornea to see if that would make my ghosting better. It didn't
make any difference in either direction.
1996
More waiting...no matter how bad I felt, there was nothing I could do.
At the end of the year i visited Globen eye clinic in Stockholm because
they had started to treat long-sightedness. However I decided not to let them treat my
eyes.
1997
In the beginning of -97 St Erik eye hospital started to treat long-sightedness. Both
doctors I had met at Klara also worked at St Erik, so there was no problem ta have a
re-op there. My left eye (the one with the ghosting) was treated again. Finally all my
problems would go away and my life begin again!
But no... The long-sightedness disappeared (and was replaced by a mild short-sightedness)
but astigmatism and ghosting was still there and maybe even worse.
Now the hope was gone...i realized that the main problem was not long/shortsightedness and
the ghosting a small detail that would automatically go away after another surgerie.
1998
Again I had surgery on my left eye (now at the
clinic Nya Ögon in Stockholm). I didn't hope for much but was desperate enough
to try. The surgery didn't make any difference.
1999
Much like -98...another surgery without results.
2000
I visited Klara ögon. The doctors advise was to not have anymore
"normal" surgeries but to wait for wavefront-technology. My other doctor on the other
hand does not expect great things from this technology.
However I have decided to wait for some new technology. Seems like all the usual
re-ops can do is to make my cornea thinner.
2001
During the year the clinic Medocular in Stockholm started to use wavefront-technology
(Zyoptix). However it can not be used for re-surgeries yet. Anyway I went there
since I thought it couldn't hurt to hear the opinion of a
third doctor. He also thought that wavefront was my best chance.
2002 - 2004
Not much have happened. I realize that I will propably have to wait for a long time until (if)
there is something more to do.
So now I don't really know what to hope for. There seems to be very different
opinions about how good wavefront will be. Right know if think it is my biggest hope anyway.
My visual defect is now +2,5/-0,5x100° (right) och +0,5/-1,5x100° (left). I can
see about 20/40 (left) and 20/28 (right) witout glasses and 20/28 (left) and 20/22
(right) with glasses. Doesn't sound so bad you say...no it doesn't, but it
is. You can not compare it with "normal" visual defects, the world is more than
black letters on white background. Take a lock at the pictures below.
My biggest problem is not that I can not see perfect. I don't like that either of course, but
I can live with that. But having eyes that always feels dry and strained, a constant
feeling of "too much light", to wake up several times every night because your eyes
feels so dry, THAT is a big problem.
My right eye would propably be helped by another surgery, but that is my "good" eye
and I can't risk that until my left gets any better.
Below are some images where I've tried to approximately show my vision.
But remember, the worst is not bad vision, it is the problems with headache, strained and dry eyes.
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8.15 mm / 41.4 D |
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6.50 mm / 51.9 D |
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| Sim K´s: Astig: | -1.1 D | @7 deg |
| Max: | 38.6 D | @97 deg |
| Min: | 37.6 D | @7 deg |
| 3.0 MM Zone: | Irreg: | ± 4.5 D |
| Mean Pwr | 38.9 | ± 3.9 D |
| Astig Pwr | 1.4 | ± 2.4 D |
| Steep Axis | 109 | ± 46 deg |
| Flat Axis | 7 | ± 46 deg |
| 5.0 MM Zone: | Irreg: | ± 5.6 D |
| Mean Pwr | 41.6 | ± 4.2 D |
| Astig Pwr | 1.7 | ± 3.7 D |
| Steep Axis | 44 | ± 49 deg |
| Flat Axis | 167 | ± 49 deg |
| White-to-White: | 11.7 mm | |
| Pupil Diameter: | 3.1 mm | |
| Thinnest: | 517 µm @ (0.1, -0.4) | |
| ACD (Endo.): | 3.20 mm | |
| Kappa: | 3.07º @ 232.90º | |
| Kappa Intercept: | -0.25, -0.44 |
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8.48 mm / 39.8 D |
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6.51 mm / 51.9 D |
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| Sim K´s: Astig: | -1.7 D | @108 deg |
| Max: | 39.0 D | @18 deg |
| Min: | 37.2 D | @108 deg |
| 3.0 MM Zone: | Irreg: | ± 1.6 D |
| Mean Pwr | 38.1 | ± 0.9 D |
| Astig Pwr | 1.4 | ± 1.3 D |
| Steep Axis | 25 | ± 34 deg |
| Flat Axis | 119 | ± 34 deg |
| 5.0 MM Zone: | Irreg: | ± 2.8 D |
| Mean Pwr | 39.1 | ± 2.0 D |
| Astig Pwr | 1.2 | ± 1.9 D |
| Steep Axis | 105 | ± 48 deg |
| Flat Axis | 154 | ± 48 deg |
| White-to-White: | 11.8 mm | |
| Pupil Diameter: | 3.4 mm | |
| Thinnest: | 428 µm @ (0.0, 0.1) | |
| ACD (Endo.): | 3.25 mm | |
| Kappa: | 3.38º @ 319.63º | |
| Kappa Intercept: | -0.05, -0.17 |