Hello everyone, I'm wondering if I could be a candidate for either Lasik or PRK procedures. Could someone take a look at my info below and give me a general idea of what I can do? I have two Rx numbers, one for contacts and one for glasses. I'm not sure why, but both both are below. Thanks

Glasses
-6.50 -3.75 5 Base Curve 8.5
-6.50 -4.50 170 Base Curve 8.5

Contacts
-7.00 -4.00 5
-6.50 -5.00 175

Is that your old pair of glasses? Due to vertex distance, your glasses pescription would be higher than your contacts. Youd probably be around a -8 in glasses with high astigmastim too.

How well can you tolerate your RGP contacts? If they arent giving any problems, id just stick with those and the crisp vision they give.

You face the possibility of still having a residual pescription after lasik. Are you OK with needing a thin pair of glasses after lasik? Also dont forget theres increased risks for high myopia+high astigmastim pescriptions.

Thanks for the reply ace. My contacts don't give me a lot of problems, but every now and then they act up. I would be fine if I still had to wear glasses after the surgery since they wouldn't be as thick. That's one of my main goals, to be able to wear glasses that are thinner. I'm still researching the methods. I really appreciate the response though.

Thanks,
Bill

Wouldnt it make more sense to wear contacts then you wouldnt have to wear glasses at all! If you can still tolerate your RGP contacts fairly well, id stick with that. If your having much trouble with contacts to the point that your wearing glasses most of the time, then yes lasik can reduce your dependancy on glasses.

Dear Bill,
I had wavefront guided LASIK two weeks ago, I had a very High astigmatism too (though less myopic).my prescription before LASIK was as follows

Right eye: Sph :-1.75 Cyl:-2.75 180 degrees
Left eye: Sph: -1.50 Cyl:-4.00 180 Degrees

its really a hard desicion for me.I did it just becuase I was never comfortable in contacts and glasses put a lot of strain to me.The day after LASIK I noticed a huge improvement in my vision. I was 20/20 in my right eye and 20/25 in my left. and with both eyes open I could read 20/15 line on the snellen chart.(still I have minor number in both of my eyes (right eye:+0.25 -0.50 @5 Degrees
Left eye: -0.25 -0.75 @10Degrees) but I am very very less dependent on glasses.Yes, there are lots of small things which come with LASIK. like now I have little dry eyes and strain on both of my eyes sometime(especially on my left eye).sometimes in the day my left eye becomes sharp and right becomes blurry and sometime my right eye becomes sharp and left becomes blurry. but my Doctor said it will went away after complete healing (I am just two weeks off LASIK)
and after 3-6 months they will see if I need an enhancement or not.
My suggestion to you is that if you are comfortable with your glasses or contacts and have no problems with them then dont go for LASIK as there are risks involved with it(both short term and long term).If you have lot of problems with contacts and glasses then you can buy the risks.
Best of luck.