Based on your advice to get a second opinion because of a regressed astigmatism after Lasik, I went to another LASIK surgeon. My previous surgeon claimed that it was normal regression and prescribed FML (see Previous Post Below:)
The second opinion was that I had epithelial ingrowth on the edges of my left eye and it had resulted in some flap melt. The LASIK surgeon said that the cell growth had probably stopped and the center of my cornea was fine. He said he would consider lifting the flap and scraping off the cells. He said there was some risk, and that the resulting vision may be better, worse, or the same.
What are the main risks of proceeding with this? Where the flap melt occurred, will this area always be abnormal cells? Is it better to wait and watch it for further growth? Why did my original surgeon totally overlook this???
I want to treat this aggressively, but this long after the enhancement am I asking for more trouble?
Needless to say, the enhancement was much more problematic than the original vision problem I was trying to correct!!
Thanks for all your help! This site is a guiding light for something that is not so simple as advertisements would have you believe?
Tom
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Previous Post:
I was treated with LASIK in May of 2003. No complications occurred and my vision was nearly 20/20 for several months following surgery. After 6 months, some astigmatism (~1.25) was detected in my left eye. The doctor monitored it for 4 more months and offered to do an enhancement.
In February of 2004, the doctor performed the enhancement and again everything went well. My post-op left eye was nearly perfect. But again after 6 months following the enhancement, I was having trouble reading text near and far and went to an optometrist. He said I had between 1.00 and 1.50 astigmatism in each eye.
I got some glasses to correct the astigmatism, which help a lot. I went back to the surgeon and he said that my eyes had regressed a bit and put me on one drop of FML per day. My vision is relatively stable, but my left eye fluctuates throughout the day. It is noticeably better in the morning than in the afternoon. Also, somedays I notice my left eye is a bit hazy later in the day.
Does this sort of regression and vision fluctuation point to a progressive problem such as ectasia?
My Rx:
Before Surgery
L -5.75 x +3.75
R -5.72 x +2.00
my astigmatism was a regular hour-glass shape. My corneas were ~540 um
After surgery (now after regression)
L -.25 x 1.25
R -.75 x 1.00
I asked the surgeon point blank about fear of a progressive problem and he said he saw no signs of ectasia. With regards to the hazy problem, he checked my eye pressure and said it was fine. I am concerned that the diagnosis wasn't thorough since the Dr. didn't do an Orbscan when the astigmatism reappeared.
My biggest concern is the fear of something progressive. Why did the astigmatism take so long to appear? Am I worried about nothing?
