I just had lasik on 11-11-05.
My Doctor was MARC R. SANDERS, M.D., F.A.C.S
This is his website http://www.diagnosticeyecenter.com/

At night now I see street lamps, break lights, headlights, any kind of concentrated light balloon into a large filled ghostly halo type appearance. Is this normal for everyone who has had the procedure?

Thanks for all responses in advance,
Jon Thetford
Houston,Texas

Hi John,

I am not a doctor and I do not pretend to know very much about anything, but it is way early for you yet. I'd say give it a couple weeks and see if it improves at all; even just a little bit. The things you describe could take months to get to a satisfactary point. How is the vision itself? Hopefully you are seeing ok. A think I remember it taking a little over a week for me to really see well in my left eye (my right eye is a whole other story I won't get into here.) Anyway, how's the daytime vision?

Matthew

Matthew's response is spot on. It is way too early to make any final judgment on the outcome of your surgery, however you do want to report your vision problems to your doctor. Don't be surprised if the doctor simply says that you need to wait for healing to occur.

Halos around light sources tend to indicate that the refractive error at the periphery of the cornea is different than in the center. Think of the center of your cornea having full correction but a ring around the edge still being slightly myopic (nearsighted, shortsighted). When your pupils get large at night, light passing through that myopic ring makes in into the eye and is "seen" as blur. This normally presents as a halo effect around light sources.

Your halos could be totally related to healing and may resolve on their own. If they are very problematic, you may want to discuss with your doctor the possibility of using eye drops like Alphagan P to cause your pupils to stay a bit smaller than usual. These could help get you by until you actually know what healing will bring.

If after fully healing you still have halo problems, discuss with your doctor the possibility of enhancement surgery to resolve the problem. In extreme cases the use of Alphagan P may be continued or rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses may be helpful. You are, however, about 3-6 months away from knowing if those decisions will be necessary.

Glenn Hagele
CRSQA
http://www.USAEyes.org

I am not a doctor.