When I was 8 years old I got my first pair of glasses. What a devastating event for a third grader. I always wished that that would be the worst my eyes would ever get. Well, that one didn't come true but eventually technology would step in where fate left me high and dry.
For about 6 years, starting in 1994, I went to Ophthalmologists for test and information to find out what, if anything, I could do to be able to see without help. When I first started my search RK was the great new thing so I checked into it. Fortunately I didn't qualify. An ophthalmologist tried to talk me into a much more radical surgery but since it cost more than my house I had to pass.
Later LASIK surgery was all the rage so, of course, I checked into it. I read and studied and talked to both doctors and patients about the currentversions of the surgery. I was even able to watch about 50 or so people getting the operation done. It was fascinating!
I stumbled across an ophthalmologist named Dr. Herman Sloane of the Sloane Vision Center. The first thing I noticed about Dr. Sloane that I didn’t see nearly as much of anywhere else was the attention given to my concerns. After all, eye surgery is a really big step.
The first time I went into the Sloane Vision Center office, after the barage of tests to determine exactly what my eyes needed, Dr. Sloane sat with me and discussed the results of the tests and answered all of my questions in as much detail as I could stand. That little conference took about four hours.
One of the first things I noticed was that the laser that the Sloane Vision Center used wasn't like the machines that I'd seen at other offices. His was an Excimer Laser which, at the time, was almost unheard of. Everything that I learned about it, both from Dr. Sloane and from other sources, told me that this was the very best system available at the time.
I was so comfortable with Dr. Sloane after our talk that I scheduled my surgery for 4:30 on the following Monday afternoon. When Monday came I realized that I had a lot more questions. Dr. Sloane spent another two hours answering those questions. After all that the surgery itself only lasted about 20 minutes. That was, on average, one minute per eye plus adjustments.
That was on December 4th 2000 and it brought my vision from about 20/750 to almost, but not quite, 20/20. WOW! What a difference. I even drove to my follow up the next morning at 8:00am.
It's now just over four years later and as of my three year check up last December ('03) my vision was still about where it was after the surgery. This has been a life changing experience and I would recomend it to anyone.
With what I learned about eye surgery, though, I wouldn't recommend that you go to just anyone. Check out your eye doctors in as much detail as you can stand. Or you can just consider that I did the leg work for you and found a truly outstanding surgeon and make an appointment with Dr. Sloane.