satpak77

Ask Dr. how many lawsuits/claims against him and what is Plan-B when the power goes out on the city block and he is in the middle of lasering your eyeball.

Yes, ask him. I did for mine.

MooneyBlues

Great advice, thank you very much. I really like my docs resume. He went to Duke for his bachelors and then Southern California for his med. He is a cornea specialist and is a lasik instructor. Even if he went to Harvard is still be nervous though since my career in on the line. I do appreciate your advice.

satpak77

Resumes are great but you need to talk to him one on one. If it is a reputable clinic, you will meet him. Oh, and ask him how many surgeries he has done. Good luck

MooneyBlues

I will for sure. Im also looking at Dr. Filitowski in Orlando. He went to Columbia for his bachelors and Cornell for medical school. He also has performed 47,000 surgeries.

Here's a link if you don't mind taking a look. Konrad Filutowski, M.D. - Daytona Beach, FL 32119 | LocateADoc.com

That's not who I'm having my consultation with, but if I get a bad feeling at my consultation I'll be heading to him for a consultation.
I really appreciate the information. Thank you.

I'm also going to stress the importance of post surgery night vision, halos, starbursts etc. I'm going to ask about the percentages of night vision side effects for custom wavefront/intralace lasik as supposedly the night vision side effects are much rarer in those lasik procedures from what I've read.

MooneyBlues

I just realized I probably broke a rule on the forum and posted a link to a doctors site I apologize administrators. I'm not very forum savvy.

MooneyBlues

Well my consultation was interesting. I'm a candidate and the ophthalmologist was pretty sure I'd have no issues with night vision. He did say I need to come into the darkroom for a wavefront to fully know. He seemed a bit cocky and I'm not sure if that's good or bad. After I met with him I requested to speak to the surgeon and I really liked him. We shot the bull for a good 20 minutes he was asking me all kinds of questions about flying and more. I didn't like that I had to request to see him, but once I met him I liked him a lot. Anyway I have another consultation on Wednesday at a different place to compare. The other place the doctor requires an updated dilation and talks to you during your free consultation and will even give you his cell number which I liked, but that was just through what the receptionist said.

I'll report back Wednesday or Thursday.

Ibaquarius

Mooney....
I was just looking at medical issues before leaving your forum... I worked in eye surgery, (RN) and also had Lasik myself.(wave).
1. Do you have any discomfort with your contacts-even when they are new?
2. Do you live or are in a dry climate for any length of time?
3. Do you see halos at night now? (Car headlights?)
4. How bad is your vision now-must remember to ask good friend who sent me here to post originally, but if I remember correctly, no worse than 20/40
uncorrected?
5. How often do you use moisture drops?
6. Do you have allergies-do you use eye drops for allergies? Do you take medication for allergies? Most of them dry out your eyes already.
Dry eye is evident in more than 50% of people who have had surgery.
The more the cornea has to be reshaped the greater the chance.
Dry eye starts because when the layer of cornea is cut, the nerves become less sensitive-so when your eye normally says 'make tears, I am dry', the eye now does not feel the dryness yet cuz the nerve endings are no longer sensitive.
There are eye drops and meds, but if you have either sensitive eyes already, or live in a dry climate, (you already work in a dry cockpit...), the problem can be very painful continuously.
Restasis is not a cure-all!
Be very, very certain before you do Lasik. If the doc poo-hoo's your questions, RUN!! The other way....
Good luck.

MooneyBlues

Yes starting about a month ago my contacts, even new ones started bothering me. The doctor said it was because my white blood cells were building up and that was causing the irritation. He said I'd have to try a different contact most likely with a different curvature. He stressed that lasik would fix this,but it seemed like a sell. It was weird. Also the first girl that saw me was new and didn't know too much which rubbed me the wrong way. But here's the deal Dr. den besta won ophthalmologist of the year in Florida a while back and was also nominated for ophthalmologist of the decade in Florida. Plus he's assisted over 40,000 lasik operations. I mean based on that he's the guy, along with his surgeon who I liked and also has a pretty good resume. So I don't know if this guy is that good that he is cocky or what.

Two questions I forgot to ask were... Are multiple eye floaters in each eye an issue(I assume not)? And do you use a check list pre,during and post surgery?

I do not have halos now or very minimal that I barely notice.
I have 20/400 in each eye.
I don't have allergies
I don't live in a dry climate (fla)

He seemed pretty damn sure of himself that I would not have any dry eye issues or night vision issues( although he said he doesn't know for sure until we do the wavefront and measure the pupils in the darkroom. He also said he's worked with pilots before. Ahhhh I don't know what to do!!!!!

MooneyBlues

Second consultation was great, love the place. Going for dry eye treatment tomorrow and then he does the dilation a week later and we select a surgery date. His name is Dr. Herschil at Herschil Lasik at Mcrgruder Eye Institute in Orlando. I'll keep this thread updated and let people know how my experience goes. So far it's been GREAT!

wiz5422

So what is the time from from surgery PRK to back flying the line? I am a commercial pilot and just planning on how much time I need to take off?