Considering Lasik?

Every so often… Scratch that… More often than I would like, I lose my glasses. The majority of the time I wear contacts. But on days were I have reached my sleep deprivation max or I have to get up super early, my eyes scream “no” to the contacts.

I started wearing glasses my freshman year of college. I remember sitting in a biochem lecture wondering if I was actually supposed to be able to see what the professor was writing on the board or if I was just sitting too far back. I went and got my eyes checked and found out that I would be the owner of a brand new pair of glasses! As expected, over the years my nearsighted prescription has gotten slightly stronger. Initially it was kind of fun to pick out new frames but I eventually got to a point where I felt sometimes glasses were cramping my style, which is why I ventured in to wearing contacts.

Brian on the other hand had been wearing glasses since I met him in high school. He had also started wearing contacts before I did. He grew weary of it all.

Brian is less patient with tedious regimes. He had enough of contact lenses care and wearing glasses was becoming more of a hassle then anything so a few years ago he brought up getting Lasik. My initial response was, “That’s a negative… …Laser surgery on your eyes?! How does the pure sound of that not scare you?!” He was pretty set on it though. So my charge to him was, make sure you do due diligence in your research and find the absolute best surgeon to do it! These are your eyes we’re talking about here! Some weeks later he had decided on Dr. Shabbir Khambati at Lake Lazer Eye Center.

I remember asking him, “Brian, you’re sure he is very very good?” Brian’s response, “Yup. He even did Andre Drummond’s eyes…” My skepticism was still not letting down, “So you personally talked to Andre Drummond about how his vision is doing right now?? How do you know he is not struggling to see out there on the basketball court?” **insert straight faced emoji (from Brian) **

Of course I went with Brian to his pre and post op visits (he also needed a driver on the day of surgery so I was there for that too). Dr. Khambati was good, really good. He was unpretentiously confident, able to effortlessly and effectively share knowledge, and had a trustworthy bed side manner. I wasn’t sold on the idea of laser eye surgery but I was sold on Dr. Khambati. Ok Brian (and Andre), good choice.

At my last routine eye appointment, I needed a complete overhaul. I absolutely needed more comfortable contact lenses and my frames were ancient, so I wanted to pick out a new pair. Final choice: black Ray Bans. What do you think?

Brian and I are always casually taking jabs at each other about our vision. Whenever I am complaining about how my eyes are just “too tired” to put on contacts and I don’t want to wear glasses because they don’t go with the style of my outfit (or I just can’t find them), Brian does that little **emoji shrug** and nonchalantly says, “you should get Lasik.” If Brian even remotely mentions’ not being able to see something, my retort is always, “Do you think your Lasik is failing you already?”

Last week in the middle of looking for my glasses (for the billionth time) and entertaining the idea of Lasik for a tenth of a second in my head, I thought, “Maybe I should do a blog post about Lasik!” I emailed Dr. Khambati about answering a few questions and he was so kind to oblige, “I would love to do your blog!” Thank you Dr. Khambati!

Me: What are the three most common misconceptions about Lasik?

Dr. Khambati: Lasik is dangerous. Actually Lasik is the safest surgery in the United States.

Lasik is painful. With our newest soft touch laser you hardly feel anything at all.

Lasik is expensive. It is a great investment in yourself. For as little as $3 per day you can pay the surgery off in 2 years.

Me: What is the most common contraindication for Lasik?

Dr. Khambati: Most common contraindication is a disease called Keratoconus.

FYI: Keratoconus is a noninflammatory disorder of the cornea of unknown etiology. It is characterized by progressive thinning and cone-shaped protrusion of the cornea leading to visual impairment. Patients may present with blurry vision or a sudden decrease in visual acuity. Corrective lenses may be difficult to fit and require frequent changes due to progressive myopia and irregular astigmatism. Visual impairment is initially managed with corrective lenses but may require surgical correction as the disease progresses (from UpToDate).

Me: What are some tips for choosing a good surgeon?

Dr. Khambati: Make sure your surgeon is the one who does all your measurements, surgery, and follow ups himself. Make sure he or she has done at least 10,000 cases and uses the latest equipment.

Me: How many years have you been doing Lasik surgery?

Dr. Khambati: I have been doing Lasik for almost 20 years.

Me: How many surgeries have you done?

Dr. Khambati: I have done over 35,000 eyes.

Me: What is the average timeframe before a person needs some type of correction again?

Dr. Khambati: As long as their prescription is stable, the Lasik surgery can last for many years. Everyone will eventually need reading glasses after the age of 40 due to aging changing of the eyes.

I must say, sometimes I do envy Brian’s ability to wake up in the morning and immediately clearly see everything without any extra steps. But that has not pushed me to a Lasik consultation yet. If I ever decide to get Lasik though, it will definitely be with Dr. Khambati. Until then, it’s selfies in my sexy specs **eye winkie emoji**!

What are some of your reservations about Lasik?

P.S. If you would like more information about Dr. Khambati or would like to set up a consultation with him, here is a link to his site!