Public Awareness of Dangers of Lasik

[LauraK]

As a poor outcome of my Lasik eye surgery in January, I am still at the anger stage of what this has done to me. I am so tired of waking up every morning and wonderfing how my eyes will be.

I really want to try to make a different publicly - any thoughts or ideas? I have thought about putting a bad review for the surgeon center's office that did my surgery - but don't that really will make a difference.

I can't tell you the number of folks I have talked to in the past several months who are considering Lasik - a lot of them are not aware of the risks. Some of these people are contact lens intolerant or already have dry eye. The general perception of most of the people I talk to are - lasik is great. I haven't heard any negatives on it.

[Guest]

I know what you mean... pretty much everyone you talk to about LASIK thinks it's pretty much a no risk procedure, safe as can be, and it's no wonder they think that since that's the picture being painted by the LASIK clinics and their advertising.

The LASIK industry reminds me of the tobacco industry before it became widely accepted that smoking is bad for you. At the moment, it seems to me that the LASIK industry is still in denial/cover-up mode.

As far as public awareness goes, I did a TV interview a while back about it... was tough for me to put myself out there, plus a lot of mental energy used up thinking of how best to phrase things so that the correct impression would be made (ie. not a mentally unstable sob-story person who can't handle a little eye problem, but rather, a normal person like everybody else who had a so-called safe procedure that trashed her quality of life). I think one of the best things I did in that interview was wearing my ugly as all heck clear-lens Wiley X glasses for a short bit on camera so the whole world could see what we have to do to get through our days - it's shocking for a normal person to see, but hey, it's reality, and it gets the message across.

Also, if willing to go public, there is a website, http://www.helpareporter.com/ where you can sign up as an expert on whatever (post-lasik patient for example)... then, you'll get an e-mail whenever there is a reporter looking for a source on that topic. I haven't signed up for it about LASIK, but if anyone would want to get in touch with a reporter who is doing a story on the topic, this might be worth looking into.

Other than that, I think all you can do is be very open if people ask you why you're using drops, ask you what's wrong with your eyes etc. Also, on RateMd's.com you can write an anonymous review of your LASIK surgeon and describe what's happened to you.

[Rebecca Petris]

Another suggestion... while this may not do anything for publicity it may yet be a 'therapeutic' step to take. Report your problem to the FDA. The VAST majority of problems after LASIK never get reported. Here's a link to show how.

[jax8it]

I agree Laura. I wish there was more we could do to warn the public.

[Jenn1]

like the others say, go to the media for help, contact government members especially in the health field and create a petition or group for anti lasik etc.

[LauraK]

I think I am going to write a letter to some other resources - public awareness needs to be made aware of this!

[robster]

I think the main problem is the lack of government regulation in all countries regarding LASIK. How can eye surgery not be regulated and the LASIK companies left pretty much to regulate themselves.

[jax8it]

I reported to the FDA today and it did feel a little therapeutic.

[zoso967]

I feel the same way and I'd love to help out.

I had a "successful" lasik procedure in 2006. I see 20/20 and I no longer need glasses to see. I also have moderate night blindness and a debilitating and crippling form of ocular surface disease known as LINE or lasik induce dry eye. I try to inform people of the risks whenever I hear that someone is considering lasik. About half of them seem change their minds once they learn about dry eye, specifically.

I am a software developer and I have been considering an idea to build an mobile app/web site that tracks DYZ users' development/onset (cause) of dry eye, treatments they tried and what helps/doesn't help etc ..

I know a lot of this information is already on DYZ but I believe that if we carefully construct the questions and collect the raw data we can create an enormous database of dry eye info that can be mined for information by patients, doctors and scientists. I'm sure some trends will become apparent over time. I meant to reach out to Rebecca regarding integrating this with DYZ so DYZ users can anonymously provide unabridged information about their disease state, treatment efficacy and experiences with their Drs.

Let me know how I can help ..

[zoso967]

P.S. I have create a Lasik Dry Eye group. No one has seemed to find their way there yet:

http://www.dryeyezone.com/talk/group.php?groupid=65

[bakunin]

I feel the same way and I'd love to help out.

I had a "successful" lasik procedure in 2006. I see 20/20 and I no longer need glasses to see. I also have moderate night blindness and a debilitating and crippling form of ocular surface disease known as LINE or lasik induce dry eye. I try to inform people of the risks whenever I hear that someone is considering lasik. About half of them seem change their minds once they learn about dry eye, specifically.

I am a software developer and I have been considering an idea to build an mobile app/web site that tracks DYZ users' development/onset (cause) of dry eye, treatments they tried and what helps/doesn't help etc ..

I know a lot of this information is already on DYZ but I believe that if we carefully construct the questions and collect the raw data we can create an enormous database of dry eye info that can be mined for information by patients, doctors and scientists. I'm sure some trends will become apparent over time. I meant to reach out to Rebecca regarding integrating this with DYZ so DYZ users can anonymously provide unabridged information about their disease state, treatment efficacy and experiences with their Drs.

Let me know how I can help ..

I think it is a great idea! We know this borad has an amazing quantity of experiencies and informations, but it is diffused in so many threads.

[littlemermaid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxhjeh6HJm4
Rebecca speaks in 2008 with other speakers at FDA Lasik hearing. She mentions other networks on this which you might investigate, zoso.

[eye_allergy-kids]

why not send bulk e-mails to everyone