Anybody out there had any experiance with Laser eye surgery. Just wondering if there are any before and after stories especially pertaining to baseball.

Son had it in 2006 (I think) --- he had PRK or epi-lasik. Epi-lasik is reccomended for athletes as indicated in the following press release:
It's not for everyone, but many surgeons who perform Epi-LASIK consider it a better option for some patients who will probably not do very well with LASIK. These include people who have thin corneas, with not enough tissue for a good LASIK flap. And those who have professions or hobbies that increase the chance of being hit in the eye (such as soldiers, police officers, boxers, and racquet sports enthusiasts) may find Epi-LASIK safer than LASIK because there's no risk of the flap being dislodged

My son went from 20/400 to 20/15 which is phenomenal --- cost for both eyes about $4,500 at the time. Insurance doesn't cover (ours didn't anyway). Everything great for about a year then it went south. Started having vision problems. Went to contacts. Had to change contact prescriptions about every month because his eyes were changing. Couldn't hit a baseball --- Doctor Rolando Toyos performed the operation and told my son he would NEVER have any additional cost and if he needed additional eye care they would take care of. They did pay for the contacts for 6 months and then told my son he was NOT a candidate for additional surgery to correct his problem and he would have to go elsewhere --- at his own expense.

Son later retired from baseball and is back wearing contacts although his eyesight is much better than before the surgery at about 20/40 --- 20/60 but not good enough to see a fastball without contacts.

BIO on Doctor Toyos:
Rolando Toyos, M.D. received his Bachelors degree from the University of California, Berkeley and his Masters degree from Stanford University. He completed medical school at the University of Illinois, College of Medicine, where he graduated as class president and with James Scholar Academic Honors. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at Northwestern University, Medical Center and Chicago Children's Hospital. Dr. Toyos is a leading surgeon who has performed more than 10,000 LASIK procedures and was the first surgeon in the United States to perform EpiLASIK. He is widely known for his expertise. Dr. Toyos has published numerous articles and book chapters, and he lectures across the United States and abroad about advancements in refractive surgery. He may be a great doctor but he does fall short as a human being!
Fungo

Sorry to hear about your sons misfortunes with the surgery. How old was he when he had it done? My son tried getting it this past summer (20+ years old). Docters at Kremmer wouldn't do it cause they had no historical data showing his eyes had stopped growing/changeing. Told him to come back when he came home for winter break. Exam 6 months later showed no change so procedure was completed last week. Removed glasses/patches after 6 hours and he was like a little kid at Christmas. Never knew the channel was displayed in the upper right-hand corner of the TV as well as many other little suppries. Can't wait for baseball season. Not sure what will happen down the road but so far so good.

quote:

How old was he when he had it done?

I think he was 21-22. They do establish data to ensure the eyes have quit growing before they do the procedure(s). Son had suffered multiple concussions from catching -- also suffered "post concussion syndrome". No one said any of the concussions or complications caused the problems. As I understood it the doctors couldn't determined what happened ---- it just did. While my son didn't have a "storybook ending", I would still recommend the procedure.
Good luck to your son.
Fungo

Sorry to come in late but I had the surger almost a year ago. I had my surgery in Feb of 08 and have loved it. So far no problems although your first post has scared the bejeezus out of me Fungo.

I wore glasses since I was like 7 or 8 years old (i'm now 35) and couldn't see squat without them. It was a real problem playing sports because in Little League I had to have bifocals and I'm up there batting and all of a sudden I see two balls coming at me. No wonder I didn't get a hit my first two years of LL. Football was just as bad because I could barely see the other team and know which guy to block.

I tried contacts but my eyesight was so bad they couldn't give me soft lenses so I went with semi-hard and never could get used to wearing them so went back to glasses after a month. Plus I have abnormally dry eyes or something which hurt me wearing contacts.

One day back in January I got a flyer in the mail advertising no interest payments for 2 years so I decided to check in on it. Went for the appointment and they said I was perfect candidate.

Let me say I was very nervous because I have never had any kind of surgery at all. My best friend came 6 hours to drive me around. He actually got to watch the surgery because the waiting room had windows into the operating room. The weirdest part for me was smelling my eye buring when the laser was going into my eye.

After the surgery we went outside and it wasn't that too bad. There was a Hooters just down the road from the hospital so we decided to go there. By the time I got inside the restaurant I couldn't open my eyes and not because it hurt but just felt weird. So I had a great meal but a somewhat wasted trip to Hooters because I couldn't see the waitresses.

I took an 45 minute nap on the trip home and then another 2 hour nap after I got home and when I woke up from the last nap I could see so much better. We ended up going out to my school and shooting hoops in the gym. I still couldn't make any shots so I guess it's skill since I ruled out poor eyesight.

It's been almost a year since the surgery and it was the best thing I ever did. I would highly recommend anyone with bad eyesight should check into it.

Sorry to hear about your sons experience Fungo. Not too long ago I was having a conversation about Lasik in general with my Vitreo Retinal buddy. He was relating how many people he has heard or seen that have had Lasik and their corneas dislodged from airbags going off in car accidents.From what I remember no matter how its cut even in transplants the flap does not heal like say your skin does with a cut.

This is a great topic as a LOT of people work on mechanics, strength etc. But NEVER work on visual training. Frozen Ropes Training Centers include visual training in every instructional program. Having great visual acuity is a tremendous asset to a hitter or a baseball player for that matter. Some of these findings will suprise most people.

Here is a short message regarding some of the findings that our corporate training board has discovered after testing some 1500 Mets and Dodger major and minor league players. Some findings: "81% of the players had acuities of 20/15 or better and about 2% had acuity of 20/9.2 (the best vision humanly possible is 20/8). The average visual acuity of professional baseball players is approximately 20/13!" So it is very apparent that Professional baseball players have great vision!

This information was complied by the following individuals:
Dr. Daniel M. Laby, M.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School

Dr. David G. Kirschen, Ph.D., OD
Chief of Binocular Vision and Orthoptic Services at the Jules Eye Institute,
UCLA School of Medicine

Tony Abbatine, National Director of Instruction, Frozen Ropes Training Centers

Complete Article can be found on:
http://www.frozenropes.com/home/national-news.aspx?d=222