Posts Tagged ‘eye surgery’

LASIK & AMP; Botox Side Effects

Posted on January 26th, 2012 by fashionmaven

So, I’m in my 40′s, feel great, in decent shape, good health, wonderful family, awesome boyfriend, super network of friends…so what’s there to complain about, right? Just two little problems…declining vision and wrinkles!

I’m truly grateful for all I have including my glasses, contacts, crows feet and marionette lines yet what if I could have it all? LASIK surgery and Botox. Problems solved.

Here’s my thinking…get Botox first. Relax the wrinkles on my forehead, furrowed brow lines, crow’s feet, and the marionette lines around my mouth. That way when I get LASIK the first thing I’ll see is how incredibly young I look. Brilliant.

With that in mind, I decided to check into the side effects of Botox. Risks directly related to eye problems (there are others side effects too so be sure to check them all out) include double vision, blurred vision, decreased eyesight, drooping eyelids, swelling of your eyelids, and dry eyes. I already have dry eye! Yikes. This information deepened my furrowed brow lines because I started worrying about how these side effects might impact the LAISK piece.

I called my friends at The Laser Centers (TLC) and they shared some very good information: If you don’t follow your postoperative instructions from your facility and/or eye doctor, you could potentially get droopy eyes. Patients are cautioned not to lie down after Botox. After LASIK, patients are told to take a nap. So TLC would never do LASIK and Botox on the same day.

After Botox, patients should be up and moving so that the Botox doesn’t settle. If it settles in one place, such as near the eye lids, it can cause a droopy eye lid which leads to an incomplete blink and can result in dry eye. TLC hasn’t found any problems with Botox and LASIK as long as patients do not have both procedures done on the same day. Additionally, TLC screens patients for incomplete blink and/or dry eye and if Botox (or something else) is the cause of those conditions, they remedy those causes before proceeding with any vision correction surgery.

What’s the next step? Understanding LASIK surgery risks. After that, making a decision. Botox and LASIK? Botox only? LASIK only? I’m not sure yet, but I feel like I can make a better informed decision. Hope it helps you too.

Fashion Maven

P.S. Check out Rebates and Special Offers on vsp.com for exclusive member savings on LASIK!
P.P.S. Watch our very own Jill N. go through her five part LASIK surgery journey.

File under: eye health, LASIK, Special Offers, Technology, vision benefits, VSP Blog News | Tagged: , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

Pablo Sadoval of San Francisco Giants has eye surgery

Posted on November 18th, 2011 by Jessica H.

The San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval underwent laser surgery on his left eye today. He had tried contact lenses and sports eyewear, but found them disruptive, according to the full article.

Learn more about sports eyewear.

Read about St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jason Motte‘s eye troubles.

File under: LASIK, sports | Tagged: , , , , , ,
No Comments »

About Amblyopia (Lazy Eye)

Posted on June 23rd, 2010 by Lisa P.
Joel Kestenbaum O.D. is a VSP provider in Long Island, NY.

Joel Kestenbaum O.D. is a VSP provider in Long Island, NY.

Guest blogger Dr. Joel Kestenbaum returns with a post about amblyopia, a.k.a. lazy eye and the importance of early detection.

Lazy eye or amblyopia is reduced vision resulting from vision deprivation to one eye. Reasons include large differences in vision between the two eyes or misalignment of the two eyes resulting in one eye being stronger than the other.

If not corrected at an early age, the lesser-seeing eye may have permanent vision loss.   The brain will usually start to suppress the image of the poorer eye possibly resulting in useless vision.

As an aside, statistics show that 80% of a child’s learning comes through the eyes.  Early detection and early correction are imperative to a child’s binocular eyesight.  I see many young patients whose parents never realized that having an eye exam before age five can affect the child’s lifetime education.  And what is even worse, most pediatricians think that reading the eye chart in their office is an eye exam.  What they also don’t realize is that 20/20 does not mean 20/perfect.  As a result, the doctor’s that see the most children inadvertently do an injustice to their young patients.

Here is one example: Many kids can see 20/20 but if they are “farsighted” or hyperopic, their eyes work hard to focus on distance objects and work harder to focus on close objects.  It’s like the automatic zoom lens on a camera.  When the eyes point to an object, it is natural for the brain to signal the eyes to focus.  The problem is that a child’s eyes have a large amount of focusing power.  The other problem is that the harder a farsighted child has to focus, the more likely that the child will develop a crossed eye, possibly resulting in a lazy eye.

So what do we do about it?  First of all we need to educate the educators and the primary medical providers to screen children and to understand that an eye doctor should examine eyes just as a dentist should examine the mouth.  We need to catch lazy eye early.  Treatment for lazy eye includes eyeglasses, patching therapy, eye drops, surgery, and/or eye exercises.  If not treated, the amblyopic eye may never achieve good vision and may in fact develop functional blindness.

So the bottom line is early detection, early intervention and education.  See you in the next blog.

File under: eye health, healthcare | Tagged: , , , , , ,
No Comments »

Eye Surgery … Good luck with that!

Posted on August 25th, 2009 by Liz B.

Connie V. is VSP's Industry Relations Manager within Provider Services.

Connie V. is VSP's Industry Relations Manager within Provider Services.

Guest Blog: Connie V. VSP’s Industry Relations Manager, recounts her recent eye surgery.

I go to the eye doctor once a year for my comprehensive eye exam, glasses, and contact lenses.  My eye doctor, Dr. Sheilah Titus suggests I see an ophthalmologist once a year because I have narrow angles. I think I heard her explain it to me as the angle between my iris and cornea is so small or narrow that the fluid has a hard time passing between the back and front of my eye. This can lead to glaucoma.
Between my ophthalmologist and optometrist it was decided at my last visit it was time for me to have a preventative surgery called laser peripheral iridotomy (LPI) to make sure I don’t end up with glaucoma in my later years. My doctor said, “it’s no big deal, you show up with no eye make up, we laser a hole in the iris in both eyes, then you go home, no big deal.”

I didn’t really give it much thought, I told friends and family about it and the reaction was the same, “Eye surgery … good luck with that, yuk!” On Friday, the hospital nurse called to make sure she had all the correct information including the person who was driving me and would be responsible in case something went wrong. Just in case something went wrong?!

I thought this was no big deal!  Now I’m nervous. I’m used to taking people for procedures – not having procedures. The night before the surgery I didn’t sleep. I thought about some kind of brace on my eye lids keeping my eyes open and from moving. Every time I shut my eyes that’s all I could think of.

File under: eye health | Tagged: , , , , , ,
1 Comment »