After speaking with many patients, several requested that I set up a place where they could tell their stories. I have set aside this area so that their stories, in their own words would be relayed to the world. The following are the patients' unedited comments. In addition, several of these patients have included their email address so that should you have questions/concerns/etc. and would like to get their perspectives and experiences, you can send these requests directly to them. They truly understand what it is like to be in a similar position as yourself and are eager to help in any way they can. I hope that you find this patient perspectives area useful.
I have just read a couple of accounts written by people for Dr Maller’s website because I am attempting to write my own. They are quite harrowing. They are personal stories about experiences with LASIK surgery, and the subsequent results and solutions. I wish I had read them sooner. By the time I found Dr Maller I was defeated. I had had so many disappointments, and heard so many horror stories, I had decided to keep my self quiet, live my life, and just accept the situation because by now it was glaringly obvious that it was never going to get any better. Nobody was going to help me - nobody was even interested. To fight against this just brought with it frustration, a feeling of futility and depression.
I am English, fifty two years old and living a full and busy life. I first visited Dr Maller five years ago, and that visit turned my life around.
Sixteen years ago I was living with my husband and children in Akron, Ohio. The company that my husband was working with at the time had an agreement with a local eye surgeon, which meant that employees were having seemingly miraculous eye surgery carried out at a lower than normal price. Everybody in the entire office block, it seemed, suddenly had perfect eyesight. Until this point I had never even heard of RK surgery, let alone considered it for myself. Stories kept coming home about how pleased everyone was with their new eyesight. No glasses, no contact lenses. It wasn’t for me, though. I was adamant for a long while that it sounded very risky. It seemed too good to be true. And, as far as I am concerned, that is exactly what it was.
I was starting to feel discomfort with my contacts after almost twenty years of use. We were shortly going to be relocating to Houston so, if I was going to take advantage of this tempting offer, I had to make a decision. Still extremely wary, I did some research. Over 35,000 successful procedures, we were told. The worst that can happen is that I need a light prescription for contact lenses or glasses, so I would be no worse off. Encouraged, I spoke to people that had had the procedure. Everyone seemed happy. Although, looking back, I can remember something – a certain hesitation - in a woman’s voice on the telephone. Now, when I think about those conversations, I just think that a lot of people were not brave or honest enough to say that their vision was less than perfect. They were feeling a little bit silly and basically kidding themselves. That’s what I think now. At the time I just got excited by the prospect of not needing specs.
I opened my eyes the morning after surgery and I have to say I was pleased with the results. It certainly was not 20-20 vision but it was better than the short sighted vision I was used to waking up to. I could see the clock! I was a bit uneasy, though. There had been talk of being able to see properly straight away and my eye sight was certainly not perfect.
I went off to see the doctor for my check up and asked him if it had not worked properly. He looked surprised and said it was fine. I went back to see him a few weeks later, shortly before our move to Texas, and asked him to have another go at it, He had already suggested this himself. He said that he had deliberately left the prescription too weak rather than too strong. I wanted it sorting out before I was away at the other end of the country.
For a while everything was fine. I started an art degree and was happy with my vision. I could tell it wasn’t perfect, but I could drive. I could draw and paint. It was ok. We moved back to England seven months later.
Almost immediately after surgery, I noticed I was experiencing some multi-imaging, and halo effects around lights - particulary at night. That said, it wasn’t bad enough to cause me to worry about it too much at first. It would be about another year before I had to face it. I was telling myself rather too regularly now, ‘If it stays like this and doesn’t get any worse, I can manage.’ Gradually it did get worse until eventually I could not kid myself any longer.
I took myself off to a local optician for my ‘light prescription glasses’. I was quite surprised to find how much I needed glasses. That was fine – not too worried about that. I had started a new art degree course back in England and was struggling a bit with the still-life module, having to squint to see the subject, so I was looking forward to getting some glasses that would help bring things into focus.
When the day came for me to collect my glasses I was actually looking forward to it.
Once in the opticians I put them on and sat in front of the chart. They made precious little difference to what I was looking at and I tried not to be too disappointed. Ever the optimist, I thought I would be able to manage – and actually did for a while.
I hadn’t actually told anyone at this point about my eyesight worries. People I knew who were considering laser surgery kept asking me about my surgery and were expecting me to fill them with hopeful anticipation. I couldn’t oblige because by now I was very worried about how bad my eyesight was becoming. When people asked me I suggested that they wait, at least until I knew what was happening to me and how bad it really was. Disturbingly, this made no difference to anybody. They all went ahead and had it done regardless. My story was dismissed as not being relevant because it was RK rather than the new all-singing-all-dancing laser surgery. I really didn’t want anyone to have either done. It was, and is, just too risky.
It became very obvious very quickly that nobody was going to help me. Worse still, they were not even interested. It was perceived as self inflicted so there was precious little sympathy. Hardly anybody in the UK had even heard of RK. But, eventually, I was referred to a specialist who was still carrying out the procedure, and was actually working in my own home town of Whitby. I couldn’t believe it. Finally, someone was going to help me.
Well, as anyone who is reading Dr Maller’s website already knows, the eye surgeon in north east England was absolutely not going to help me. In fact, he could not get me out of his office fast enough. I was definitely bad news. He was still trying to convince people that this was a good procedure to have done. He told me that, as I had arrived not wearing glasses, I had nothing to grumble about. According to him, I had 20-20 vision. How he worked that out I will never know.
God, I was so disappointed. I tried another two opticians for glasses and another one for contact lenses. The glasses made no difference, and the contact lenses would not stay on my eye and were extremely uncomfortable.
This is when I began to hide my head in the sand. I left my degree course and didn’t feel confident enough to tackle anything new, at least not on my own.
Eventually I found an optician in the north of England who was great. For several years I functioned very well with scleral contact lenses. But eventually my eyes started to reject them and once again I had terrible problems. I cannot function without contact lenses so I began to feel the dread and depression that had haunted me before.
My husband again did a lot of research on my behalf and eventually found Dr Maller. It is such a major upheaval and expense to organise two weeks away in America just for a set of contact lenses, so I didn’t decide to go for quite a while. But eventually I did. Thank goodness I did. I honestly believe that Dr Maller is the only person who can help me. Yes. It is a long way to Fort Lauderdale. And yes, it is expensive and time consuming to get there. But believe me, it is definitely worth it.
I have tried, in between visits to Dr Maller, to find somebody in the UK who can help me. I have tried many other types of lenses prescribed for me by some very competent optometrists. They simply do not understand the problem I have and have no idea how to deal with it. The last set prescribed for me gave me raging conjunctivitis and my life ground to a halt because I live in the middle of nowhere, on my own most of the time. I cannot drive without my lenses, so could not go to work, to the shops, to meet friends. I was totally dependent on other people to take me anywhere.
So, once again I went all the way back to Florida to see Dr Maller. Once again he has fitted me with lenses that work for me. I am now working again, driving again, living again.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Hilary Walker
England
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