Thoughts on getting Lasik?

September 25, 2023 2:59 PM

I had a consultation for Lasik, and was considered eligible. What questions would you recommend I ask the doctor before making a major decision like this, and did you have any negative experiences with Lasik?

I’ve been wanting to get Lasik for a long time now. I wear prescription eyeglasses all the time, and am very nearsighted and myopic. I’m tired of eyeglasses and the hassles of getting new ones, going through frame adjustments, and that kind of thing. I want to be able to enjoy life without eyeglasses.

The consultation went well overall; we used a video interpreter service (an accommodation to my Deafness), and used gestures to supplement that. I’m not entirely, 100% sure if the testing doctor and I were able to get everything conveyed properly, including the tests/examination of my vision, but we were able to make it work overall.

I’m very nervous at the prospect of getting Lasik — it seems so… irreversible. As I am Deaf, I depend solely on my vision (of course, alongside feeling/tasting/smelling senses), so once Lasik is done, it’s pretty much done. I’ve read some horror stories of Lasik forever messing up one’s vision, but TBF, those stories were mostly in the early 00’s and 90’s, when Lasik was still new. With eyeglasses, if it’s screwed up, it’s pretty simple to get corrected (although there’s been some monumental fuckups in the past with cheap eyeglasses and providers who didn’t do their jobs properly). With Lasik, it’s a done deal, and there’s basically no going back. On the other hand, I’m done with eyeglasses, I want to invest in myself and get something that’s pretty advanced technologically.

Questions:

-Did any of you have Lasik, and did it mess up your vision permanently?
-Any specific questions I should be asking the doctor?
-Anything else I should know?

I’m very sensitive to things being close to my eyes (ie, eyedrops, fingers probing my eyes, etc) so that’s another factor to consider.

Bonus:

The office said that if I brought in my own interpreter, they’d give me $400 off (on top of the discounts I’m already getting with my insurance), which would make the total cost about $3k plus change.

Questions for that:

-Is that a red flag of sorts? They did say they would provide their own interpreter if I didn’t choose to do that, but wasn’t clear if it was video or in person. For the surgery, I’d definitely prefer in person.
-If I do that option, I’m thinking about asking my friend if he could give me a ride and interpret; in lieu of treating him to dinner. He lives in my apartment community and we’re pretty good friends. However, he would likely ask why they can’t provide their own interpreters, and it might become awkward explaining I’m getting a discount with my own interpreter. As the procedure would only take ~30 minutes in office (if I understood correctly), it might be simple and straightforward, especially if I ask all questions prior via email, but I don’t want my friend feeling resentful or wanting the $400. I don’t know if that makes any sense, but hope some of you can give insight on that.

Thanks in advance!

posted by dubious_dude to Health & Fitness (33 answers total)

Sounds like you should definitely take your own interpreter.

I got Lasik in late 2019 and went from around -7 / -7.5 to nearly 20/20. My caution is that the Lasik doctor is engaged in the process of making money for Lasik, not in giving you accurate risk information. I discussed my Lasik plans with my actual, non-Lasik optometrist to make sure they thought it was an ok decision based on my eye health, then went ahead with Lasik.

They are going to give you eye drops immediately prior to the procedure (while you are in the waiting room) that dilate / otherwise limit your vision. It would be worth discussing with your interpreter how you will handle this, as you may not be able to see as well as you normally would (assuming you sign).
posted by some chick at 3:16 PM on September 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Maybe invite your friend and split the money? Or offer to pay them the going rate for interpreters for an interpreter for however long it takes (I’m guessing that’ll be less than $400?).

I’d maybe also look into liability issues - if they provide an interpreter, will they have specialist knowledge that your friend won’t have? And if your friend misunderstands and misinterprets, and as a result things don’t turn out how you’d hoped somehow, where does that leave you medically and with your friendship (I dunno, eg. maybe they misunderstand the aftercare instructions and give you the wrong info, and it affects the results, and the doctors just say “Well, it’s your problem, it was your interpreter’s fault).

Sorry, you’re probably waaaay better versed than me at the legalities and technicalities of working with interpreters so I hope this isn’t teaching my granddude to suck eggs. Just leaps out at me that, if you’re nervous about the procedure anyway, it’s actually a significant amount of responsibility to put on your friend, not just a casual favour.
posted by penguin pie at 3:20 PM on September 25, 2023 [4 favorites]

I discussed my Lasik plans with my actual, non-Lasik optometrist to make sure they thought it was an ok decision based on my eye health, then went ahead with Lasik.

I think this is extremely important advice, given that dubious_dude is Deaf. Negative side effects from modern Lasik surgery are very rare for people with good eye health, but you only get one set of eyes and vision is extra important for a Deaf person who signs, so I would personally want to be extra cautious about it.
posted by asnider at 3:21 PM on September 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

I got LASIK in my 30's, after three yearly exams in a row turned up the same prescription. I had around a -6 prescription before with mild astigmatism. Afterwards I could see very well, like freakishly well for a few months, and then just very well. It's about 10 years later, and my vision has deteriorated a little bit; my distance vision is still good enough that I don't have any need for glasses. I am becoming far-sighted with age, and need reading glasses for stuff like soldering or the like. Which brings up a big point: LASIK will correct your eyes are they are now, but won't stop them from changing. If your prescription changes from year to year, I would recommend against it. Most people become far-sighted with age, and this won't stop that. (though if you're already far-sighted, you can get one eye corrected for close vision, one for distant. A friend did that and kind of thinks he'd prefer to just have them both the same and wear glasses at some distances; but it's a mild regret)

I’m very sensitive to things being close to my eyes (ie, eyedrops, fingers probing my eyes, etc) so that’s another factor to consider.

For about six months after surgery your eyes won't make enough tears on their own. So it's very important to regularly apply eyedrops. If you don't think you can get used to that, then this is a bad prospect for you.

At night I do have some mild halos / starbursts, particularly when my eyes are dry or I'm tired. For me, that part is comparable to wearing glasses that are not absolutely perfectly pristine; that is it's a little annoying, but not in any way disruptive to my life. I can still drive at night, etc.

Of course my own story is just my own story - it won't tell you the rate of actual bad outcomes, which is not zero. But it is very low. I don't have any advice on how to navigate this kind of risk.

If the interpreter you're talking about is an ASL interpreter, of course that will have some limitations - during the procedure you can't really see, and IIRC immediately after the surgery, you can't really see great until the next day. But regardless of hearing issues or not, I think it's a great idea for anyone doing medical procedures to have someone else around just paying attention to what's going on, and being on hand to advocate for the patient.
posted by aubilenon at 3:26 PM on September 25, 2023

I have considered LASIK, since I've been quite nearsighted since the age of 9, but decided against it. Any possibility of seriously negative outcomes from what is an elective surgery is not worth the risk for me. Yes, I have to wear glasses or contacts every waking moment, but those corrective lenses do their job and correct my vision. It would be nice to not have to wear glasses all the time, but that benefit is not worth the trade-off to me for the risk, however small, that I could end up with chronic dry eyes or poor night vision (or blind). I'm also skeptical of how LASIK procedures could affect my ocular health in old age -- I don't want to be the case study that leads to discovering that something to do with LASIK causes complications with glaucoma, or macular degeneration, or cataracts, etc.
posted by eunique at 3:48 PM on September 25, 2023 [10 favorites]

Is that a red flag of sorts?

Assuming you're in the US, yes. This physician is legally required under the ADA to provide you with an interpreter free of charge (this is in contrast to legal requirements in the US for interpretation services for patients with limited English proficiency—that is only legally required if the facility accepts federal payments).

They are trying to skirt the law by calling it a "discount" when in reality it's effectively a $400 upcharge to provide you with what is required by law. This is on top of all the good points already described above about the issues with using friends or family members as medical interpreters. I find this shady as hell and would not want to deal with these people, especially for something as high stakes as you've outlined.
posted by telegraph at 4:01 PM on September 25, 2023 [16 favorites]

Get measures of your corneal thickness from 2-3 different providers and ask how even your corneal surface is. Basically you need a certain thickness to be safe for LASIK and I was told I was ok by one provider and not ok by another. Don’t discount the risk of chronic dry eye and ask a million questions about your personal risk factors for long term untreatable irritation if your eyes are already sensitive
posted by slow graffiti at 4:01 PM on September 25, 2023

I'm a doctor, and I had LASIK in 2019.

As a general rule, when it comes to minor surgery like LASIK, the most important thing is repetition on the part of the physician--ie, the number of times he or she has done the procedure. Practice really does make perfect, so make sure you ask how long, and how many times (ball park figure), your doctor has been doing whats being done to you.

Even more to the point, ask about his/her experience in treating your specific type of sight impairment--near/far sightedness, astigmatism, and so on

LASIK surgery has an error/complication of about 3 in 250/.011/11 in 1000. It's vanishingly rare for the surgery to fail completely and leave patients worse off than they were before the procedure.
posted by BadgerDoctor at 4:02 PM on September 25, 2023 [7 favorites]

The thing I was told to ask during the consult was how many eyes the doctor had done, and to find someone new if the number was less than 10,000. First doc I spoke to did around 20,000; LASIK is a combination of several pre-existing surgeries that were approved long before it, so even the first doctor to perform LASIK would've had thousands upon thousands of very similar eye surgeries under his belt.

If you're sensitive to things near your eyes like eye drops, you could have a difficult time. Starting at your consult, they need to measure the thickness of your corneas, because part of that thickness will be cut open like a flap and even more of it will be vaporized by the laser in order to make your corneas into a permanent lens. So, you'll have a number in micrometers/microns (µm) and it'll be somewhere north of 500 if you're normal. The corneal flap they cut and move out of the way to access the center of the cornea, that'll have a certain thickness, and after that, they're cutting away (IIRC) 20µm per diopter of corrected vision. So, I was a 4.5 diopter prescription, so they cut 90µm of cornea away during the process. I could be wrong on that number, but anyway, worse prescription means more depth required. Later on, they can do "touch-ups" that take away far less tissue. You need to ask questions about how much they're taking away, whether touch-ups will be doable in the future (and whether they're covered), and how much that leaves you.

Eyedrops are also going to be your best friend. As mentioned above, permanent chronic dryness is a possible negative outcome, but you won't know for a while because temporary chronic dryness (of like 4-6 months) is very typical and expected. In addition to a heavy regime if hydrating and disinfecting eyedrops, some of which are very gooey instead of runny liquids, in the first couple days after the treatment, you'll pretty much have artificial tears on your person at all times, because it's the only thing you have that'll relieve the dryness.

During the procedure itself, they'll be touching your eyeballs. They have a laser which can cut the corneal flap, but I went with an older procedure in which they anesthetize the eyeball (no sensation, but of course you see everything as close as close can get, suction on a kind of metal jig, and use the tiniest scalpel ever to cut the flap (it was fast and not scary, plus I was on valium), and then things get blurry, but they still need you to steer your eyes while looking at fantastically bright lights. So... the surgery is going to hit your sensitivity for certain.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:03 PM on September 25, 2023

BTW the thickness required for the corneal flap varies depending on the technology they use to cut it; the scalpel method I used cut back a thicker slab than the new (circa 2007) laser they also offered me, so that sort of thing factors into the "are my corneas thick enough" conversation.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:06 PM on September 25, 2023

Is doing one eye at a time an option? That would both assuage fears about loss of sight and presumably reduce communication friction.
posted by hoyland at 4:07 PM on September 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Whew, thanks for the answers so far. I’ll review them more in-depth later, but I realized I forgot an important question in my original Ask:

-As I’m nearing 40 in a few years, would the procedure be pointless as eyesight tends to deteriorate with old age?

And just to clarify, I’m very nearsighted, not farsighted.
posted by dubious_dude at 4:14 PM on September 25, 2023

It'll postpone, but not eliminate, your eventual dependence on reading glasses. But how long you're likely to have without needing glasses again is a question best answered by your doctor. In my case it was around 15 years, and I don't regret getting LASIK. I do regret not getting glasses as soon as I started needing them again; bit of denial on my part.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:23 PM on September 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

I got Lasik at 36 and I'm so happy about it, though I'm probably going to need reading glasses sooner than later. Paying for the privilege to not wear glasses at all even if it's just a couple years was entirely worth it to me.

Dry eyes can be very very annoying. Mine isn't terrible but I do keep eyedrops around for it.

Many of the places around here price match, I got a quote for a provider in a employee discount plan I didn't like then I took that too a place I did like for the price match.

On the day of the appointment there was lots of talking and instruction before hand before I took the Valium and then after the procedure it was mostly okay bye. Or atleast that's what I remember. I didn't want to do anything for the first 24 hours but lay and bed and keep my eyes closed.

There are lots of drops. Lots of them in the first week . I used them regularly as in multiple times a day for about a month and then it decreased from there. I use eyedrops infrequently now , but before I didn't use them at all and had no history of dry eye.
posted by AlexiaSky at 4:32 PM on September 25, 2023

Mod note: one comment deleted. Poster’s request!
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 4:49 PM on September 25, 2023

Yes check with your personal optometrist and ask them their pro / con list.

I am nearsighted in my 40s and personally decided against lasik when I learned how my near vision would deteriorate with age as everyone’s does and what this would look like against my current Rx (my optometrist asked me basically which would you prefer in 10 years - put on glasses to read close up or lift up your glasses to read). When I realized that it would be difficult to put on makeup without reading glasses I decided no.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 5:21 PM on September 25, 2023

I got LASIK decades ago. It was life-changing (in the good sense). About a decade into it, my eyes started getting worse, and have continued doing so to this day, but... they are still far, far better than they had been pre-LASIK. It's seriously like "pre-LASIK < < < < < < < < < < < < < < < post-LASIK now < post-LASIK for the first decade".

The only regret I have about it is that someone who I know decided to get it due to hearing how thrilled I was with the results, and was not so thrilled. Their eyes didn't fall out or anything like that, but it didn't go as well for them as it did for me. I hadn't recommended getting it, and I didn't even know they were considering it until after the deed was done; I'm not even sure if I knew they were listening to me at the time (they were certainly in the room, but so were a dozen or two others, and I have no memory of speaking directly to them in particular about it). Nonetheless, I can't help feeling a tad guilty.

Finally, I guess this is none of my business, and I apologize in advance if it's offensive or whatever, but I really feel the need to say: If I were deaf, I would absolutely not risk it.
posted by Flunkie at 5:31 PM on September 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Be very, very certain that your eyes aren't too dry for the procedure. A good eye doctor can test you.

My husband, without dry eyes, had to use eye drops for months, and still gets uncomfortable occasionally. (He does not regret the surgery at all, fwiw). A friend of his has borderline dry eyes and went ahead and did it anyway, now has to use eyedrops every couple of hours and will have to for, well, ever. He regrets the surgery very much.

My eyes are too dry (says my eye doctor) and there's no way I'd do it.
posted by lydhre at 5:37 PM on September 25, 2023

Lasik Patients Should Be Warned of Complications, F.D.A. Draft Says (Dec 2022) [TW: Suicide]

Ex-FDA Advisor Says Of LASIK Eye Surgery: 'It Should Have Never Been Approved' (2019) [tw suicide]

I’m sure it’s beneficial for some with extreme vision cases, life changing even. But for most I doubt the risks are worth it.
posted by Crystalinne at 5:48 PM on September 25, 2023 [3 favorites]

As I’m nearing 40 in a few years, would the procedure be pointless as eyesight tends to deteriorate with old age?

In my opinion, yes. After about 40-43 you pretty much have two choices:

1. be one of those folks who walks around unable to see things too close unless they find and put on their glasses

2. wear multifocal glasses of some kind all the time.

You're already used to glasses full time. I think #1 is worse than #2 but if you think #1 sounds WAY better, like if it's super important to you to not wear glasses for a certain far-vision-only activity, like skiing or something, it might really be worth it.

Personally, I never felt like risking it back in the 90s when I took my friends to their Lasik appointments, and I still don't feel like it. I'm fine with my glasses, they work. That is what's important to me.
posted by fritley at 6:02 PM on September 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

I got LASIK in 2011. I am now 48 and it's only in the last year that I have wanted reading glasses (and I can still make do without). I am really glad I did it. I will presumably eventually need bifocals but am happy to be able to postpone that, and it's unlikely my nearsightedness will ever be as bad as before.

(In the past two years I HAVE had blepharitis/ dry eye and it is super annoying. I have no idea whether it is related to the LASIK but I think it's more likely related to my rosacea.)

One thing that took me by surprise: LASIK did reduce my super-close-up vision, like being able to focus on someone's eyes when we kiss. But it did not negatively affect my life.
posted by metasarah at 6:36 PM on September 25, 2023

Had lasik done 9 years ago, currently wearing reading glasses as of late 2022. It was very worth it for me, since my astigmatism was bad enough that I never had a good correction with glasses and contacts. I can get around just fine without the glasses but I use them while driving.

Bifocals vs reading glasses has been covered.
My eyes healed fine, but I used drops every 3 hours for about 6 months.

I don't know if they've changed the protocol, but I was given verbal instructions during the procedure. First, numbing drops were put in, then the device to hold your eyelids open was hooked in. Then I was told to look straight ahead as they made the incision. Everything went blurry in that eye and then I was asked to look at a red dot. Afterwards, they moved the flap back. It was maybe less than 5 minutes for each eye. I was dropped off at home by my parents and I slept the valium off. If you haven't already, I'd ask the doctor exactly how they plan to signal every step to you.

One of my friends had PRK and he did one eye at a time.
posted by just.good.enough at 7:07 PM on September 25, 2023

A close friend had this surgery and ever since has suffered from painful dry eyes that still require regular eye drops, multiple times per day, several years later. At one point he woke in the night regularly from the discomfort and would have to apply the drops at night. This is an uncommon result, but not that uncommon, and he always urges people he knows who are considering this surgery to look at the frequency of this outcome and check they are comfortable with the odds.

(The surgery did improve his eyesight though).
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:42 PM on September 25, 2023

From personal experience, regard the list of "possible" complications as real. You have a real chance of experiencing all of those.

I had pain for a year or more. I have double vision at night. I can't read prices in the supermarket if the light is bad.

In bright light I see perfectly.

Oh and I used a _very_ experienced doctor. So experienced that he was somewhat past his best. I only figured that out later :-/
posted by wrm at 10:51 PM on September 25, 2023

My brother-in-law who is a surgeon had one eye done at a time. He had the first eye done and the 2nd eye done 6 months later after he was sure of the outcome on the first eye.

As the ramifications of a deaf person having issues with their eyesight are magnified if not critical, I would discuss with the surgeon the pros and cons of doing one eye at a time.

(Also see hoyland's comment above.)
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:53 PM on September 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Ask your doctor if you are guaranteed not to need glasses. It's not quite the same thing, but I swung for $6K for the lenses that would also correct my astigmatism after cataract surgery. Part of the justification in my mind was lifetime savings on prescription glasses -- my last pair cost about $700US/$900 CDN. I knew I'd need (drugstore) specs for reading, but expected to be glasses free otherwise for the first time since early childhood. I can walk around okay, sit at table in a restaurant, and don't need glasses to drive legally, but to watch tv, read road signs comfortably or see signs in the grocery store, I need correction. The minute difference means I'm not a good candidate for LASIK tweaking, but I'd already decided against it because of all the potential side effects listed above. If they occurred as a result of a necessary operation (as they sometimes do after cataract surgery), well, shit happens, but I wasn't going to sign up for them voluntarily.
posted by kate4914 at 6:10 AM on September 26, 2023

I had a very simple lasik (just correcting nearsightedness) in 2008. Absolutely happy I did and I have no adverse effects: night vision is great, and I haven't worn glasses since. I realize that as I get older, I will probably need reading glasses and some point, but that's easier than bifocals. I wish that I could have afforded to do it sooner. What worked in my favour: my corrected wasn't extreme and I have thicker corneas (which I gather is good).

The only negative from my experience was that I did feel a fair amount of pain during the procedure I was told I would not. I found it very difficult to get through. (A nurse friend of mine suspects that the numbing drops weren't administered correctly and that's why I may have felt more pain.) However, even with that, I'm still really glad I did it.
posted by Kurichina at 7:51 AM on September 26, 2023

I'm just going to address the issue of asking your friend to interpret.

The $400 is a discount, so it doesn't really exist as cash in hand. However, asking your friend to do something for free so that you can save $400 is something I think you need to be upfront about, as they could feel resentful if what they view as a kind gift seems like it's just about money for you.

I don't know how much interpreters generally charge, and Google gave me a huge range, but I'd suggest something like this: "Friend, they want $400 for an interpreter, and that seems really high to me. Plus [if true] I'd feel more comfortable having someone I know and trust interpret. Would you be willing to do it for less than that?"

Friend has the option of doing it for free or asking for some payment. If friend offers to do it for less I'd still buy them a nice dinner.
posted by FencingGal at 8:12 AM on September 26, 2023 [3 favorites]

My wife and I have both had lasik, for both of us it was around 2006 (but not at the same time). Both of us were pretty nearsighted.

My wife had pretty bad nighttime halos for (I think) about a year. She also needed to start using reading glasses immediately. Her correction wound up being something like 20/15—better than "perfect"—but it has backslid.

I did not have halos to speak of. I still have not needed to start using reading glasses, but I'm getting there. My correction was something like 20/40—good enough but not perfect. My correction has backslid noticeably and I won't drive without glasses, although I can get away with it. My ophthalmologist has said that my degree of backsliding is not bad, and that I can get touchup lasik if I want, but I will definitely need reading glasses as soon as I do. Neither one of us regrets having done it, but it wasn't the life-changing slam dunk for us that it has been for others—we're both still (or again) wearing prescription glasses. And, funny thing, after having glasses for so long, even during the time when I wasn't using prescription glasses, I almost never left the house without sunglasses on.

I am extremely wary of anything going near my eyes. I tried putting a contact lens in once—never again. So I had to brace myself for the procedure, but I managed.

I don't know about your lasik doctor, but ours wouldn't let us drive home after the procedure, and wanted us to rest in a dark room for the remainder of the day. If that's the case for you, you'll want to bring a friend anyhow.
posted by adamrice at 8:44 AM on September 26, 2023

I’m very sensitive to things being close to my eyes

You will also smell your corneas being vapourized.

I had lasik two decades ago in 2003 at age 25. Got my vision checked last year and the opto said that my eyesight was still good enough to be accepted to cop school <blech>. Still got some light progressive for driving (mostly anti-blue) and very near work.

Don't recall direct eyeball touch tough - there are probes and air puffs but the actual procedure was mostly just lasers, I think.

I was -2.25 -2.5 or so with astigmatism pre-lasik, and had 20/20 vision for essentially two decades after.

But yeah, you will be severely visually impaired for at least the first 24 hours.
posted by porpoise at 8:44 PM on September 26, 2023

My husband had LASIK 15 years ago with the most prolific doctor in Dallas (...at the time). He had a pretty strong distance prescription (I mean he was nearsighted) and astigmatism going in.

Afterward his vision was blurry. They said they overcorrected in one eye and he was welcome to get the process done again but it might be worse. There was a surprising lack of empathy about this and absolutely no apology (but - admitting fault probably something they don't do). He has had chronic dry eye and has a hard time driving at night due to the halo effect (I have two other friends who have had LASIK say this - the only other people I know that have done it). He didn't bother with the second procedure.

He is middle aged now and has to wear reading glasses sometimes. He has a slight need for distance correction but he doesn't have to wear anything for that yet.
posted by getawaysticks at 9:28 PM on September 26, 2023

I had PRK done earlier this year (not in the US). I had dry eyes so wasn't eligible for LASIK, but I haven't had to use eyedrops past the first month except on windy days or drier days. The procedure went fine, was over in maybe 10-15 mins. I held my breath when the laser started in case I smelt anything and it triggered any reflexes. The laser bit is quite fast - I held my breath fairly comfortably. Afterwards I rested up for a week (I understand LASIK has a much faster healing rate), during which I only had to use paracetamol once, and it was more because the sensation increased and I panicked, rather than pain per se. I didn't have to use any of the stronger drugs they gave me. No complications, no side effects. I'm about 30, in good health, just wanted to correct some near-sightedness. I prioritised doctors who had a lot of experience when I was researching.

I’m very sensitive to things being close to my eyes (ie, eyedrops, fingers probing my eyes, etc) so that’s another factor to consider.
I'm also this way - I've failed every time I've tried contacts, never been able to do eye makeup, flinch when things come near my eyes, etc. During the procedure, they give you numbing eyedrops and some valium, so when they hooked my eyelids open it didn't trigger my reflexes or bother me at all. You should be able to ask if you can put the eyedrops in yourself.

With Lasik, it’s a done deal, and there’s basically no going back.
You can opt to do one eye at a time. This way you'll definitely have one seeing eye either way.
posted by womb of things to be and tomb of things that were at 3:31 AM on September 27, 2023

Response by poster: Sorry for the delayed response—the last couple of days were super busy.

I'm going to another LASIK provider to get a second opinion, to be on the safe side. As for the interpreter situation, I will ask a reputable interpreting agency in the area to find out their average rates for this kind of interaction, and go from there. If I do ask a friend, I'll be upfront and then we can figure out how to proceed from there. Thanks for the helpful feedback.
posted by dubious_dude at 8:13 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]