In quest of 20/20

With the date approaching for when my Flex account expires I had to quickly figure out what to do with the cash that is sitting in it. So I have decided to go for LASIK. I have been wearing spectacles for at least 15 years, if not more. It is finally time to wish them adieu!

My wife had her LASIK surgery in 2005 while we were living in Missoula. At that time, we had to drive down to Spokane in Washington to get her surgery done. Hers was a "custom" Lasik (wave front) done on a VISX machine.

Denver on the other hand has many, many options. It is extremely hard to come by any online reviews, etc on all the facilities that offer LASIK in Denver. So I have decided to blog my experience.

I have been investigating the LASIK procedure since 2004 - at which time we were thinking of getting it done in India. Due to scheduling issues that wasn't possible and my wife got hers done in 2005. She had a higher power correction that I have and she was extremely happy with her results. To this day - she has had no problems with her eye surgery and has 20/20 vision.

For my surgery I decided to look around and I checked with TLC, 20-20 Institute and Icon Lasik. I narrowed my search down to TLC and Icon Lasik (Tiger Woods used TLC and he still is a champion - that is good and I had seen the Icon Lasik doctor in a local news piece and he seemed impressive). The main reason I stayed away from eye clinics - is that a place that specializes in LASIK surgeries alone and does 1000s of surgeries every year - should have a ton of more experience than a doctor that does many different eye surgeries. Also many eye surgeons don't own their own equipment and instead rent it for a certain period of the year. Just in case you want to know - Colorado Eye Surgeons and Levinson Eye clinic are two eye surgeons in Denver that perform Lasik.

For my LASIK surgery tomorrow - I am going to Icon Lasik. The main reason that I did not go with TLC was that I felt like they herded people through a manufacturing line. My initial measurements weren't done right and you end up speaking to many more people than just the doctor - including a sales person - who tries to make you sign up for the surgery on the spot - telling you things like prices are going up, etc. In addition - I felt as though they were always trying to push me towards the higher priced packages - such as the bladeless LASIK - for no good reason.

At Icon Lasik - I got to speak to the main doctor - Dr. Rick Anderson - and I was able to go into the office multiple times to speak to him about my concerns. Icon has multiple LASIK machines on which they can perform your surgery. This includes the NIDEK and the VISK 4 machines. Apart from the easy accessibility to the doctor, what sold me on Icon was the fact that the doctor did not recommend that I use the most expensive procedure that they have - but what he thought was most appropriate for my situation.

After having called and visited the Icon center multiple times - I feel confident that Dr. Anderson would do a good job on my eyes. He recommended that I use the NIDEK laser, which will cost me $699 per eye.