I had lasik in 1999. My eyes were about -9 for each with about -3 (?) astigmatism on top of it. Afterwards, for a while, I had 20/15 in one eye (better than "perfect") and 20/20 in the other.

Lasik has changed my life. It used to be, I couldn't even read the bedside clock without my glasses. It used to be, I couldn't find my glasses if I dropped them. It used to be, I was terrified that I'd go white water rafting or something and lose my contacts underwater ... and be blind. It used to be, I couldn't even find my friends at the beach.

Things to know about Lasik:

1) It doesn't stop your eyes from changing, if that's what they were going to do. My eyes continued to slowly change for a couple of years. I wear glasses for computers and basically everything indoors or from twilight to dark, but I see just fine for sports and whatnot. I play ice hockey, mountain bike, and do whatever without glasses. I could get away without glasses for a lot of indoor stuff, too, but I prefer to have them if it's not inconvenient.

2) Pupil size. If you have large pupils, as I do, you'll see better in bright light. Shade, twilight, etc starts making things fuzzy, and headlights will be starbursts, just like when you've been wearing your contacts too long.

3) Your eyes will be very sensitive to light after the surgery. Plan on wearing sunglasses anywhere there's sun for at least a few years.

4) The worse your eyes and the more frustrating you find the whole corrective lens experience, the better you'll appreciate the surgery. I know people who got it because they had -2 or something, and they weren't happy at all. The more drastic the change will be in your life, the more likely it is you won't regret it.

5) It's surgery. Someone will be cutting into your eye. If your experience is anything like mine, you'll have to sign roughly 20 sheets of paper detailing every morbid thing that could go wrong. If your eyesight isn't bad enough to still want to go through with it after reading all of this stuff, you shouldn't have the surgery.

6) It's surgery. Someone will be cutting into your eye. Make sure that someone has many thousands of similar operations under their belt, and that they've done many on people with similar prescriptions to yours.

7) The younger you are, the better you heal. It's just a sucky fact of life. I was 21 when I had my operation.

8) Whatever eye health problems you might have aren't eliminated by this surgery. I need to get my eyes dilated every year or two because my eyes are oblong enough that they're at risk to tear. That fact hasn't changed just because I had surgery.

I was very lucky; my eyes aren't itchy or dry, and doctors tell me that they can't even see the scarring from the surgery. Other people have different tales to tell.