Thought I'd give you all an update ...

I went to the Stanford laser eye clinic for an initial evaluation to find out if I was a good candidate for LASIK.

My corneas were thick enough, but the topography of my corneas is too irregular (basically, I have bumpy corneas) - the Dr. told me that recent studies have shown that in some instances people who have undergone LASIK with corneas as bumpy as mine have seen some long-term complications. So, he had some serious reservations about my going ahead with the procedure (basically, he turned me down), although since my eyes met all the other criteria he said if I was really dead-set on having it done I would most likely be able to find another clinic that would accept me. Since I was only going to go ahead with it if there was no doubt that I was a good candidate, I left it at that - this is the reason why I went to the Stanford clinic in the first place, I knew the Dr. there is very selective.

I did ask him if there were any other procedures appropriate for my eyes, and he told me about a procedure involving actual implantation of an artificial lens behind the cornea - basicaly a contact lens implant (aka phakic intraocular lens or phakic IOL). This is very similar to the procedure used for many years for cataract patients, except in treating myopia the original lens is left in place. The Dr. participated in the clinical trials for the myopia surgery, and he was very enthusiastic about it. But, the clinical trials for my type of vision have concluded so he can't perform this type of surgery until it receives final FDA approval, which in theory should be around the end of this year (or not - the FDA approval process can be veeeery sloooow), but if and when it's approved I'll go back to Stanford & find out more about it.

In the meantime, I remain

- Jo.