I think the level of research you should be doing before you get eye surgery done is so high that I'd only get a groupon if it happened to be for one of the places I was considering. That said, New England Eye Center is the official eye center of the Celtics! Tony Allen testimonial! Obviously going to go with them.

My plan is to get a consultation in the fall so that if I'm eligible I can dump the cost of it into my Flexible Spending Account for 2012 and get it done with pre-tax money. Better than a groupon.

Given that I spend a couple hundred a year on glasses and contacts and eye insurance, it's a financial no-brainer.

Once I learned I was a candidate I maxed out my flexpay the next day to avoid chickening out or otherwise making excuses (in addition to the lowering the 'real' cost benefit).

Yeah, I was just afraid that I'd max out my FSA, they'd tell me I'm not eligible for Lasik and then I'd have $3k to spend on sizzurp.

This isn't shocking to me at all, because the Groupon is still on sale. After the sale ends, there will be a large number of people with Groupons scheduling the surgery. Since they're already taking a lot of people at discounted rates, they're going to be less interested in the short term in negotiating down with individuals.

Once they work the Groupons out of the pipeline I'm sure you'd have better luck (but at that point, who cares, just pick the place that makes most sense to you).

they have sold 13 i believe. the deal is 'on'. and groupon is taking a huge cut. why wouldn't they negotiate?


* btw this is something i've been meaning to bring up for a while. i think every uk groupon deal is automatically 'on'. i don't think i've ever seen one that required a certain number of people, maybe when i first started using the site i saw one or two. does the USA site still have those minimum requirements?

Yeti,

Very likely that going around Groupon to get a discounted rate during the term of the Groupon deal would be a violation of their contract with Groupon. Kind of like how you can't have an agent show you a house for sale/rent and then go back the next day and buy it on your own to avoid giving the agent a cut.

Had it done six years ago when I was 23. I was giving the doctor golf lessons so he gave me a sweet deal on it. Went from a -6.5 in both eyes to being slightly better then 20/20. Haven't had my eyes checked since my follow-up, but I would guess I am still near perfect.

Best money I ever spent.

My sister had it done in the last year. Went fantastic for her, some pain during surgery IIRC, but basically nothing in terms of after effects after the first couple of days and she says it's one of the best things that ever happened to her.

+1 to best thing i ever spent my money on
and
+1 to don't use a doctor who uses groupon

I actually did PRK which is the older version of LASIK, but since it involves burning away the entire front of the eye (instead of creating a flap), once it heals you dont ever have to worry about the flap detaching (since with LASIK the flap never fully heals). Its a minor issue, but for some jobs/strenuous activities, they require/recommend PRK instead of LASIK.

The main negative to PRK is that the recovery time to perfect vision about 3-4 weeks longer, and for the first week you should not even drive a car. LASIK recover is much quicker and you can usually start doing normal things a day or two afterwards.

Got mine 5 years ago and have been happy ever since ... only complaint is my eyes get super dry when im sleeping probably once every 3-4 months.

I had the surgery two weeks ago, yesterday. Greatest thing I have done in my life. I went from being legally blind without my glasses to having 20/20 vision. Highly recommend.

has the price gone down in the past 5 years? when i got a consultation, it was $4500 for both eyes, because of my poor eye sight. apparently if your eyesight is worse, they use more laser juice or something.

Sounds about right. My surgery cost 4600. I did go to the top specialist in chicago and my eyes were horrible. So that prob factors into the high price.

My wife was in a similar situation, and never wore her glasses except to watch TV or a movie. She commented when she occasionally wore her glasses in the car "it's weird to see leaves on trees. It's usually just a green blob"

There was a livingsocial deal for $2100 for both eyes w/ waveform and I snap purchased it. It was basically their top of the line package with lifetime adjustments and all the best equipment. She got punctal plugs as well, which was extra $100 per eye.

She had the surgery in mid Jan and hasn't needed to use eye drops since a few weeks in due to the plugs. Her vision is better than 20/20 and she said it's the best money she (I) has ever spent. Her eyes were sensitive for about a week or so and occasionally filled with tears while she was driving, which she said was a bit scary. This was mostly due to light sensitivity. She doesn't have any ghosting or halos

I'm not as scared of her driving with our 11mo twins or two dogs in the car anymore, and people think she is nicer because she doesn't squint at them from across the room to see who they are. Previously it looked like she glared at everyone...

hmm, -5 on both eyes with minor astigmatisms. you that bad?

i'm totally getting this if i ever have money again.

Yup, that's on par with what I had. Completely blind without glasses and couldnt do any normal functions. Luckily, I was a good candidate for the surgery. My mom has the same eye sight and she couldnt qualify for it.

I was -7.75R and -7.25L, no astigmatism. But my vision is perfect now

noah,

yeah i agree that something like that is probably in place, but that wasn't what was stopping him. he just didn't seem to think he could do a better price for me. it was a weird conversation, shrug. who knows.



all,

i probably won't be buying this today. like oddjob says, i presumably can get a price like this in the future by negotiating, so there's no great hurry.

one thing that concerns me is this '2 years without prescription changing' thing. i am 25 so may well be old enough that my eyes have stopped changing at all, but i haven't had my eyes tested in about 8-9 years, so who knows. i need to ask more questions etc.

thanks for the replies though. it sounds as great as ever and i look forward to getting it.

btw i still don't understand 'xxx can't be any good cos it's on groupon'.



freakin,

nice story. btw i can actually see fine, but it's just my right eye doing all the work.

if you permeable contacts your vision most likely hasnt change much, if at all. As long as its stable (you should know if its somewhat stable) it should be fine. The main issue is that if you wear contacts you will have to switch to wearing glasses for a few weeks prior to the surgery.

i have not worn glasses, contacts, or had an eye test for about 8-9 years.

i detailed my vision in the OP. it has always been like that, but maybe gotten slightly worse in recent years.

In that case your vision may not be stable enough to get LASIK right away. Go to an eye doctor ... usually the first visit/consultation is free anyways.

Had this done a little over 2 years ago ($999 CAD for both eyes - original eyesight wasn't too bad).

Went in for a 90 minute consultation, and then we scheduled the surgery for one month later.

Surgery went very smoothly, you feel absolutely nothing, whole process took about 15 minutes or so?

My eyes were very dry for the first little while, but after around 6 months, I stopped being dependent on eyedrops (Refresh Tears). Thought I had butchered my eyes by playing video games a few days after the procedure, but it turns out that they're just very dry for the first bit if you look at a computer screen for prolonged periods of time.

Definitely love having perfect vision, would never want to go back to glasses or contacts.

I was 7.XX and 7.XX with heavy, heavy astigmatism btw.

I'm in the same boat as you Yeti. From the age of 14 to about 20, my eyes were getting worse and worse. Had my first ever eye test a few years back at 22, wasn't that horrible, but the doctor told me he pretty much legally couldn't let me leave and drive home without glasses. Oh well, I didn't get any and have never had glasses or contacts. I can still see decently, things are just a little blurry and I have to squint. Been waiting to pull the trigger on laser, I guess I'm just waiting for a time where I have a free week to heal up and do nothing, plus I'm pretty lazy.

Have to say I wouldn't be looking for any coupons or deals either. I'm just going to take whoever has the best reviews/reputation, maybe try to negotiate a bit and if there's no give, bite the bullet and pay 5k or whatever it will be.

Let me know if you get it done and how your experience is.

I have 20/20 in my left, and 20/80-100ish in my right.. i wore glasses/a contact growing up but have just abandoned it the past 10+ years without really noticing. i have bad peripheral vision on my right side but i can see infront of me just fine. the eye dr said that my brain would never use my right eye to teh same degree it uses my left as it's used to just ignoring the blurred vision from that eye.

anyone need to get just one eye done, and was it still best money you've spent?

yak this doesn't sound good for my situation