So I had my consult today.
It was pretty cool (although I’ve done it before, about five years ago). It took about an hour – they gave me a basic eye exam, took pictures of my eyes, dilated my pupils, and measured the thickness of my cornea (this was weird; they put drops in my eyes to numb them, and then actually TOUCHED my eyeball with a measuring tool. Weird.)
I’m an excellent candidate for LASIK (I knew this). I have small pupils and a thick cornea.
Here’s the problem.
When I called TruVision last year during open enrollment (to figure out how much money to put into my FSA, etc), they told me that regular LASIK was $895/eye, but “custom” LASIK was $1,295/eye. I did some research on the “custom” LASIK, and figured that I was happy with the “regular” flavor. So I elected to put $1,800 in my FSA.
Well, today, I was told that this doctor (who is the only one in the Chicago area that does the TruVision plan, which is what I need for the big discount) “only” does custom LASIK. I have to talk to the admin assistant tomorrow in order to discuss appointments, etc, but I kind of feel like I don’t need the “custom” one. And I think that they actually *will* do the “regular” kind, but they don’t like to (long story short – with “regular” LASIK they correct you based only upon your prescription, with “custom” they map the inside of your eye and correct based upon your exact eye shape, etc).
I would hate to have the surgery be less successful because I wanted to cheap out on $800. But again…everyone I know who has had LASIK has had excellent results, and they all had the boring, “normal” LASIK. And I know that my eyes are pretty normal.
We’ll see what they say tomorrow.