Many People Turning To Bartering For Health Services

With the downturn in the economy, many people are wondering how they can afford LASIK and the many other procedures they want, without having to front the full weight of the bill. Some people are using bartering as a way to get the health services they want without paying for everything.

While not all LASIK eye surgeons or ophthalmologists take part in bartering for vision procedures, most of them do provide their patients with a few different financing options to help them pay for the procedure.

Whether you're receiving help from your insurance company, using a credit card, or using an independent financing company to pay for your LASIK, there are options available to you so that you can fit your procedure into your budget.

In general, financing options are similar to a loan made to you so that you can pay for your LASIK, PRK, or other refractive procedure. After receiving the procedure you want, you can pay the loan back over a period of time that you can usually customize. Whether making smaller payments over the course of 24 months, or larger payments over 6 or 12 months, you can probably get the procedure you want on even smallest budget.

If you have been considering LASIK or any other refractive procedure, but are concerned about the cost, please contact an experienced LASIK eye surgeon in your area to learn more about the financing options available to you.

LASIK Doctor Charged With Fraud

An Indiana ophthalmologist has been indicted by a grand jury on counts of healthcare fraud, criminal conspiracy, and wire fraud charges. The doctor and his wife, who worked in the same ophthalmology office, have been accused of falsely diagnosing cataracts and other refractive vision disorders in order to perform unnecessary surgeries.

These types of stories are nightmares for anyone considering LASIK or other refractive procedures, and they are the reason it is very important you never cut corners when choosing a LASIK eye surgeon.

When looking for a LASIK eye surgeon, it's important that you find a surgeon that you can trust. Not only did the LASIK eye surgeons in this case lie to patients in order to perform costly procedures, they went back and altered medical records to make it look like the patients actually needed the vision correction.

Some of the unneeded surgeries performed by the eye surgeons were done on children. Several of these procedures even resulted in the patients getting injured or harmed.

To make sure that you get the vision care that you need from a doctor you can trust, you should make an initial consultation with at least a few different LASIK eye surgeons. During your initial consultation, ask your potential ophthalmologist about his credentials and for patient referrals.

You can use the links at the bottom of this page to find a qualified LASIK surgeon in your area.

The Overall Cost of Your LASIK Procedure

There are still thousands of people out there who are considering LASIK, but aren't sure if they can afford the procedure or if the procedure is really worth the money. Think about this: in a lifetime, the cost of contacts, their solutions, and changing prescriptions will cost the average contact-wearer more than $20,000.

If you've ever considered LASIK or any other type of refractive procedure, the best thing you can do is schedule an initial consultation with an experienced ophthalmologist in your area. During your initial consultation, you can talk to them about your fears and your goals with LASIK.

Not only will your LASIK eye surgeon listen to your concerns, he will be able to make suggestions to help you come to the best decision possible. If you're worried about paying for your procedure, your eye surgeon will be able to show you the different LASIK financing options available to you.

If you're concerned about LASIK being able to correct your vision, your eye surgeon will provide you with other vision correction options. Whether it's LASEK, intraocular lenses, or PRK, there is a refractive option available to correct the way you see.

You can use the links at the bottom of this page to find a qualified LASIK surgeon in your area.

Getting LASIK on a Small Budget

There are thousands of people all across the United States who are choosing not to have LASIK performed because they feel that the procedure is too expensive and they can't afford it. The fact is you can probably have the LASIK eye surgery you've always wanted and fit the cost comfortably into your budget.

No matter what budget you have, the best thing you can do if you are considering LASIK surgery is to schedule an initial consultation with a LASIK doctor. During your initial consultation, your LASIK doctor will review your vision goals and determine if LASIK is right for you.

After working with you, your LASIK doctor can find a LASIK financing option that best fits your needs. Many LASIK doctors offer a variety of financing options so that you can make small, monthly payments for your LASIK procedure over the course of three, six, 12, or even 24 months.

For many people, financing their LASIK procedure allows them to achieve the vision they want without breaking the bank. Not only can you receive financing for LASIK procedures, you can also finance many other refractive procedures such as PRK, LASEK, or Epi-LASIK.

You can use the links at the bottom of this page to find a qualified LASIK surgeon near you.

Central Serous Retinopathy: What is CSR?

One of our writers has had to deal with an eye condition known as Central Serous Retinopathy. Since we work with eye surgeons I asked her to write about it and agreed to post it on this blog. She has written a series of nine blogs on her experience with Central Serous Retinopathay.

This is the last blog post in the series. I hope you have found it informative.

Central serous retinopathy is a blister on the retina cause by a fluid leak. A layer of cells called the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) normally acts as a barrier, preventing this fluid from flowing freely. When the RPE breaks down and springs a leak, you get CSR.

Sometimes people get these blisters and don't even notice them because they are not in the center of their vision. When the blister is in the center of your retina (called the macula) it distorts your vision and affects your color vision.

Typically, the leak will stop on its own in a month or two. Once the leak stops, the blister has to heal and it can take six months or more for vision to return to normal.

Recurrence is common. Having the leak for a prolonged period of time or multiple times can cause permanent vision loss. Laser surgery can stop the leak, but will leave a small scar that also causes permanent vision loss. Abnormal blood vessel growth, called choroidal neovascularization, can also occur with CSR and causes vision loss.

CSR is also called idiopathic central serous retinopathy. Idiopathic means the cause is unknown.

Stress seems to be the main cause of CSR. When we experience stress catecholomines are released into the bloodstream. It is believed that the catecholomines disrupt the metabolism of the RPE, leading to the leak.

Steroid use has also been associated with CSR and will make it worse. Many people do not realize that they are using products that contain some kind of steroid. They are often found in asthma inhalers, cortisone creams, and other medications.

Central Serous Retinopathy: Going "Cold Turkey" Was a Bad Idea

One of our writers has had to deal with an eye condition known as Central Serous Retinopathy. Since we work with eye surgeons I asked her to write about it and agreed to post it on this blog. She has written a series of nine blogs on her experience with Central Serous Retinopathay.

This is blog post 8 of 9:

I have a tendency to really throw myself into solutions, especially health solutions. I felt like it was of the utmost importance to do everything that I could for myself to heal my eye and prevent the problem from coming back.

In my initial research I read personal accounts that stated very strongly that you must go completely off of caffeine. Telling me I have to give up coffee to save my eyesight is like telling me I have to gnaw off my own foot to save my life. A horrifying and ugly prospect, but I do have my priorities. Then again, I can write with only one good eye, but I'm not so confident about writing without coffee.

It isn't just about the one eye, though. Once you develop CSR, even if you heal up completely, it can come back and it can come back in the other eye. Healing the current problem is just one small piece of saving your vision. Preventing recurrence is crucial and it is a lifetime commitment. My other incentive was healing up as much as possible before visiting the retinal specialist so that hopefully they would not recommend laser surgery. This kind of laser surgery can save your vision, but it will cause some permanent damage in the process.

I have to admit that there was another element involved. I felt like I had to prove to myself that I had the willpower to do whatever was necessary to get well. I had to prove it to myself and everyone who was in my corner on this. It was the least I could do.

Dedication is an admirable quality, but please, remember to apply it was at least a small dose of common sense.

My mistake was going cold turkey on the caffeine. I know, knew, have always known that, like most things, you should step down caffeine intake, not just drop it entirely. Dropping caffeine can cause severe headaches. And it's not just the caffeine. Coffee is a complex substance. Unlike sodas, it has as many positive effects as negative ones, possibly effects that counteract the caffeine problems. When you drop coffee, you lose the good along with the bad.

Only you can decide if quitting coffee is right for you, but if you do, don't do what I did. After having recently tripled my coffee intake I gave it up overnight, and I paid for it. My second day without coffee was also a very bright and sunny day and it was the day after my trip down the mountain for more tests. I wound up with a terrible headache, centered around my affected eye, and the spot was the worst it had ever been. The lack of caffeine may have been exacerbated by the previous day's altitude changes (I went down 2,000 feet in elevation and back up in the same day), and the stress, of course.

Central Serous Retinopathy: Things Start Looking Up

One of our writers has had to deal with an eye condition known as Central Serous Retinopathy. Since we work with eye surgeons I asked her to write about it and agreed to post it on this blog. She has written a series of nine blogs on her experience with Central Serous Retinopathay.

This is blog post 7 of 9:

We were able to arrange a ride to the appointment with W.'s dad, no problem. When I got to the office, my eye doctor gave me a smaller dose of the dilation drops so that hopefully they wouldn't hit me so hard. I was fine. My vision was blurry after the appointment, but I felt fine and I could walk around. I was able to go eat right after the appointment and could even read some of the menu.

The tests were pretty cool. I had an optical coherence tomography (OCT) scan. It showed a cross section of my retina so we could see the blister and verify that there was fluid. I love actually getting to see stuff like that.

Based on the scans, my eye doctor feels like it is CSR and not something worse, but he still wants me to see a retinal specialist for more tests. These tests will show exactly where the leaks are and make sure that it is not something more serious like wet macular degeneration and that there is no abnormal blood vessel growth.

At this point I need some time to absorb everything, think about it, and read up on it more. I feel like I probably should go to the specialist, but the test they will do uses fluorescein dye. I’m not familiar with the dye, but I know that the contrast agent sometimes used in MRI's can have horrible side effects. Now I have to do some research and find out if the test is more dangerous than the condition.

On a more positive note, everyone is being very supportive and helpful. That is really helping minimize my stress over the situation. They have faith in me to be able to do the research and make an informed decision, and they are willing to help me follow through to do whatever I feel is the best way to handle to situation. That really takes a load off me and helps me think about this with a clear head.

Central Serous Retinopathy: Dilation and Freaking Out

One of our writers has had to deal with an eye condition known as Central Serous Retinopathy. Since we work with eye surgeons I asked her to write about it and agreed to post it on this blog. She has written a series of nine blogs on her experience with Central Serous Retinopathay.

This is blog post 6 of 9:

The night before my appointment I was talking to my mom and she thought I should get W. to drive me. She was worried that they might dilate my eyes and I wouldn't be able to drive myself home. I have had my eyes dilated twice before and it didn't bother me at all. I live about a half mile from the clinic. I told her I didn't want him to have to just sit there waiting and being exposed to a bunch of sick people (in the middle of the Swine Flu scare, no less). If it was that bad I would walk or call him to pick me up, and I could pretty much drive home from there with my eyes closed anyway.

Well, it didn't go quite like I expected. After the dilation I could not see, I was nauseous and dizzy. I could barely walk to my car. So, I called W. for a ride and then I waited, and waited. It should only have taken five or ten minutes for him to do whatever he needed to do to get out of the house and get down there. The drive itself takes maybe a minute. Eventually the receptionist came out and told me I had a phone call. The car wouldn't start. Today of all days! So, he walked over and drove me home in mine.

Taking my vehicle to the appointment the next day was not going to be an option, so we were going to have to find another way to get there. W. called and left a message for his dad and we waited to hear back from him.

My eye doctor did a really good job of putting me at ease during my visit, but the more I thought about everything as the evening wore on I started getting scared and worried about what it all meant. He was so gentle and reassuring about it all, but so insistent that I have more tests immediately. The underlying message was starting to terrify me. I had tried to have an intelligent conversation about it all, but I couldn't see, so I couldn't write anything down. I normally take a lot of notes and rely on them heavily. Now I was going on memory and trying not to think about it too much all at the same time, at least until I could look it up.

When I was feeling better and able to see I did look it up and what I kept finding was that the number one most important thing is to avoid stress.

OK. So, I am waiting to find out how I am going to get to my emergency appointment 50 miles away and down the mountain, to have tests to find out if I may be losing the sight in one eye and possibly need laser surgery to stop the vision loss. Oh, and did I mention that everything I read also said that the surgery will cause some permanent damage to your vision, could even make it worse, and should only be used as a last resort, and that my situation fit the description of the unusual and extreme that pretty much describes the worst case scenario making laser surgery the good option? Plus, I’m supposed to give up coffee. And I'm facing another day of dilation sickness, including an hour and half of riding in a car on curvy mountain roads while I’m feeling nauseous.

This was a great recipe for "avoiding" stress.

Central Serous Retinopathy: Visiting the Eye Doctor

One of our writers has had to deal with an eye condition known as Central Serous Retinopathy. Since we work with eye surgeons I asked her to write about it and agreed to post it on this blog. She has written a series of nine blogs on her experience with Central Serous Retinopathay.

This is blog post 5 of 9:

I live in a very small mountain town. When all of this started we didn't have an eye doctor in town. More recently I heard that the clinic was trying to get one to come up once a week or something. My really bad episode, the one that convinced me I had to get it checked out, happened on a Sunday night. Monday, I called the clinic to find out if the rumors were true. As luck would have it, they were true and he was going to be in town that Friday. He only comes up once a month and is not coming to town next month, so it was now or wait until July. I booked the appointment.

The eye doctor was wonderful. He took plenty of time to discuss what was going on. When he asked questions, he actually listened to my answers and when I asked questions he answered them thoroughly and patiently even when I needed more explanation. Wow!

He looked at my eyes through different lenses and had me move my eyes around to every possible position until they were sore. He said he could see a blister on my retina and that he felt pretty sure it was Central Serous Retinopathy (CSR), but I needed to come to his regular office for more tests tomorrow, a Saturday. I wasn't sure if I could make it on such short notice, but he insisted. No matter how I worded the question about coming in the next week if there was really no way for me to get there that soon, he would not back down. He was very, very nice about it, but very insistent. He called his office and set the appointment right then and there.

He told me that I needed the tests right away because I might need to go to a specialist and there was a chance I would need laser surgery. If I did need to see the specialist he wanted to get me in as quickly as possible.

We talked about CSR, what it is, what causes it, what you can do about it. He had had it himself, but it wasn't in the center of his vision and it went away on its own. Normally it does go away on its own in a month or two after it first appears. Mine had been going on for nearly nine months. That was what had him so worried. The longer it stays, the more likely it is to do permanent damage to your vision. Plus, he wanted to rule out any other possibilities.

He told me they think it is caused by stress. It happens mostly to young, healthy men with type A personalities. I'm not male and I wouldn’t consider myself a type A personality, but the stress part sure fit.

Humorous moment: he asked me if I ever stare at the sun for "recreational purposes." I don't even want to know what that means.

Central Serous Retinopathy: Seemed to be Going Away and Then…

One of our writers has had to deal with an eye condition known as Central Serous Retinopathy. Since we work with eye surgeons I asked her to write about it and agreed to post it on this blog. She has written a series of nine blogs on her experience with Central Serous Retinopathay .

This is blog post 4 of 9:

After a couple of months I noticed that on the days when I was not so stressed it seemed to fade and shrink until I had to check to see if it was still there. When the stress hit me really hard, it would come back with a vengeance. That seemed significant, and I made a mental note, but still, no time to worry about it too much.

As time passed, the entire situation improved. Less stress, better health, and my eye wasn't bothering me anymore. It's hard to say if it ever went away entirely or if it was just the combination of a vast improvement and me getting used to it. Every once in a while I would notice it, again, when I was stressed or had been stressed the day before.

Then, on the night of May 10th, I was under a lot of stress and my blood pressure was noticeably up. Stress and high blood pressure don't go noticeably hand in hand for me. The blood pressure was probably due to the massive amounts of coffee I had been drinking that night and over the past week.

The spot in my eye was back and really making a dent in my ability to look at the computer screen, which it had never done before. That's when I decided I was going to have to get checked out.

Central Serous Retinopathy: My Symptoms

One of our writers has had to deal with an eye condition known as Central Serous Retinopathy. Since we work with eye surgeons I asked her to write about it and agreed to post it on this blog. She has written a series of nine blogs on her experience with Central Serous Retinopathay.

This is blog post 3 of 9:

What I see is like a round shadow almost in the very center of my vision and only in my right eye (it is not precisely in the center because when I try to look directly at the spot my vision moves down and slightly to the right). When I look at something light, the spot is dark. When I look at something dark the spot is light.

The spot is not completely opaque. I can kind of see through it. It is round and has a lighter area in the upper left-hand part of the circle. It varies in size, and seems to vary in opaqueness.

I have good days and bad days. Sometimes even good and bad hours. On a good day the spot gets smaller, which means it gets out of the way and I can read around it with no problem. It also seems to fade some, so it's just not as noticeable and distracting.

Bad days

Days when I am really stressed or was really stressed the night before are worse. If my blood pressure goes up, that makes it really bad. Bright, sunny days are bad, but I never see well when it is very bright.

On a bad day it is large and covers the center of my vision to the point that obscures my ability to make out letters with that eye. If I really concentrate I can eventually figure them out. Lines of text within the circle are wavy. Letters look smaller through that eye.

Normally my left eye is dominant. I know this because I am cross-dominant. I shoot with my right hand, but aim with my left eye. It's just instinctive and the most natural thing in the world to me. Many people have tried to correct me on it, but it has never interfered with my aim.

Years ago I was told I have poor convergence, which means my eyes don't work together very well. My depth perception has never been good. I tend to "look through" one eye at a time, and I can consciously switch when I need to.

When the spot is bad I can’t seem to block that image out, even though it is in my non-dominant eye. It makes it hard to see in general, like everything is dim, but bright light makes it worse, it makes everything seem even dimmer. My depth perception gets even worse than normal and sometimes I feel a little dizzy and disoriented. It makes it hard to think and makes me feel tired.

Central Serous Retinopathy: Trying to Find Some Clues

One of our writers has had to deal with an eye condition known as Central Serous Retinopathy. Since we work with eye surgeons I asked her to write about it and agreed to post it on this blog. She has written a series of nine blogs on her experience with Central Serous Retinopathay.

This is blog post 2 of 9:

When it didn't seem to be going away on it's own I decided to try looking it up online. I am familiar with common symptoms of eye conditions. I have been writing about them for a few years now. This problem didn't really fit anything I knew.

It bears the closest resemblance to macular degeneration, but in all the examples I have seen of what the spot looks like in macular degeneration it has fuzzy edges. (Check out this online macular degeneration interactive vision test.) Mine doesn't. The edges are crisp. I also wasn't noticing any waviness of lines, which is a hallmark of macular degeneration.

The only good word I could come up with to describe it was "afterimage". That is exactly what it looks like and I started out thinking that is what it was and thinking I knew what caused it, so the impression and the word stuck.

That is where I started with my research and I found nothing useful, except a few posts made me feel pretty sure a laser pointer could not have caused it. Ocular migraines kept coming up when I searched, but the information just didn’t match my problem. I couldn’t believe that there was no information on this out there. It was very frustrating.

I later discovered that when I look up central serous retinopathy symptoms, I never would have recognized it by reading about it on most of the websites. Reading personal accounts of living with the condition paints a very different picture, much more like my experience.

Here are some additional resources on macular degeneration -

Article about Age Related Macular Degeneration

Article about Detection and Prevention of Macular Degeneration

My Experience with Central Serous Retinopathy

One of our writers has had to deal with an eye condition known as Central Serous Retinopathy. Since we work with eye surgeons I asked her to write about it and agreed to post it on this blog. She has written a series of nine blogs on her experience with Central Serous Retinopathay and I will post them for her in order.

This is blog post 1 of 9:

On August 31, 2008, I noticed that I was having a problem. It was hard to pin down at first, almost like dizziness, but not. As the day went on I figured out that it was a shadow in my vision, but only in one eye and that was why it was throwing me off so much.

It seemed to be an afterimage, like you see when after someone takes your picture with a flash. I could see it with my eye open or closed. I had accidentally looked into a laser pointer the night before, just briefly, but I figured it was caused by that and would go away soon enough.

I remember the date because it was the day after my 35^th birthday. Several unexpected and important things happened that day. The thing with my eye seemed like the least of them at the time, so I didn't give it much attention for quite some time. It was a constant bother and made driving a little uncomfortable, but I had bigger things to worry about.

I was having some other health problems and was under a tremendous amount of stress. It seemed like my whole world was collapsing around me with the snowball effect of everything that was going on. The stress was making my health worse, and my health was making it harder to handle to stuff that was causing the stress, making me even more stressed, making my health even worse.

The "eye thing" was an annoyance, but not high on my list of priorities. I kept hoping it would just go away.

Will LASIK Improve Your Game?

If you follow professional sports, then you'll notice more and more athletes choosing to correct their vision with LASIK or other laser vision correction options. Whether it's Brian McCann for the Braves or Danny Briere for the Flyers, permanently correcting sight is something many athletes are turning to.

In the past, athletes at all levels were forced to deal with uncomfortable sport glasses, goggles, or contact lenses during games and matches. Imagine trying to catch a football, hit a baseball, or stop a goal while worrying about your contact falling off or glasses slipping. Today, professional athletes are finding that LASIK, PRK, or LASEK are the best options for them.

Many sports critics think that if performed correctly, LASIK can improve a player's game because they can concentrate more completely on what they're doing. Unfortunately, immediately following LASIK, contact sports need to be avoided for at least one month.

When LASIK is performed, a small flap is created in the corneal tissue so that the remaining tissue can be reshaped and the flap can be folded over the area, acting like a natural bandage. For the first month after LASIK, this corneal flap needs to heal; trauma to the eye could disrupt the healing process.

You can use the links at the bottom of this page to find a qualified LASIK surgeon in your area.