eye surgery & skydiving

[c1sc0 0]

Hi, I've heard there are issues with having eye surgery (LASIK eyesight correction) and diving. (Pressure differences.) & e.g. windflow on your cornea (driving bike, etc ...). Anyone with LASIK surgery skydiving?

Cheers - Francis

[dragon2 2]

Tried a search? this topic has been covered a few times before.

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[slotperfect 7]

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=search_results&search_forum=all&search_string=lasik&search_type=AND&search_fields=sb&search_time=&search_user_username=&sb=score&mh=50

Arrive Safely

John

[bob.dino 1]

Yes. No problems.

[parajesus 0]

Hi mate! a friend of mine is jumping with eye surgery. (same as you had). The surgery has been done 2 years before he started jump, and I could see him since the very beginning of his skydiving carrier.
Definitely no issue.
However it was a difficult story to fight through the medical jump license. (I'm not sure if it is neccesary to have medical examination before you get your license to jump in your country. In my country -Hungary- we need the same medical licence as non-commercial pilots.)

Windflow problem: wear proper quality jumpglasses.
Not the fancy ones but the good ones :)

[Yossarian 0]

i had it done a year ago and am still jumping fine, surgeon said to give it around 3 months to heal before jumping again and all would be well. ive never had any problems

[Broke 0]

My doc said two weeks

Divot your source for all things Hillbilly.
Anvil Brother 84
SCR 14192

[dragon2 2]

Mine said 2-3 months and since he was a retired aerobatics flyer I believed him

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[Yossarian 0]

he said the reason it was 3months was in case my goggles came off, it should have been alright after a few weeks but it was the risk of exposure to the high airflow. pressure at altitude etc is a non-issue

[Faicon9493 141]

I had lasik surgery a few years ago and went to work the very next day with corrected vision. I held off from skydiving for about 2 weeks just to be on the safe side and I have had no problems.

[airathanas 0]

When I had LASIK, I wasn't jumping, so I can't tell you how long I held off until I went jumping again. However, I have no problems now that I've healed and I jump regularly. The only thing is that my night vision sucks but I've been fine on all four of my night jumps.

http://3ringnecklace.com/

[BlindBrick 0]

I jump with two corneal transplants, no issues.

-Blind

"If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

[peregrinerose 0]

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I had lasik surgery a few years ago and went to work the very next day with corrected vision. I held off from skydiving for about 2 weeks just to be on the safe side and I have had no problems.

There's nothing safe about jumping 2 weeks after LASIK... your corneas haven't even begun to seal down that flap well at 2 weeks P/O. Do a search for my posts on LASIK and you'll see.

I wouldn't recommend jumping for at MINIMUM 2 months after LASIK, preferrably longer. It's why I won't do LASIK... I'm not willing to spend that much time out of the sky. If I decide to get refractive surgery, I'll get PRK.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

[birdshit 0]

you may want to consider PRK instead of standard lasik. With PRK, they dont use the microkeretome to shave a flap off of your cornea. With PRK they zap the eyes directly with a laser. I had it done about 2 weeks ago. Be aware that the recovery time is much longer and you will be useless (literally blind) for upwards of a week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photorefractive_keratectomy

The doc told me no skydiving for two weeks, which ends today at 9:00AM.

With lasik, the flap can have issues, get infected, or become detached up to 10 years later.

I had PRK about 14 days ago, and my vision up close (on laptop) is better than 20/20 (can see individual pixels in the screen), and my vision at distances is something like 20/60 maybe.

My eyes are still healing, and it will take more time for it to be finished stabilizing, but looking back on it I don't regret a thing. Cost me $3200, but they did a line of credit for me and I only had to pay $100 out of pocket and miss a week of work.

The surgery is about 20 seconds per eye and it doesn't hurt at all. Its a little creepy having everyone touching the surface of your eyeball so many times. the doc uses some dremel-ish type tool to grind the corneal epithelium (the fast growing thin outer layer) off of your eye first, but then the lasers zap-zap-zap and you are done. From the time I laid down on the table till the time I got back up was about 90 seconds.

After a few hours they burned and itched because the doctor removed the corneal epithelium (which is the the material that the flap that they cut open and replace with standard lasek is made out of), but they give you magic cocaine drops to put in your eyes for the pain. Try to score an extra and keet it safe or you will be in a world of hurt. The outer layer of the eye regenerates in about 5 days, and your eyes stop hurting after about 4 days when the surface of your eye completely regenerates the corneal epithelium.

I splurged and picked up a pair of Oakley sunglasses ($200), and I wear em practically everywhere. It is WONDERFUL to not have glasses any more.

You can make text bigger in your browser by hitting CTRL+

[chuck411 0]

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You can make text bigger in your browser by hitting CTRL+

Did anyone else just hit CTRL+ or was it just me?

I had no idea that worked lol

[c1sc0 0]

Thanks all for posting. I've also had a look at the other threads. Especially the suggestions for getting a different kind of surgery were useful.

On the one hand I'd like to do the surgery because I'd like to get my pilot's license but on the other hand I want to skydive ...

[jtval 0]

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Tried a search? this topic has been covered a few times before.

I've seen you post this quite a few times. It inspired me to change my signature line. What do you think?

My photos

My Videos

[ltdiver 3]

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Quote

You can make text bigger in your browser by hitting CTRL+

Did anyone else just hit CTRL+ or was it just me?

I had no idea that worked lol

And once again dz.com teaches us something! I didn't know this little technique either. Just tried it. Works on a Mac as well.

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon

[dragon2 2]

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Quote

Tried a search? this topic has been covered a few times before.

I've seen you post this quite a few times. It inspired me to change my signature line. What do you think?

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[jtval 0]

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That's how I felt,too.

My photos

My Videos

[virgin-burner 1]

Quote

Quote

Quote

You can make text bigger in your browser by hitting CTRL+

Did anyone else just hit CTRL+ or was it just me?

I had no idea that worked lol

And once again dz.com teaches us something! I didn't know this little technique either. Just tried it. Works on a Mac as well.

ltdiver

obviously doesnt work on swiss keyboards..

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[brokenwing 1]

on a side note/question

anyone ever hear about someone jumping following a ruptured brain aneurysm (coiling procedure performed)?