Columbia LASIK & PRK Laser Eye Surgery - LasikPlus

Reviews 3

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Molly Shea

If you are even considering getting LASIK you NEED to get it done immediately and NEED it done by Dr. Goel’s Columbia LasikPlus team! Seriously, make your appointment today! The whole team at Columbia LasikPlus is absolutely phenomenal and I wished I had gotten it done years ago! On a whim I scheduled a consultation– less than 5 minutes into my consultation I knew I had to get it done by Dr. Goel and his team. From the moment I walked in the door they showed how professional, knowledgeable, caring, and excited they were. They truly care about each and every patient and are excited for them and the new ‘life’ they will get after the procedure. I was able to get an appointment for the next week to have it done. I spent the week reading the google reviews, yelp reviews, and tons of other reviews. All you have to do is scroll through the reviews and see that every single person has the same story – how absolutely awesome Dr. Goel and his team are and how great of an experience it was for them. For me, I do lots of traveling for work, including international travel. That meant packing tons of contacts and contact solution, hoping that the contacts were going to be delivered before the next trip, remembering glasses, dealing with contacts/ glasses on 30+ hours of flights, being in new and different places without being able to see, jet lag eyes that made wearing contacts unbearable, trips getting extended and running out of contacts -- I decided I had had enough and wanted my life back! The Procedure: The procedure itself was a breeze and honestly I wasn’t even worried about it. (This is even coming from someone who freaks out over a flu shot.) The whole team at Columbia LasikPlus makes you feel so comfortable and is so excited for you that they lessen any fears you have. The day of the procedure you go through the equivalent of a quick eye doctor appointment where they are just double checking your eye measurements again to make sure everything is the same as what it was during your consultation. After that you are taken into a room where they explain the post-procedure care instructions and you get some eye drops to ‘numb’ your eyes. At that point you meet Dr. Goel and he answers any final questions you have. You then go into the ‘laser room’ where you lay on a medical table that swings under the different machines. They do one eye at a time –the first step they put something on your eye lids to hold them open (it feels similar to when you get x-rays on your teeth – it’s not painful but you can obviously tell there is something there) they then swing you over under a different machine which I believe is the one that ‘prepares the flap’, you swing back and they do the other eye, then swing back to the 2nd machine and they do the second eye. After that is complete you stand up and go over to another machine which I believe is the actual laser, once there they will do the laser on each of the eyes – you look up at red and green blinking lights and then the laser goes, it is not painful and it does not hurt at all. (yes, you will smell something a little funky but only for a couple seconds). The procedure is over in about 5 minutes but during the whole thing Dr. Goel is explaining what is going on, what will come next, and checking that you are okay. (They have a TV which shows the procedure in the waiting room so your family/ friends can watch-- My mom was sad that she went to get some tea and missed seeing the whole thing!) After the procedure you go home and take a 3 hour nap. During the nap I felt some discomfort and a bit of burning but once I woke up I was fine. You use eye drops twice a day for a week, wear sunglasses inside and outside for 3 days, sunglasses outside for a week, blink tear drops every hour for a week, and 3-4 times a day after the first week. Yes, the price is hefty but TRUST ME… Go in for a consultation and you will immediately understand what everyone is talking about in their reviews. I now see 20/15 and cant stop telling people how amazing Lasik and Dr. Goels team is.

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Adriann Abell

I had Lasik, the procedure was quick and painless and Dr. Goel was very comforting and efficient. The drops they offer in the office dont work well for very dry eyes, you may want to hold off on buying a ton until you see how they work for you. You will need to use drops A LOT, for awhile. I had my surgery October 21st, followed instructions to the T, recovery was relatively easy. A week and a half ago my vision began to get blurry but I wasnt too concerned as they said my vision would fluctuate in the first three months. This weekend the blurriness got really bad, to the point I felt uncomfortable driving so I felt it was time to call the office (extra drops and humidifier werent helping). After a little hassle from the call center they got me in touch with Dr. Goel who was patient and friendly, he gave me instructions to start steroid drops again and to get into the office Monday or Tuesday. It took 3 days and muliple calls and explainations to get in touch with the Columbia office... they have begrudgingly fit me in tomorrow afternoon. They couldnt care less that I could barely drive or work (I work on a computer all day), it has been a very frustrating experience since I know Ive done everything in my power to avoid having to call or go into the office (non stop eye drops, humidifier, lots of water)- Its not as though I want to miss work and have my husband miss work to drive me there, as I feel uncomfortable driving that far in rainy weather. My point is the office staff was great when it came to getting me in and out but when a problem arose I felt I had to pull teeth to try and get the care I need, when I expressed my concerns that my vision wasnt satisfactory to drive/work I was told that I should just keep taking the drops, these things dont cure themselves overnight, which I understand... however, this wasnt an overnight progression, my vision has gotten worse since starting the stetoid drops 3 days ago.

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Nick Krewson

I originally had LASIK done in 2002, and recently needed a correction (they call it an "enhancement") as I was just at the legal limit for driving without corrective lenses. An enhancement to a LASIK operation is done as a PRK, which has a "incapacited" recovery time of a week (or more), during which time you are in significant pain and have little to no eyesight. But I did it anyway. The "lifetime enhancements" guarantee is a complete scam. They require a third-party dilated eye-exam before even agreeing to see you, then do ANOTHER eye-exam once they do that they charge $75 for. Then they require you to be seen by your original surgeon (which in my case was a nearly three hour drive each way, even though there was a clinic less than an hour from me). The prescription eye-drops and heavy-duty painkillers ran me another $200. And, for all that, one of my eyes STILL did not heal correctly. The operation destroyed my "up-close" eyesight in both eyes, requiring me to get magnifying glasses just to read small text, and my night-vision is nothing but light-spikes and fuzzy halos around any light source. All of this I explained to them in my multiple follow-up appointments after surgery. They said I should have another enhancement, and they still insisted on my going to the farther away clinic to be seen (and no weekend hours either). You cant drive yourself back from the operation either, so if you are lucky enough to have a family member or friend who CAN drive you to and from, they have to take off a day of work too. In the end, I asked that if they wouldnt handle the operation and treat me at the closer clinic, that I instead receive a copy of my medical records and at least a partial refund for my operation as I was going to need to find a doctor nearer to me to try and fix their mess. Naturally, they refused. I would recommend anyone considering LASIK avoid LasikPlus for the operation.