I had this surgery almost two years ago and I still say it's the greatest gift I ever gave myself!!! Like others said, even with the LASIK you will need reading glasses (though there is a surgery for that just around the corner
). One poster said that the eye doctors in her family have not had the surgery, well where I got my eyes "done" practically the whole office had the procedure as well. My eye sight was bad, not sure of the "number" but I couldn't read the BIG "E" and I had a bad astigmatism.
The important things to consider when getting LASIK:
You want someone with a lot of "cutting" experience, not laser experience, as any one can use the machine (in fact it wasn't my doctor who made the settings or operated it).
The laser machine should be in a permanent location. When the machines are moved around it can cause problems.
Find out what is included in the price of the surgery. Mine for instance included an enhancement if needed (I didn't need it), check-ups at one day, one week, one month, three months, six months, and one year after the surgery. Also I was able to make appointments for free if I felt there was a problem (I had bumped my eye about two weeks post-surgery and was given an appointment right away, luckily all was well).
This is definetly a case of you get what you pay for. I was lucky in that I qualified for a friends and family discount, so basically I got two eyes done for the price of one. Cheap is not good in this case.
You want a doctor well established in the community. My doctor is the head of opthamology at our areas biggest hospital.
For me, the worst part was actually the dilation for the pre-op testing to make sure you are a candidate and to get your "measurements". I have dark brown eyes and it took my eyes over 24 hours to recover. Also remember that the worse your eye sight is and the longer you are under the laser, the longer your recovery time will be. DH had the surgery done and was seeing perfect the next day, I spent twice as long under the laser and it took me about 2 1/2 days before I was seeing as well.