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Nicki Cook was legally blind when she walked into Dr. Kenneth Wolf’s office last Friday afternoon. Her eyesight was rated at 20/800, meaning she would have to be 20 feet away to see something a person with normal sight could see at 800 feet. When she walked out three hours later, Cook’s blue-gray eyes could see better than they ever had. People had faces, not just forms, and she could see details in the landscape that had eluded her.  Cook’s extreme nearsightedness had been cured by laser surgery, a procedure that reshapes the cornea, the eye’s lens, to change its focus.

LASIK/LASEK (for laser in-situ keratomileusis) is sold as a quick, painless and permanent way to let people lose their glasses forever.  Nearly a million people will have the surgery this year alone, Wolf estimated, even though most have to pay the $4,400 bill without help from health insurance.
“This is the most exciting development I’ve seen in my 27 years as a doctor,” he said Saturday morning after Cook’s follow-up exam. “A person can have the surgery on Friday afternoon and have pain-free, nearly perfect vision the next day.” Cook and the four other patients who were zapped the day before all reported stunning results in their first follow-up exam. Without help, they could see the alarm clock when they woke that morning or read the headlines in the morning paper. Wide smiles showed how pleased they were at having their sight restored.

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Vol II, No. 24                                                                                                               March 15-April 4, 2001

One year later
Laser eye surgery is still the clear choice

By Peter A. Steele
TCT Editor

It’s been 13 months since your editor underwent laser eye surgery at Wolf Eye associates in Lewiston-and he is just as thrilled today with the results as he was the minute he left the operating room.  But what is even more encouraging is the number of people your editor has met who are also thrilled with the results of their eye surgery.  To this day, wherever your editor goes, people stop him and ask about the surgery.  He raves about it and sends them scurrying to one of Wolf’s free seminars on the laser-vision-correction surgery, called LASIK/LASEK (laser in-situ keratomileusis). Your editor is not the only one.  Retired Auburn Police Chief Bob Tiner and his wife Meriese both had the surgery done, and both got excellent results.  They, too, send their friends to Wolf. Pamela Hedden of Wayne, who was legally blind and had lost her peripheal vision due to a stroke, now has 20/20 vision and will soon be driving again. And Lewiston Mayor Kaileigh Tara wrote a note to Dr. Kenneth Wolf, thanking him for her clear vision.  “I was just telling a group of people yesterday that you are responsible for my ‘vision’ for the city,” Tara wrote. Everyone to whom your editor spoke who had the surgery at Wolf Eye Associates said the most important factors in their decision to get the surgery were: trust, follow-up care and the professionalism of Wolf and his staff.  While some places in Canada and Florida offer quick, inexpensive laser eye surgery, they do not offer follow-up exams or post-op relief for problems that may crop up after the surgery.    But Wolf offers free seminars to explain to potential clients exactly how the surgery works and whether it is right for them.  Bob Tiner said he recalled that Wolf even discouraged some people at the seminar from getting the surgery, telling them that it would not help their eyesight that much. “I was impressed with the honesty at the seminar,” he said.  “Wolf wasn’t just trying to sell you something.”   Tiner, 61, and his wife, 48 were – like most people – at first apprehensive about the surgery.  “I thought, hey, God only gave me two of these things,” Tiner said.  “What if something goes wrong?” But as someone who had to wear glasses for the past 20 years, Tiner, an avid outdoorsman, was weary of fogged lenses, frames that slipped down his nose and just the every-day inconvenience of glasses, not to mention the $500 cost for each pair. He put his trust in Dr. Wolf’s professionalism and appreciated the customer service he received.  “Dr. Wolf knows exactly what the story is right away,” Tiner said.  “And he just enjoys seeing the pleasure of people who are able to see again.”Although he first considered going to Canada for the surgery, Tiner said the follow-up care that Wolf offers made him change his mind.  “How do you get follow-up care in Canada or Florida?” Tiner said.  Tiner opted for monovision, a technique in which one eye is adjusted for distance and the other for close-up viewing, such as reading.  “I was tickled to death” with the result, he said. Tiner’s wife, Meriese, had worn glasses since she was a small child and had “Coke bottle” lenses when he met her.  Now they both enjoy excellent, glasses-free eyesight.  “People ought to know that the procedure is totally painless,” Tiner said.  “Now when I see people wearing glasses, I wonder why they haven’t had LASIK/LASEK,” he said.           Tiner said he has set aside some money to build a garage.  “Now I say part of that money is in my head, and part is in my wife’s head,” he said.  But the freedom from glasses is worth it.  “It was a really pleasurable experience for us,” Tiner said.  The experience may have been even more pleasurable for Hedden, 38.  Having worn glasses since fourth grade, she had been legally blind since seventh grade.  On top of that, she suffered a stroke that destroyed her peripheal vision. After hearing about LASIK/LASEK, Hedden went to one of Wolf’s free seminars.  “I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it,” she said.  “I couldn’t believe it when he told me I was a candidate.” When Hedden was preparing to go in for the surgery, a woman who had just had the eye surgery done was also in the room.  “I told her, I think I’m going to be Wolf’s first stroke victim,” Hedden said.  “The woman said, nope, I just beat you to it.” After the surgery, Hedden had 20/60 vision in her right eye and 20/20 in her left eye.  But the vision in her right eye improved every day.  Now she has 20/20 vision in her right eye, too.  “It was really neat to see the recovery,” Hedden said.  “It was an incredible experience for me.” Although she understands that some people may be fearful about the surgery, “there was no contemplation that I wouldn’t do it,” she said. Your editor is no less amazed than the Tiners or Hedden.  His result was “absolutely perfect,” according to Dr. Wolf.  With monovision, your editor’s left eye is 20/20 for close-up viewing and his right eye is 20/20 for distance. He has not suffered a single eye-strain headache since he had the surgery.  Working long hours on the computer while wearing glasses always gave him such headaches. Wolf cautioned that the procedure is surgery and there can be complications.  Not everyone will get a perfect result.  “I’m happy to undersell it and have people be pleasantly surprised,” he said. Even if complications do occur, they are almost always correctable, Wolf said.  That is why he stresses the follow-up care.  Wolf wants to catch a problem before it starts, rather than try to fix it after it is too late. He said one person who had the surgery done for $999 in Florida came to him for post-op care after complications arose.  Wolf told him, “If you buy a parachute at a bargain price, don’t complain when it doesn’t open.” Another person came in for help after the surgery he got in Canada developed problems.  “Now he’s up to $5,000 on his ‘low-cost’ surgery,” Wolf said.  The prices may be lower in Florida or Canada, but “it’s not good medicine,” he said. 

            Wolf insists that his laser eye surgery includes three parts: the preliminary analysis, the surgery itself and the follow-up care.  The surgery is actually the easiest part.  Wolf wants to first determine that his patients will actually benefit from the surgery, and once it is done, he wants to see them up to four times for post-op exams.

            One of his patients came in after surgery and was delighted with her excellent sight.  But Wolf noticed a condition called Sands of the Sahara, an enzyme that sweeps across the eye and can permanently damage the cornea.  “We caught it, flushed her out and now she is fine,” Wolf said.  But had she had the surgery done in Florida or Canada, she never would have known about the problem until it was too late.   “Your eyes are not a commodity,” Wolf said.  “We take it seriously.  These are somebody’s eyes.”  Of the hundreds of patients on which Wolf has performed the laser eye surgery, “I don’t have a single unhappy patient,” he said.  “That’s not to say there haven’t been complications, but we haven’t had a problem we couldn’t fix.”      Wolf has performed the surgery on patients ranging in age from 18 to their 70’s.  And while your editor got excellent, 20/20 eyesight, not all patients get a perfect result.  “They don’t always get 20/20, but they are always 20/happy,” Wolf said.  About half of his patients choose monovision, and most stay with it.  Only one in eight have trouble adjusting to it and come back to have their eyes set at the same vision.  “We go back in, lift the flap and zap them again,” Wolf said.  He can assist almost anyone with the laser eye surgery, although extremely far-sighted people may not be eligible.  LASIK/LASEK can correct up to four units of far-sightedness.  Wolf is waiting for the FDA to approve a procedure to treat astigmatism in far-sighted people.  That procedure should be approved any day now, he said. In the future, Wolf said he may be able to custom tailor the laser to correct all kinds of severe cases, such as those people whose corneas were scarred or damaged in car accidents.  Wolf said 95% of what he does now, including microsurgery, lens implants and laser eye surgery, did not exist when he was in training to be an eye doctor.  And while Wolf admits he does not need any more money, he will continue to do the eye surgery.  “As long as my health holds up, I’ll be doing this,” he said.  “Every morning I get up, and it’s always something new.  It’s a kick to see my patients the next day, to watch them get better.”  Wolf performs LASIK/LASEK on Fridays, then comes in on Saturdays to give his patients their first follow-up exam.  “Saturday is the best day of the week for me,” he said.  “I get to see a lot of happy people.”