# lasik and sparring



## mma007 (Jul 31, 2013)

hellow everyone,

3/4 years ago ive done lasik eye surgerry.

now im wondering if any people here have done the same and have experience with boxing,kickboxing,?

ive don sparring 2months after the surgery and get hit in the eye with  tooth nail and saw blurry for about 2minutes; but after that nothing  left..
but i stil freak out an stopt

i maybe want to restart doing some kickboxing. 

i already did some rechaerch and differents opinions 
-havy blow can cause flap dislocation
-one tell me if i got injury in the eye , that means the blow is very strong and also whil injury without lasik..

i now everybody recommands PKR , but its to late now.


i hope i find some other experienced here on the forum


thx 
(sry for my bad english; i'm dutch)


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## aaradia (Jul 31, 2013)

Hi, We have an instructor going in for corrective eye surgery. 


He told me there are two types. I apologize I don't remember the names of them. I am hoping the description helps.

One type you can drive yourself home from. It is immediately fixed, but never completely. Something in the eye never completely heals and you can get eye problems (detached retina?) from sparring or heavy activities.

He opted for the other one. It takes a week to heal up, he will see blurry for a few days or a week or so.  But it heals completely and he is not at risk for the sort of problems caused by sparring the other one can have. As an instructor, this was important to him.

I don't know how big of a risk you are at with the first surgery. If you are seeing blurry, you should check with a Dr. It may be completely unrelated and you are stressing over nothing!


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## Ceicei (Aug 1, 2013)

There are two:  LASIK and PRK.  

My husband is sedentary so he got LASIK.  He could see well immediately and drive the next day.  However, the eye flap is still there with the ring where the incision was (ring cant be seen).  The flap is what allows you to see clearly immediately even though some cells underneath were removed.

I opted for PRK because of my martial arts background (Kenpo and Jujitsu).  With PRK, the incision is similar but the flap is not created. The eyes builds new cells to carefully create the replacement for the surface.   However, the recovery time is much longer.  

It actually takes about three months on average before you have a sense of normalcy.  The first two weeks are tough dealing with so much blurriness and short moments when the eyes see clearly.  This is the time during these weeks when you deal with so much second guessing and wondering if the surgery was a success or a failure. As time passes, these moments of clarity will stretch out longer and longer until there is no more vision shifting between blurriness and clarity.  The clarity then becomes permanent and you will see very well (assuming the surgeon did a good job).

I have no regrets with my surgery and I'm glad I did.  I can enjoy martial arts more, do more things, and go caving.  Best of all, no more glasses!  My vision tested better after surgery than when tested (before surgery) wearing glasses or contact lenses.

***

 If you're not seeing good after a hard hit to the head or eyes and/or you're feeling pain, go get your eyes checked out ASAP (whether or not there was prior surgery).  Getting eyes checked is important!

Are you seeing okay now even though you got hurt some years ago?

Ceicei


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## clfsean (Aug 1, 2013)

I had LASIK in 03. I took about a month off & then went back at it like nothing had changed... except I had better vision. 

YMMV...


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## mma007 (Aug 1, 2013)

@aaradia
Yes indeed the one is LASIK (with i have) and the other PKR

@Ceicei
does you husband does contact sports while he had lasik done?



@both : the blurry sight stopet after 2min. nothing hurt sight still great after 3years , but thats the reason i quit then. but nog i want to restart once a week but still scarred of retined blows of


@clfsean
what do u doe from contact sports, and do u get punchd or kick in the eyes somethimes??



thx


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## MJS (Aug 1, 2013)

mma007 said:


> hellow everyone,
> 
> 3/4 years ago ive done lasik eye surgerry.
> 
> ...



There are a few different types.  Soon, I'll be going for another follow up myself, to see if I can get this done.  The guy that I'm going to, does Epi-Lasik, which, according to him, is the better of the options.  Not sure if everyone out there does this, but once I heard about it from the doc I'm going to, IMO, it was the better option.  

What you heard about the potential dangers, ie: dislocation of the flap, etc, is correct.  The EL process that I'm hoping to have, lowers the risks of that greatly!  However, during the initial healing, it'd be best to not have any eye or potential eye contact.


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## clfsean (Aug 1, 2013)

mma007 said:


> @aaradia
> Yes indeed the one is LASIK (with i have) and the other PKR
> 
> @Ceicei
> ...



Just heavy sparring & takedowns mixed in. Shots to the head were common place but no fingers in the eyes. Fingers though was more likely in regular drilling than when putting the gloves on & get knocked around.


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## mma007 (Aug 1, 2013)

ok thx 4 the reply's

if other people have experience with LASIK and fighting please tel me .

thx


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## arnisador (Aug 1, 2013)

The military offers eyesight correction surgery very widely so they apparently have been convinced of its safety.


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## Ceicei (Aug 1, 2013)

mma007 said:


> @Ceicei
> does you husband does contact sports while he had lasik done?




No, my husband doesn't do any contact sports at all.  That is why he has LASIK and I with PRK.  These different surgeries were more compatible with our preferred activities.

Ceicei


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## Ceicei (Aug 1, 2013)

arnisador said:


> The military offers eyesight correction surgery very widely so they apparently have been convinced of its safety.



I think the military tends to prefer PRK (at least they did a few years ago).  Surgical eye technology may be better now with other options.

Ceicei


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## Brian R. VanCise (Aug 1, 2013)

*I did not have the surgery.*  After exploring both options I decided not to have either due to the perceived risks and or benefits.  Lasik as the doctor described to me would not be right for me based on all of the sparring, martial arts and contact activities that I do.  PKR just sounded to damn awful to me.  While I have mediocre distance vision my in close vision is perfect so for sparring, etc. I am not bothered at all.  

Now before you go off sparring think of this.  Just last week I had a finger explore my eye during normal two person technical training.  My partner just made a mistake but hey it was a painful mistake.   A month before that I landed a hook to my sparring partners eye.  His eye bled and the area around the orbital socket swelled up quite a bit.  If he had lasik maybe it might have been worse.  Fortunately he is okay!  Things happen when you do contact activities.


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## mma007 (Aug 1, 2013)

Brian R. VanCise said:


> *I did not have the surgery.*  After exploring both options I decided not to have either due to the perceived risks and or benefits.  Lasik as the doctor described to me would not be right for me based on all of the sparring, martial arts and contact activities that I do.  PKR just sounded to damn awful to me.  While I have mediocre distance vision my in close vision is perfect so for sparring, etc. I am not bothered at all.
> 
> Now before you go off sparring think of this.  Just last week I had a finger explore my eye during normal two person technical training.  My partner just made a mistake but hey it was a painful mistake.   A month before that I landed a hook to my sparring partners eye.  His eye bled and the area around the orbital socket swelled up quite a bit.  If he had lasik maybe it might have been worse.  Fortunately he is okay!  Things happen when you do contact activities.



thx 4 your opinion

you have a point , im on different forums to realy look at the risk , ive also concluted different thing:

-grappeling is more dangerous than a punch   (exept high kick) at the eye because of the rubbing on the eye and the punch toutch more the eye witch gloves.
- i also not have the intention anymore of compete, just once a week to maintain my fysiek combine with some fitness  sow the sparring wil be moderate to high agressive..
- ive work in construction sow i somethimes have a spark when usin chain saw in the eye , sow even there is the risk.


still doing some recheard but *maybe *try starting again..


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## Brian R. VanCise (Aug 1, 2013)

Even better than your opinion or my opinion I would advise you to talk to your doctor and get their opinion.  They are the professionals after all!


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## mma007 (Aug 1, 2013)

Brian R. VanCise said:


> Even better than your opinion or my opinion I would advise you to talk to your doctor and get their opinion.  They are the professionals after all!



already contact my eye doctor he says: there's actuale a risk of getting flap off but the chanse is pretty little, he only knew one that have his flap of and this is he was hit with a point of a branch in the eye,   he says if you could resist go do some boxing but be cautios..


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## clfsean (Aug 1, 2013)

mma007 said:


> already contact my eye doctor he says: there's actuale a risk of getting flap off but the chanse is pretty little, he only knew one that have his flap of and this is he was hit with a point of a branch in the eye,   he says if you could resist go do some boxing but be cautios..



When you let it heal completely, the chances of tearing the flap are very slim. This is short of having something directly on your eye & making some kind of invasive contact. My Dr said contact wise, I'd be fine once it healed completely. Nobody is immune to the finger/object in the eye doing damage. 

Then again, you can also go dead blind during the surgery as well. Both injury after surgery & going blind from the surgery are chances. 

Give it a chance to heal & since you're not talking about full on competition training & such, you'll probably AOK.


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## Brian R. VanCise (Aug 1, 2013)

There is your answer.  Pretty much he is saying if you do it there is a chance for a bad outcome.


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## Danny T (Aug 2, 2013)

Had the surgery performed almost 10 years ago. Doc said, "No contact for 2 months". Have my eyes checked year and been sparring since the two month time frame. Sparred with a face shield for approx 4 months and nothing since. No problems.


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## DennisBreene (Aug 2, 2013)

The info in regards to flap ( LASIK) vs no flap (PRK) is essentially correct. There is a slight risk of flap dislocation early on ( the first few months), but it diminishes with time. Visual acuity results can be comparable unless the treatment is for higher order aberrations. This requires PRK, or possibly epi ( which lifts the epithelium as a flap, proceeds with a PRK style ablation and then returns the flap). Common post operative dry eye can give you problems with intermittent blurring which will be exacerbated with mild trauma like rubbing. The major risk from trauma actually exists before and after surgery. Myopes (near sighted) with eyes longer than 25mm are at significantly higher risk of retinal tears and detachment. This increases with blunt trauma. While each of these procedures improves the uncorrected visual acuity, it does not change the underlying risk from an abnormally large eye for retinal problems. Anyone who has had these surgeries for myopia should wear eye protection during contact training.


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## mma007 (Aug 3, 2013)

ok thx 4 the reply's !


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