Well, I met with the LASIK counselor on Tuesday. She told me all about how fabulous their center it is. How wonderful their doctors are. How technologically advanced their equipment is. Then she told me how expensive they are. It’s a good thing my eyes are already bad because I swear they popped right out of my head and rolled across the floor. $4500 was the discounted price. Discounted! That’s still $2250 per eye! That seemed extremely high to me, and I’m sure she could tell from the look on my face that I was not pleased. So she starts talking about the doctor and how he’s internationally known, and has done almost 80,000 surgeries, and is a specialist in higher prescriptions (which I have). Well that’s all fine and dandy, but $4500 is still a LOT of money to me, regardless of how super foobah this guy is. She must have sensed my continued hesitation, because she started telling me about the "B-List" doctor (I swear that’s exactly how she referred to him) who charges about $1000 less than the A-List guy. The difference between them? Just their name. Dr. B-List has done over 35,000 surgeries, including several thousand higher prescriptions. They use the same lasers, the same technology, the same everything. Basically, Dr. A-List is $1000 more because of his name. That’s it.

So now I have the option of shelling out $3500 or so, or looking around for a different location. The problem I’m facing is that this center is the very best of the best in my area. I found out a couple of my friends have been there, with phenomenal results. Plus, not only does this center use the very latest technology, they’re so confident in their abilities, that they offer free adjustments for life. So if in 10 years, my eyes begin to get bad again, I just make an appointment for a "touch up." No other center offers that. But the money is more than I’m comfortable with. I don’t want to add to my debt by financing it, but I don’t want to keep spending money on contacts and glasses. Maybe I’ll just open up an Etsy shop and finally sell all the bead jewelry I made last summer when I decided I was going to be crafty. The hobby that lasted 3 weeks.