Uncle Sam to fix my eyes?

I've been considering Lasik for some time now. I can't really say why, but for some reason I keep procrastinating. Sometimes, I use the budget excuse, but even when we've got money in the bank I shy away from any sort of eye surgery commitment. Every time I go in for new glasses, I casually ask the optometrist about eye surgery and upon every occasion they have told me that I would be a good candidate. But for some reason, I just can't seem to get any further with it.

Part of it has to do with the fact that I have a real problem with anything touching my eyeballs. Heck, even the rush of air from a glaucoma test tends to freak me out. This is the primary reason why I've never tried contact lenses, although I wasn't attracted to all of the cleansers and crap that accumulates in the bathroom, either.

And so once again, we are expecting a nice extra chunk of change, courtesy of our president, and I can't help but think about using it to have my eyes fixed. It would be nice to not have to wear glasses anymore, but I sometimes wonder if my glasses haven't become part of my persona. Don't get me wrong - they're not as intrinsic to my image as, say, the glasses worn by Bono or Elvis Costello, but I sometimes think that I look better with them.

If I do pursue the eye surgery option, I'm going to have to seek out the one that doesn't involve any cutting or scraping. I have heard that there is one technique that only involves a laser zapping your eyes, with no cutting involved. The other that I have heard of requires them to slice a thin "window" from your eyeball first. Yikes! I don't think I could handle that, short of being put to sleep first.

So I guess I'll have to make that decision once I am holding my economic stimulus check. Should I stimulate the optometry industry, or my savings account?