my personal lasik eye surgery experience

25Apr10

wow. today is the second day after my lasik surgery

this is the date i gotta remember. 24th April 2010, Saturday.

Woots! I was officially out of glasses!!!!

initially it was just excitement filling my heart.

then it was nervousness.

after which, fear.

lastly, a sense of GREAT RELIEVE.

i think it’s almost one of those once in a life time experience. i mean, how many times in your life do you get to go blind for 10 seconds, have people working on your eyes, and feeling like you’re in 7th heaven the next day? (pun intended, read on…)

it was on a friday, i asked baby to get us an appointment on the 30th of April or 1st May. We are going to Phuket on the 7th May and Lasik had always been in our minds. we were thinking to ourselves, if not now, then when??? why not do it before we go Phuket and enjoy all the fun we can without the hassle of wearing glasses.

our suite is facing the sea, imagine waking up not having to fumble for your glasses to see the day breaks. okay i know you readers who do not have myopia will never know how we feel. i’m really ‘blind’ without my specs. there were a few times when i thought i had lost my specs! imagine how that feels!! you are already short sighted yet you have to be looking for your specs which to me, was horrible as my specky was my life line to operate normally on a day to day basis.

anyways, i’m pretty sure there are people out there who had been wanting to go for Lasik surgery but had never fond the courage to do it because of the lack of confidence in this technology.

i hope this post helps to answer some questions which a lot of people, including myself who really wanna know before making that big decision. after all, it’s our precious eyes which we are talking about right?

disclaimer: the information provided below are absolutely based on my limited knowledge and personal opinions. please seek professional medical advice from your local Lasik surgeons for the most accurate information for your reference prior to your Lasik surgery.

before i start, i would like to provide a little background info about myself:-

my right eye is about 7.00 and left eye 6.25 in power. I have about 25 to 75 degree of astigmatism in both eyes. my boyfriend, his power degree was about 800 for both eye, with about 100 to 125 degree of astigmatism. apparently, he had a thinner cornea but he is still a perfect candidate for Lasik.

Question 1.

What is Lasik exactly?

Lasik is a corrective eye surgery that helps to correct refractive disorders by using a laser to re-shape the cornea.

Question 2.

What are the risks?

For every surgery, there’s definitely presence of risks. NO SURGERIES ARE EVER RISK FREE. There are definitely risks involved when it comes to Lasik surgery. Hence every patients should consider the potential benefits and the risks involved, weigh the options before making the decision.

There are some reports of Lasik patients who would face the following side effects:-

• dryness in the eye (this is especially prevailing for the 1st 3 months. For my boyfriend and i, we had not faced much of this problem yet. probably we had heeded the doctor’s advice to use our lubricating eye drops once every hour? alright, frankly, i didn’t do so. my boyfriend prolly yes? i didn’t feel any dryness and i just put the eye drops whenever i remember to do so.)

• seeing halos, especially at night (not too sure, im not facing this problem yet? i hope not. the 1st day immediately after my surgery, i did not regain 100% of clear vision, yet. doctor mentioned that we will only get back 75% on our first day and our perfect vision will only come with time, typically 3-6 months’ time depending on individual’s progress. my night vision so far is fine, no problems with driving though my boyfriend did mentioned to me that he felt it still wasn’t safe for him to drive as his ability to gauge distance had reduced a little)

• blindness (well, i guess blindness shouldn’t even be a side effect. it will be AN AWFUL TERRIBLE AND WORSE RESULT one can expect. oh wells, from what i know, i had never heard of any patients going blind after a Lasik surgery. I guess such news will definitely hit headlines? apparently, according to FDA, there had been no reports of blindness after going for a Lasik surgery.)

• pain (i had never experienced any pain, even during the surgery itself. i had however, experienced the pain of wearing spectacles and contact lenses)

to conclude the above, i had yet to experience the above known side effects. everything is going great for me now!

Question 3

There are quite a few types of Lasik surgery! which one should i go for? i am confused!

there are generally 2 big categories when it comes to my area of concern and consideration. BLADE or BLADE-LESS. listening to these 2, of cos’ i had opted to go for blade-less. oh my. i wouldn’t want a blade to come anywhere near my precious eye man!

there’s a lot of other types like epi-lasik, wavefront, etc…

i went for the VISX Custom LASIK (IntraLase). meets my expectation in terms of results and dollar amount which i have to spend.

Question 4

what exactly goes on in the entire procedure?

for mine, i had about 3 hours of eye tests and evaluation to gather sufficient information about myself, my eye and if i am a suitable candidate for a lasik surgery. nothing scary here.

next i have to dilate my pupils so that it comes smaller. smaller so that the doctor can start operating on it. how is this done? the optometrist or nurses will drop this eye drop into your eye. it feels a little stingy and you will not be able to see clearly near objects in a matter of seconds. gets annoying. i have to hold my iPhone about 30cm away from me to see my text.

once your eyes are ready, you will be brought into the operating theatre. yes, you walk in on your own because you will be doing this surgery while you are awake.

the nurses will drop some numbing eye drop. now, the most uncomfortable part comes.

in order to ensure that your eyeball doesn’t move and you don’t blink throughout the surgery, a suction ring is placed over your eye above your cornea.

alright, this uncomfortable part merely lasts for 5 secs??

it will blackout for about 10 seconds. temporary blindness. me don’t likey

after which, a cornea flap will be created through a laser or blade, whichever type of procedure you had selected.

the suction ring will then be removed and another ring will be in placed this time. this tim round, it will be a lot better than the suction ring. )

the laser will then begin, you will be asked to look at the red blinking light which is NOT the laser. my doctor had done told me how long the laser will take. mine was 25 or 35 secs if i’m not wrong. i was too nervous and forgot all about it. haha.

after which, the doctor will close the flap, do some washing, ensure there;s no air bubbles underneath the flap and that everything is a-okay.

now, the entire Lasik surgery will then be over! the actual surgery took not more than 20 minutes for me!

my very nice nurse helped me to put on the protective eye mask and brought both of us down to the taxi stand.

the end.

that was all, that was it. i went for my driving lesson as usual the next morning and i’m going for my driving test tomorrow.

all i wanna say is, i should had gone for Lasik much earlier.

i had absolutely zero regret and 100% of satisfaction till date. i was nervous but overall it was a good experience.

i hope that the above helps a teeny bit for people who are considering Lasik. I went around sourcing for information and only went ahead when my friend had did it successfully, experiencing no side effects a week before my surgery.

in case you are asking, i had my surgery performed at The Lasik Surgery Clinic by Doctor Marc Tay in Singapore. Below are the contact information for your reference:

290 Orchard Road, #13-01/06 Paragon Medical, Singapore 238859
Tel: +65 6836 1000    Fax: +65 6836 8385

Filed under: meaningful   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: lasik eye surgeon, lasik eye surgery, lasik surgery clinic, personal experience, side effects