Yes, today I am writing about my personal experience with LASIK. It's been a operation that I have been contemplating since younger days as I've always had very poor eyesight, from too much 'studying and reading' from younger school days! *bleah* =p
Even of the last few years, it was definitely an auto trigger with more advanced techniques surfacing, blah blah. Baby did his a couple years back with this bladeless technology that was the latest technology then. No more "cutting" of the cornea, yes, literally cutting. Well of course now, this technology has improved over the years.
The trigger came when a colleague-and-friend, Ms Eagle Eye (now), did hers about 2 weeks back and shared her experience in a very detailed fashion. Yes, I needed all the details. All those, staring at this red light blah blah was just not enough! And that was exactly what Ms Eagle Eye did, she flooded my curiosity with all the details, literally all, down to the point of the pre-prep, post-prep, what to wear, what to buy extra (eye-drops and lubricants). Everything. I guess almost everything.
That triggered the floodgates, I knew I would cave in, I knew I had to, I am already almost 'blind' LOL. I wanted to be independent of my glasses!!! So, as you can guess, the details of the doctor was taken and appointment booked! I had 1 week to prepare for the assessment, no contact lenses for 1 week for soft lens wearer. Goofy glasses for me for a week to work. Yes, but it's ok. =)
The day for assessment arrived, I arrived SNEC on time, registered and waited for my turn. I must say that the entire experience at SNEC has been most pleasant, it was a very private setting yet not intimidating at all. The entire assessment took about 2-3 hours before I finally saw my named doctor for the results of the assessment. And the good news, I was a suitable candidate for LASIK. Yeay!!! 1 step closer to join Ms Eagle Eye at Eagle Eye Club. Quoting him, "Good news, you can do LASIK because you got thick skin" and then he ended the sentence with a chuckle. Ok, I guess that was his attempt to lighten the mood of an impending surgery.
As I made a prior appointment for the surgery to be performed the very next day if I was a suitable candidate, the excitement and anxiety was mounting. Doc said my eyes were really dry and I had to condition my eyes for the preparation by lubricating it the night before the surgery and so I did. Lubricate, lubricate, lubricate...
The procedure:
It's 2 sessions of laser surgery, the first to creat the flap on the cornea using the bladeless tech, they fire a continuous beam of laser for about 20 secs on each eye under this white disco-like laser machine. You just made sure you stare at the green light throughout the entire 20 secs. The 1st session was quite a breeze.
Now for the 2nd session, to lift up the created flap and to fire the 2nd bout of laser to correct the refractive errors. This 2nd session, I must say, was a little more difficult as he had to lift the flap and then I had to concentrate on the green light amidst all the yellow, red and white lights. BUT, no pain at all through the 2 sessions as the eyes have been applied anaestisia eye drops. Took a little longer as he had to clean the eye and flap, place the flap back in place before putting on a contact lens to protect the flap.
Post procedure:
I could already see though not clearly as it seemed to be very hazy. Doc said normalization will take place between 4-6 hours. And it did, on my way home, I was attempting to read road signboards and car plate numbers to test my vision in spite of the fuzziness.
Had to stay awake till at least 11 pm so that there is enough blinking time to flatten out the flap. Sleep was disturbed, I was woken up by a very dry left eye, it felt like the contact lens have shrunk on my eyeball causing an uncomfy pressure, so I was awoken to douse my eyes with more eye lubricants...
By morning next day, vision have stabilized more and was beginning to experience clearer vision! Yeay! But slightly blurry on small fonts still... Visted Doc for removal of the contact lens the following day, of which he had to postpone cos he said my eye have not recovered fast enough to warrant the removal of the lens. And so I wait...
