Eye Opening Experience

Well well, it's been exactly 2 weeks since I had gone for Lasik. And what can I say, it feels great waking up to clear vision! I know those who aren't wearing specs and can see clearly once you wake up will not appreciate what I am saying here, but really, you can't understand the inconvenience of waking up, blindly looking for your phone / specs just to see the time.

The entire procedure was very quick.
445pm - Registered, sign my consent form, and was ushered in to the changing room.

450pm - Changed and was briefed of the aftercare procedures. The assistant was a very nice and chirpy lady that carried on a steady banter with me to keep me calm and happy. Very nice touch.

500pm - Last check of my eyes and made markings on my left eye that has Astiqmatism

505pm - An assistant sanitized my eye area and put local anesthetic eyedrops to numb my eyeballs

510pm - They walked me into the surgery theatre, lied down.. prepared.. and I was thinking to myself "F, this is the kind of shit I put myself through.."

515pm - Covered my left eye and placed some sticker face mask to open right eye. They used another 'kiap-kiap' instrument thingy to hold my right eye open. More local anesthetic drops. Then they lowered a telescope looking thingy to my eye, where it had suction to eliminate air i think. I couldn't see anything at that point, my vision was pitch black.

25 seconds: What happened was - they used laser to create bubbles below the flap they have to cut, don't ask me how, that's all I know. I guess the only 'pain' or discomfort I felt through out the entire procedure was this part, because I could feel the pressure on my eyeballs. The 'cutting' of the flap only took 25 seconds. After that, they released the machine thingy and then flipped open my eye flap. Gently la of course, not as rough as how I described it.

Another 25 seconds: I had to stare into the blinking red light. And they started the cut the shape of my cornea with laser. All I had to do was look at the blinking red light for 25 seconds. I read that many people could smell something burning, funny thing was, I tried smelling, but then I stopped myself by shutting off all my senses and only focused on the light.
After that, they closed the flap, smoothed it with a broom like thingy like how a pizza man smooths his pizza with a ladle. They then washed my eyeballs, made sure my cornea is smooth, and then removed the 'kiapkiap' instrument and sticker.

520pm - Repeat entire thing with my left eye. 

The doctor was impeccably delicate and precise through out the entire surgery, because one twitch of her hand and there goes my eyes. Such amazing technique and precision. Clap clap!

530pm - I walked out of the surgery theatre and seriously, my vision was about 40 - 50% clearer. The doctor checked my eyes for the last time to make sure all is well, and advised on the aftercare procedure. I was asked if I wanted to rest there for awhile or changed to go home. My eyes were feeling quite uncomfortable, it was tearing and I couldn't really opened my eyes. It feels like when you have sore-eyes or when there's something in your eyes, or like when you have a pair of super uncomfortable contact lens on. So I decided to just head home.

I reached home, put my antibiotic eyedrops, wore my eyeshields and went to bed. I was contemplating on taking pain killers, but it really wasn't that pain, more of a head strain because of my eyes. So in the end, I skipped on the painkillers, partly also because I wanted to know how much more painful it could get.

830pm - Woke up and voila! No more headstrain or discomfort. My vision is about 80-90% clear! And this is just within a few hours mind you.

I wore my sunglasses during every waking moment for the first few days to accustom myself to not touch my eyes and also to protect from dusts, sunrays, glaring lights, etc.

Really, I am so amazed that this is possible and that I can enjoy perfect vision without spectacles again. For that sum of money, it really is the same as paying for contact lens and its friends (solutions, eyedrops, etc) for 10 yrs. Bear in mind though, that Lasik is a corrective measure and not a preventive measure. So, your eyesight may still deteriorate with age and loosened muscles. It's good for people who have passed their teenage years to do lasik, because that's when your eye power has stabilized.

The healing process is also fairly quick - the first week is the most crucial. No rubbing my eyes, stay away from smoky and dusty areas, anti biotic eyedrops every four hours and artificial tears every 2 hours or whenever necessary and eye shields every night. After that, is no swimming / facial for a month and to continue with the artificial tears. No more antibiotic drops and eye shields.

 My care pack.

It takes about 2 months for my eyes and my sight to stabilize. But now, I wake up every morning feeling so happy that I am looking at the world clearly without help. Such a small thing, but I've never got to enjoy this for almost 15 years. Until now. Something all perfect eyesight humans should be thankful for too.

This is indeed a great way to start my day. :)

Eye want to be free.

For the past 6 months now, I have been contemplating on getting my perfect vision back. I've been wearing spectacles and contact lenses for 15 and 10 years respectively and it has been giving me headaches, eye rashes, painful ears and marks on my nose-bridge.

I've been researching and asking around for advices, recommendations and listened to the stories of those who have gone through it. And I've finally geared up my courage and made an appointment to do a thorough check-up to see if I am a suitable candidate for Lasik.

The check-up was quite a funky experience. After the usual eyesight check-up, they proceeded to check the thickness of my cornea and my eye pressure. Now, how they do this is by numbing my eyeballs, and using pen-like instruments to poke my eyeballs. The funky part was when you know they are poking your eyeballs and you can't feel anything, but you can see the jelly like cornea moving. Surreal. The numbed eyeballs were fine, but when your eyes get their sensation back, it felt like your eyelashes is brushing against your eyeballs.

The last part was dilating my pupils, to check - err, I don't remember what. Maybe it was to see how big my pupils can get. And it really became huge.. like almost the size of my irises. Funky. The funny part is my near sight ability. A few hours to a day after my check up, I had to put anything I wanted to see / read at least an arm's length away. Like an old flower (lou fah).

Nonetheless, at least everything is normal and I am now anxiously waiting for my surgery this Thursday! Now the hard part comes in. Everytime I think about it, I'm nervous and excited at the same time. Nervous at the procedure but excited at not having to put on my specs or push my phone to my face whenever I want to see the time when I wake up. :)

The procedure goes like this -
1. Laser cuts open a portion of your cornea into a flap (they mentioned something about using the laser to produce bubbles to cut the cornea. I didn't get that. I got lost at the word 'cut my cornea into a flap').
2. Flip the flap up
3. Using laser to cut your eye lens into a shape that will refract the right image for me to see without any assistance of lenses. (It's like creating a replica of my lens in my eyes.)
4. Put the flap back down
5. Healing process begins
6. Move on to next eye.

Each eye takes about 20 seconds for the above I suppose. Now you know why I'm nervous.

Ee.. takutsnya.