I found this little entry lying around in my drafts since September 2014 and figured I'll post it out because why not:
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I'm supposed to study in the UK end of this month and of course as dumb as i am the thought of doing eye laser surgery (LASIK) never occurred to me for a whole 8 months until 3 weeks before my flight. (Okay it did but i was too poor at the time but i have just recently received a lump sum of money by JPA which is the main contributing factor in me making this life decision)
My friend recommended me (ok not that she recommended but it was i who demanded to know) this centre where she did her LASIK last month. She did the 4th and also the latest generation of LASIK known as RELEX SMILE. What differs this method with the older generations is that it does not create a flap on the eye to laser out a part of the eye lens but laser a part of the lens first and then create a small cut and pulling out the thin piece of lasered lens ok i suck at explaining you should go watch animations of the process instead. The point is RELEX SMILE is believed to be less harmful to the eyes than other methods of LASIK.
So i made an appointment for an eye check and if my eyes are deemed suitable for LASIK, the surgery on the same day. (You need to lay off soft contact lens for at least 1 week) The doctor said my eyes are very dry but my cornea is thick enough to perform LASIK on. One important reminder is that make sure what credit card they accept easy payment plan (if they do) and not exceeding your credit limit (i made this mistake and had to call my credit card company and had to wait for an hour for them to increase my credit limit it was embarrassing) I changed into the surgery clothes and went in. Lied down and they dropped a lot of different liquid in my eyes. The first procedure is the laser part. The doctor warned me to keep looking at the dot in the middle for the whole 20 seconds and if i accidentally look elsewhere they had to stop the whole surgery altogether. It was pretty nerve wrecking and harder and i thought but i managed. The second procedure involves the doctor pushing and pulling the lens from my eyes and it can get pretty rough especially if your eyes are dry like mine because the lens can be quite stubbornly stick in your eyes and very hard to pull out.
Unlike the previous generations, my eyesight is very blurry post surgery. The medical officers there gave me a bag of "goodies" which consists of 3 types of eyedrops i have to use 4 times a day. One of them for 5 days, one for 10 days and the last one is a lubricant eyedrop which i am instructed to finish the whole 2 bottles. They also gave me a pair of sunglasses to wear whenever the light makes my eyes uncomfortable as your eyes are more sensitive to light post-LASIK. The last thing they gave me is a pair of eye shields complete with some tapes to tape it on my eyes when i sleep to prevent me from rubbing my eyes unconsciously during sleep. The eye shield is pretty ridiculous but whatev. Quickly got home and slept a lot. At times i woke up from the burning pain in my eyes and had some ohgodwhathaveidone moments but everything is okay once i woke up in the morning. Eyesight i would say 85%? recovered and doctor said all iz well during my follow up visit.
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Anyways, it's been like 3 years since the surgery and my eyesight is still perfectly fine although I do have a bit of astigmatism. Till now I still think ditching glasses and contact lenses is the wisest thing I have ever done in my life.
