I went for LASIK at national eye centre and now after after four years I have like hundred degrees and on the rise . Quite waste and angry . I sum up the causes to (1) the guy taking the eye sight test just did a shabby heck care , any how do thing. Worse than when u measure your eye sight when u make specs . He seemed to be some foreigner Indian . (2) changed job soon after my surgery and had to look through tons of excel worksheets in small print for hours after hours . (3) my lack of after care ... Bad habits are hard to change .
that's kinda scary.. i shall be healthier from now on..
Thanks for sharing but reading alone already made me scared. But in the other hand I'm very much keen on the idea of waking up clear.
go ahead!! haha i did epilasik about 9 months ago at eagle eye. before that i thought about it for a year.. best decision ever.. and i'm the sort who has had nightmares even years after watching that scene in alias where the torture method involved pointing needles at the persons eye :<
i finally went ahead because i calculated - from now till i turn 40, the cost of lasik should be about the same or abit less than the cost of contact lens and glasses. but now that it's done, it is really worth it. i can make spontaneous decisions to stay over at people's houses, my carry-on luggage when i travel is no longer filled with crazily taped contact lens cases, i can party all night without sneaking away to the toilet to pop my lens out for a breather (very sick.. but ya those days are over).
here's my experience, i hope it helps you!:
like donald83, they put eye drops in my eye, numbed it, did all the checks. V impt to be very clear about what you're saying here, since it's more permanent than making specs.
for the op, they will robe you in a surgical gown and paint you with a brown thing (not sure what it is). then you will sit on a tiny throne (okay..chair) while you wait for the person before you to finish.
when the doctor was ready, i entered the OR and climbed onto what looked like a dentist chair. i was very creeped out by this time, because.. well it is lasers and knives. but dr theng was pretty good and efficient. he slapped what felt like a sanitary pad over my eye, then peeled it off so when I opened by eyes, i was looking into a bright light.
then he dropped numbing eyedrops, put in the clamps (to hold the eye open?) and then told me he was going to begin. he began testing gently if my eyeballs were numb. this should be scary..because what if your eyeballs aren't numb, right? but don't worry, because the drugs actually work.. very well. so well, i began giggling, and he told me to keep still. soon, he began scraping away the top layer. when this was done, i looked up at the light, which began moving and making sounds. during this entire time, the doctor should just be updating you on what's going on (like "30 seconds more..10 seconds more..") etc.
some say the op lasts 15 minutes, but it was really painless and fast on my end. when they shift the machine away, you will see a clear "eagle eye" painted on the ceiling.. not bad for marketing right?
then after that you'll go home. totally painless
i didn't eat the painkillers they gave, despite my low tolerance for pain. (for reference, for simple wisdom tooth extraction, i requested 3 jabs of anaesthesia instead of 1)
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perhaps what you should be fearful of, and will have little or no control over..is the morning after.
i awoke at 6am to the awful sounds of my neighbours gate crashing for a wedding... only i couldn't open my eyes. they were consumed by such a blinding itch,
that i just couldn't open them. after scrabbling around in the dark for the eyedrops, and forcibly opening my eyes to drop the eyedrops, i went back to sleep. after the sun rose, i woke as well, and the AWFUL itch returned. just my luck, the light was just too bright for me to do anything, and i ended up crawling into the darkest corner of my room to seek out the tiny emergency phone number of the clinic.. and wail into the phone to complain that i couldn't open my eyes. the calm receptionist then told me that it was normal, and advised me to just put the eyedrops as scheduled.
when i was not at the clinic getting my eyes checked, i was at home wearing sunglasses in my dark bedroom, where i thankfully had blackout curtains. I only ventured out only after the sun set. At lunch, i wore a sun hat, sunglasses, and ate lunch in the shady dining room, where my family members laughed and took photos of me.... this awful experience (extreme light sensitivity, itching) continued for about a week(!!!!!), but i was very careful to follow the procedure.
at the 1 week mark, they removed the contact lens bandage, and a few days later, i was ready to return to work, where there was another issue - my eyes hadn't regained perfect vision yet. i had to beg my colleagues to install a second monitor, where i replied emails at 140% zoom for the next month.
at 1.5 months, i was still on eye drops.. and my eye pressure had begun to increase. lesson to be learnt: do NOT treat the dosage lightly. don't put more or less. If you are the kind of person who cooks by tossing "a handful of salt" into the meat, or using "a pinch of pepper".
do NOT apply this theory to applying your lasik eyedrops. The bottle for the eyedrops comes with a dropper, and the size of the dosage really depends on how hard you squeeze. concerned that my squeeze was too light, i actually squeezed harder, and that (i feel) may have contributed to the high eye pressure problem. continued high eye pressure is otherwise known as glaucoma, which can cause blindness. for eyedrop-induced glaucoma, this just means your vision doesn't improve as quickly. Dr. Theng weaned me off the eyedrops though, and the issue has since (touch wood) been resolved.
9 months on, my left eye is perfect, and right eye is like..50 degrees off maybe? there really is not much of an effect. i can drive fine, and can see most things clearly with both eyes. the only problem is.. if you rub the eye a certain way, it can hurt (just like how if you rub your eyes with contacts).
also, there is very slight light sensitivity. like i can tell if it is a gloomy day out, but i still find that i am more comfortable with shades on.
thinking of doing a corrective surgery since it is complimentary.
hope this helps!
i think for normal lasik, the recovery is less painful, but i was abit concerned about the "flap". like.. there's a scar..... when i asked the clinic what would happen if the "flap" dislodged.. they said,.. just come back and we will reposition it