Hi! Just to update on my progress 2 weeks after ICL (implantable contact lens) surgery.
Background:
Was rejected for LASIK twice by two different eye clinics due to thin cornea. There is one type of LASIK that targets people with thin cornea, but my cornea was too thin even for that. Decided on ICL after consultation and recommendation from doctor from the 2nd clinic.
Surgery Day:
ICL surgery is invasive but painless for most people. They will use numbing eyedrops and they will eject anesthesia around the eye bag area, but on surgery day doctor told me my eyeballs are bigger than the average and the injection might poke my eyeballs, and asked if I'm okay to do the surgery with just the numbing eye drops. Did it without the anesthesia and the pain was about 2/10. Didn't feel pain (just pressure) on my left, but a slight stinging kind of pain on my right. Everything was bearable though!
Surgery itself was about 30 minutes I think? But I was at the clinic for about 3 hours to wait for dilation of my eyes + paperwork etc.
Recovery:
The good part about ICL is that there are no side effects. Only need to wear eye shield to protect your eyes during your sleep on the 1st night. 2nd night onwards don't need to wear already.
No light sensitivity too (since it's not LASIK).
I already have dry eyes before I did the surgery, so I still do face dry eye issues now but I don't find the issue worsening even after surgery. Would say nothing has changed much, but I do try to be diligent in putting my eye drops and taking supplements like fish oil for the psychological effect to make me feel like it's helping.
Perfect Vision?
I have astig on both eyes, so initially I wanted to fix them and go for perfect vision. However, doctor advised against it just in case I will develop Presbyopia (老花) in the future, so if I keep one side with astig (the one with the lower astig than the other, which is fortunately not super high), at least I still have one eye that can count on in the future.
Do I regret going for ICL?
ICL is much more expensive than the standard LASIK (about double?), so I assume that's why people opt for LASIK since both procedures produce the same results. At first I was really bummed that I wasn't suitable for LASIK, but after weighing the pros and cons I think I might still have opted for ICL instead of LASIK even if I was suitable. Light sensitivity was my biggest worry since friends who've done LASIK before told me that it doesn't go away, and while it does not make a big impact to your everyday life, it does somewhat affects you in one way or another. Plus I can still wear cosmetics contact lens on days that I want to! Some cases of LASIK doesn't allow you to wear contact lens anymore because the surface of the cornea will change after LASIK or something like that. But overall I'm happy with my near-perfect vision and have no regrets!
you know a lot! 
