Lasik

On the 25th April, 2005, I went to Optimax in Tmn Tun at 9am for an eye check up and also the lasik treatment that will hopefully give me the perfect vision or rather vision that need not be aided by the thick glasses that perched on my nose. I had to lay off my contact lenses for about 2 weeks before this. If you had toric lenses, you need to lay them off for about a month (the longer the better).

After a series of checks by Jackie Chan (I am not kidding you.. his name is Jackie Chan to the letter). Chan (as he preferred to be called) wore a white jacket much like a doctor. He checked my vision ability, dominant eye (mine is the right eye), the health of my iris, the thickness of my cornea (right 581 micron and left 593 micron-if thin, you cannot go for the lasik), peered into my retina to determine if I have diabetes, took photographs of my naked eye and loads of more of tests that had me moving from room to room. In the end, he brought me to a counselling room to talk to me about the procedures of the operations whilst putting drops of liquid to my eye to dilate my pupils.

He was very nice and reassuring. After the pupil dilated sufficiently, I was made to sign the consent form (gracious, you had better read the consent form first before your pupils get dilated for you can't read anything. Thank goodness Hubbywas there and he read the whole thing for me. Then it was already 12.45pm and time for lunch. I hobbled down to Secret Recipe (hobbled cos my knees were a bit sore from the glacier climb in New Zealand last September). I ate while wearing my sunglasses. I was very sensitive to the light as I had now eyes like the cat... meow!

At 1.30pm, I was back in the clinic and was dressed like I was going for an operation. My feet were wrapped in paper shoes, my hair was capped in the same paper material and my 'operation' gown was er.. warm. Then Dr Stephen Chung gave a little pep talk. Then by 2.30pm, I strolled into the operating theatre and lay down on the table. Numbing liquid was squirted into my eye. A piece of cloth was put over the left eye and the right eyelashes were taped to prevent me from blinking. Then a ring descended and grabbed my eyeball to make it stationery. After a few seconds, my vision faded to darkness. A similar shaped ring was placed on my cornea and you can feel that something is cutting your cornea. Then when I got my vision back, I can see the doctor flipping back my cut cornea. Then laser was shot into the eye and I can hear buzzing sounds and smell burnt stuff. The machine in the background was saying "25% complete, 50% complete, 10 seconds more to go.... procedure complete."
During that time, I was supposed to be focusing on a red light above. Many times, I lost it.. the doctor kept on urging me "Ma'am.. keep your eye on the light. The red light.. we are losing you!. C'mon, keep staring at the light". I had never been in a more uncomfortable experience. Painless but darn uncomfortable. Similarly my left eye went thru the ordeal. When I was done, I felt that I was cutting onions. In fact, it was like cutting onions for the next 3 hours. Every time I open my eyes, tears will flow down. I was so mang chang.. kept on hopping and hopping. In the end, I took valium and rested. Praise God that Marido was with me and can drive me around.

Next day.. vision has improved but not totally. I had to put antibiotic drops every 2 hours. I still can't see near or far well (I have to type this note in font size 24 in WordPad) but I guess that the vision will be good by a week. Here is hoping that Marido's operation will be less uncomfortable. I plan to take good care of the poor dear this Sat.

But Lasik is great stuff!!!