I did my LASIK eye surgery 1 year ago

Ok let me tell you about my experienced doing LASIK eye procedure. Not many people knew this except my family but it has been 1 year since I've done LASIK. And yes I do not need to wear glasses anymore. And yes I used to wear glasses. I started wearing glasses when I was 12 years old. I was the only person in family who wore it. Though mom and dad can almost be label as an old citizens, they still posess a very good eye sight.

So back to where I was.Yes LASIK. you see, there's a different between LASIK and LASEK. If I were to mention it here it will clearly be very technical in optometrics language. And to be honest, up until now I couldn't understand it. But what I know is LASIK is the newest compare to LASEK. Such a naive statement. But anyway, it's not until I was 17 I started to experiment with contacts. I remembered I told my dad perfectly

'Daddy, I want to wear contact lenses'.

Though I couldn't recall what dad's response was but he did brought me to an optical shop to be tested. I've been wearing contacts ever since. My power? too high almost 600 per eye. If I were not to wear my glasses at night I can almost say I'm blind.

In 2009 when I started my PhD I spent three quater of my time on computer. By the end of the day, when you're wearing contacts your eyes will start to get very dry and tired. Most of the time because of this, I'll get headache. So I decided to try for surgery since Optical express offered a free consultation on eye surgery.

Some people think the idea of doing surgery is daunting, rather scary sometimes. Especially eyes when the procedure needed you to stay concious all the time. Let me tell you about the procedure. And because it's LASIK the recover time is 1 day. Mainly, you go to surgery, you sleep until tomorrow, wake up and you have a perfectly clear view. Unlike LASEK require 1 week to recover.

But it's not as simple as it sound. The optometrition told me that not all people can do the surgery. It depend on the condition of your eyes. And it also doesn't mean that you will get a full recover of a 20/20 vision. The higher the power the less probability you'll get 100% recover of your vision.

Is it painful? Well yes and no. Yes when the Dr put pressure on your eye to make way for his tools at the beginning and no during the procedure. The procedure only took 3 minutes. Really. But it require you to be concious and you can feel a bit uncomfortable because you needed to stare at a flashing light.

Then after that you'll have a very blur vision. Like when you accidently put lotion into your eye. A lot of lotion actually. And you need to wear like a swimming google while sleeping and eating and going outside for atleast a few weeks to prevent from rubbing your eyes or anything caught in it. And of course you need to be in the dark.

After it recover sometime you will feel that your eyes is very dry. Because it is and you needed to put intensive eye drops for months. I put mine until today because when I wake up in the morning, my eyes feels dry and my vision is a bit blur.

How much is the cost? It also depend on your eye condition and whether it is LASIK or LASEK. LASEK is much cheaper than LASIK of course. It can goes up to thousand of quids. And for me it cost me exactly 2000 pounds. I have a lifetime maintainance and a very healthy clear eye sight. If you have in mind to any of this, you have my recommendation. It's expensive but it was all worth it.

13 comments:

Aida Narina said...

hana! i want to, but i would need to save the money for something else. even if you are kind enough and give me the 300pounds voucher (kenyit mata sikit), i still kene top up quite a lot. tengok lah later bila dah save duit lagi :p as for now, say i can just say hello to hazel brown contact lense, hihii :p

ween said...

this entry is very helpful. I have been wondering about the procedures of doing lasik, either it's painful or not. and the cost as well. thanks for sharing, sis :)

wearelearningparents said...

LASIK is better. ramai kawan sy da buat LASIK...apatah lagi kat tempat kami study, mmg ade buat LASIK...=)

Lea Shmea said...

alamak kena pakai goggles for a few weeks?? how does the goggles look like? does it look funny or biasa2 je? how do u rate the pain from 1 to 10? ok i ni byk tanya kan haha. sbb i pun plan nk buat soon. insyaAllah.

~maiefa said...

Salam. Hye dear, been reading ur blog for a while. U're a good writer. And it's really nice to hear this topic from the point view of a patient.

I'm an optometrist at a gov hospital (now u know why I'm leaving my comment. hehe) In Msia only private hosp perform LASIK and as much as i would like to chuck my gls to the bin, i'm still not brave enough to go with LASIK. You're one of the lucky one i guess because most pt came back for a second procedure or usually they have extreme dryness and glare problem for a lifetime. You see because cornea is such a delicate structure and tampering with it is very risky. It's also irreversible. Then again, any kind of operation do come with a risk.

I didn't mean to scare you and other readers or anything. Just sharing some things here. Btw, there's no optometrition. it's just optometrist *wink*

Keep writing! =)

Hanafedora said...

Aida: Hehe say yes to contacts. anyway, anytime if you want to use my voucher is welcome :)

Ween: no problem. :)

Rubylsma: Yes it is. It's so worth it :)

Lea: Hahaha Pakai goggles laa macam robocop and it's so funny but it's ok I don't really care :P Pain rating?? mmmm it depend on ppl I guess..But it only lasted for not more than 5 second.. :) I'm a high tolerance pain person..so it varies :)

Maiefa: well hello there. Yes I know there's no optometrition..I'm making my own vocab..haha
And here in London most of the older generations go for LASIK and they say 99% of them is was very satisfied with the outcome.they even have a lot of testimonial forms sticking at their office wall.So that is why I was very confident with it. Yes dryness is always a problem and I'm still using eye drops but gradually it's ok. I eyes was even dryer when I wore contacts. And I've asked if ppl will come for 2nd procedure..And here they say no..I don't know in Msia though. Because the optometrist here was very convincing I decided to go for it :)

Owh and they say that if I have glare problem it is not advisable to do it..but because I don't have it so it was OK :)

thanks though for info in msia.. :) now I know.

Hanafedora said...

Oh now i can't believe I went through LASIK. just saw a video on the procedure it's facinating..Lol//I understand why optometrist themselves is not brave enough to go through it..

now Important note! Do not in any circumstances if you want to go for LASIK, watch a video or hear what is actually being done by the optometrist on the LASIK surgery..

Because it will stick in your mind..and you might not want to do it..lol

chics said...

I've always wanted to go for LASIK but I am too scared, plus my power is quite high, nearly reaching 1000.

I mean it would be a waste to do it and still have to wear specs/contact lenses.

Until today, I am still thinking hehe

Anonymous said...

hello dear..
just blog hopping & interested to share my experience.

I did my lasik in 2004. my power for each eye was 550.well actually i went for a PRK (Photorefractive keratectomy)..it's almost the same as lasik but the only difference is they did not do a corneal flap instead they just scraped the outer layer of the cornea and shoot the laser directly.
The downside of PRK - it took a month to recover. for the whole month i had blurry vision and just had to bear with it. gradually the vision get better and i've never needed glasses/contact ever since.
it's one my best investment in life so far.

but i must say it's quite expensive in london ya..i did mine for RM4K (both eyes + follow ups checkups) at Ampang Puteri.

Hanafedora said...

Hi pu3natul,

yes it's indeed expensive because LASIK only took over the night to recover and it doesn't scrap of any flap above. I had choices to choose between those 2 and in London lasek, the one ur doing is much much cheaper it's almost the same in msia in term of cost. But the recover time took i think more than a week? I can't remember. But I don't hv that amount of time at that time coz I needed to fly to Italy a few days after the surgery.

But either way it still give the same effect :)

pu3natul said...

hello dear..
just blog hopping & interested to share my experience.

I did my lasik in 2004. my power for each eye was 550.well actually i went for a PRK (Photorefractive keratectomy)..it's almost the same as lasik but the only difference is they did not do a corneal flap instead they just scraped the outer layer of the cornea and shoot the laser directly.
The downside of PRK - it took a month to recover. for the whole month i had blurry vision and just had to bear with it. gradually the vision get better and i've never needed glasses/contact ever since.
it's one my best investment in life so far.

but i must say it's quite expensive in london ya..i did mine for RM4K (both eyes + follow ups checkups) at Ampang Puteri.

Ruth Belmont said...

Oh... Hope you will be good by now..

Tristan Dorsey said...

Getting Lasik are good