I just did LASEK operation!!!

I just did LASEK operation after delaying it for 2 weeks (the stupid OCBC credit card does not arrive on time!!!).

I did the surgery on 9th August 2007. Its Thursday. My lucky number is 4. And now I'm doing in on Thursday which is 4 in Chinese. Its very coincidence. I never thought of doing it on Thursday. But they told me that week Saturday is holiday. So operation which is all the time done on Friday have to move to Thursday. (Later they found at that its not really holiday and they have to work on Saturday. Talk about coincidence).

When I'm in the Optimax Laser Eye Surgery centre, I have slight scary feeling. Not a lot. Maybe I really want to do this so long that the scary feeling is not that much. Furthermore, bad things happened during healing and not during surgery.

I went in around 12.30pm which is earlier by 4 hours. I want them to check my eyes again and make sure I really have that short sightedness and astig. This is because, I go and check in other optimetrist and find out that my power is actually lower. But after checking, my power is what they have check previously. I guess I have to believe them.

I met with an Intel fellow there. He just did LASIK. He feel everything very bright. But no pain at all. I can feel he is suffering from brightness because eventhough he is wearing sunglass, he still use his hand to cover his eyes. I saw a room is empty. So I just tell him to get into that room and turn off all the lights. He should have gone home. But he need to wait until his friend finish work. After that, I didn't see him again.

When its my turn, I was ask to wear surgery clothing. I really have to strip until underwear and wear the greenish clothing with cap as well. I went out to check with them what to do after I wore those close. Damn those people never give me proper instruction. Then all the woman at the receptionist laugh at me saying I look funny in that suit &$)#&%@*(&(*...

Anyway, I proceed to sit in a secluded places where a woman come in and....wash my eye lids. She climb on the bench next to me and work on my eyes. Then she put my document underneath the door to the surgeon. At this time, I actually sit quite stiff. Not sure if I scared or what. But I really determined to get it done.

Finally, I was called into the room. The surgeon called Dr. Lee Seow Yeang keep on talking and comfort me. She really good at doing that. I was led to sit on a chair which is something like in dental. Then she ask me to look at green or red light. She said there's a small hole. What I did next is embarassing and dangerous. I lift up my finger and point to that laser. Next thing I heard is my hand touching the glass of the red/green LED. OMG!! I mean, if i break something, the surgery will gone awefully wrong. Everyone in the room is so shock. Then she said, ok, no finger print and luckily I didn't break her glass. She said its just lens protector. Now I'm scared whether it is really true. Did I just screw up my surgery? Oh man. But I just let the surgery start since i've been wanting to do this. I guess I have to truet her.

The surgery start with them putting alcohol in my right eye. After the alcohol soften the epithalium layer, they pull the epithalium layer with a cotton bud. I still does not feel anything since I've been given pain killer and general anaesthetic. Then the laser started to shoot into my eyes with "zap" "zap" "zap" sound. I can see faint grey things when the laser zapping my eyes. It smells too the burning of my cornea :P I feel the red light moving to left. (but this is denied by the surgeon saying that I was halucinating :(.... ). After zapping, they use cooling liquid to cleanse my eyes. I feel so good with the cleansing. The same thing was done to my left eyes. The surgery was quite short. Maybe 20 minutes or so. Too short that I actually enjoy the eurgery. Hehe...

The suffering is actually happened after the surgery :( :

Thursday
straight after surgery, i dun feel anything at all because of the painkiller they give. go home, close my eyes all the time even during eating. slept early that night.
i have to wear protective eye gear. the gear is really uncomfortable. its two piece clear plastic with breathing holes. i need to use plaster to stick my face.

Friday
the next morning, when wake up, my left eye feel a bit gritty. my right eye still no feeling. check vision at optimax. left eyes is 20/20. right eye is blur. i believe this actually means my right eyes, the epithalium layer is dying and causing blurness. But left eye epithalium is still alive.

Saturday
next next morning, i feel a bit gritty feeling again. not really that pain. check vision again. both eye also blur. but left eye still almost 20/20.

Sunday
I wake up with a shocker. the protective eye gear was not in place. I remember i take them off while in the middle of the night. Nice job. I quickly called up the 24 hour emergency number. They said if I don't feel pain and no redness, means I'm fine. I heave a sigh of relieve. Now, both eyes no more pain. (but both eye blur blur now)

Monday
I drive to optimax to take off my right contact lens. Both eyes feel good now. When she take out my right contact lens, I quickly feel some gritty feeling. I was told to buy RM22 eye gel and so i did. It still feels bad. I think there's some foreign object in my eyes. Night time, i feel a bit pain when close my right eyes. i'm very worried there's a foreign object that keep on scratching my new epithalium layer. :(

Tuesday
i wake up, open my right eye, and feel very pain. Then I try to put some gel the pain get lesser. I decided not close my eyes. i keep on reading newspaper, watch tv, watch cartoon and it feels good. Then at 4.30pm, I drove to Optimax take off my left contact lens. They check both eyes with some scanner. They said my right eyes looks ok. (i'm still wonder why is it pain). This time, I bring along artificial tears so that i can wash my eyes after they take out the contact lens. Yesterday, I didn't bring anything. After take out contact lens, i close my eyes and the feeling of pain is there. That's why today I bring artificial tears to wash my eyes. They actually explain that the pain feeling because of the roughness of epitalium layer that is healing.

Wednesday
I've decided to work today. Everything is blur. Even reading words on Dell LCD is blur. I need to get close to the LCD to read the words. I think its very bad for my eyes. I keep on resting in between works and try to look away. My right eye gritty feeling is pretty uncomfortable. I gave them a call. They said it might be oily and dry. So I just put more artificial tears. I also pull my eyelid so that if there's foreign object, it will flow away with the artificial tears. Actually it feels good after that. I conclude that my eyelid is the culprit. Maybe my eyelid dug into my eyes or something like that.

Thursday
Vision continue to improve. Haziness is still quite noticeable.

Friday (Today)
I actually feel great with my vision. My right eye grittiness is almost gone. I start to use Eye Drops instead of the artificial tears which has finished (the second box which I have to purchase at RM33).

Conclusion
well, there's no conclusion yet. I have yet got 20/20 eyesight. But start now, i have new found freedom. I don't need to wear glass to anywhere I go. :)