Post-op update
The LASIK was a success, or so I would like to believe! 🙂
Although my glasses has been replaced with a dorky protective google (two of which I have already broken in a span of 1 day), I am pleased with the results. My vision was not a perfect 20/20 but something along the lines of 20/25-30. Not bad coming from a vision that has a lens grade of 525/500 for each eye. I am willing to sport the dorky to the extreme look for two weeks as long as this dream vision lasts for at least ten years.
I am getting ahead of myself. I went on a half-day leave last Friday for the scheduled LASIK procedure (I still dont want to call it an operation). My loving wife met me in the 10th floor of the Phinma building at around 1PM before I went into the preparation room. The whole prep time was about an hour long, about 90% of which I spent snoring on a very comfortable lazy boy chair. I think the mild sedative they gave me have something to do with that.
When they brought me inside the LASIK room I was pretty scared. The reason being is that I forgot to ask Dr. Ang (the eye surgeon) how would they cut the flap in my cornea or if they have an instrument that would make my eyeball stationary. Face it, it is not normal to be unwavering if you see a blade a few millimeters from your eye. Dr. Ang was very cordial and said that I don’t need to worry about it, so I didn’t.
They made me lie down to an operating table with a specially-molded headrest that would minimize head movement. Dr. Ang talked to me throughout the whole process and keeps on reminding me to stare straight to the red blinking light. They placed something like a reverse vise on my eyelids so I wont blink. Then when it was time to cut a flap, Dr. Ang said he will place something in my eye which will darken everything and that I am to say when everything has gone completely dark. After everything went dark he said that I would feel a vibration for 30 seconds. I would assume this was the point that they were already cutting a flap. Again I would like to say that I still havent felt anything but I am completely aware of my surroundings. 🙂
The whole process then continued with my restored vision. Dr. Ang said my vision will scatter which I think was when they lifted the corneal flap. Then he said I would hear something burning but that is perfectly normal. In the background I can hear the hum of the laser and a nurse counting “25 percent, 51 percent, 76 percent, 100% percent”. Dr. Ang then placed back the flap and smoothened it with what looked to me like a small spatula and a thin wire. Then they repeated the process on my left eye.
The whole process lasted around 10 minutes. Then the nurse instructed me about the drops that would need to be administered for 2 weeks. They gave me a protective googles whose ear brace I managed to snap during the night. When I came back the following day for a checkup, Dr. Ang said there is a foreign object in the lower end of the flap and he would need to open the flap again to clean it out. So the short visit stretched to an hour since I had to go back to the LASIK room. The cleanup only lasted a few minutes so I spent much of it dozing on the lazyboy. /lol
The good thing about it is that since my wife works for Rockwell Land Corp, I was able to avail of a whooping 25% discount on the whole package cost. Neat!
Here is to a clear and lasting recovery!