Lasik Operation

Before a lasik surgery, the nurse would carry out various checks on your eyes to determine its suitability. These include thickness of the cornea, the pressure on the eye ball, the severness of myopia and astigmatism etc. The checks would require the pupils to dialate and make the vision unclear. But it will be back to normal in about an hour time. Of course, you have to sign the letter of indemnity just like any other surgery.

My surgery on both eyes was carried out consecutively on the same day, there was a need to arrange for a relative/friend to guide and support you after the surgery. Just before the surgery, you have put on surgery cloth, cap and shoe (just a paper like cover). While you are advised not to bring along valuable, any personal belongings could be placed in a locker. The nurse would place droplets of anaesthesia on both eyes and let you rest for a few minutes. During that time, your psychological mind would start to creep up. You would start to think about what would happen during the surgery and whether it would be painful. And the worse question that pops up is "What if the surgery is not successful?" ...... You would have to think positive and imagine the wonders of not wearing glasses again.

When the nurse called me, I was wondering why my turn was so fast. When I walked into the lab, I could not see far because the pair of glasses was left in the locker. The surgeon would confrim my identify and requested that I lied on the bed facing a huge metallic surgical tool. This was when my heart went into hyperdrive. The huge surgical tool looked very intimating. I felt that my courage was at its peak then, because I was telling myself "mind over body" and repeating it. The nurse would secure a tape surrounding the first eye to be operated on and cover the second eye. The vision was still fuzzy because of the bad eye sight. More drops of anaethesia was dropped onto the eyes. I remember the first eye to be operated was the right eye, because of the lower astigmatism, there was no need to go for wavefront analysis. For my left eye where wavefront analysis wasrequired, it costs S$500 more because it maps the contour of the eye and will, according to the optician, gave a better effect. The surgeon would place a metallic piece on my eye and that was when the surgery would commence. He would cut open the cornea using a blade, which was pretty fast and create a flap. Once the cornea flap was lifted, the vision was completely gone with the exception of a red laser beam which I could see and was requested to focus at. Then the laser would start to operate. There was a "tick tick" sound generated from the laser equipment and I could smell a burning smell which was familiar, perhaps similar to the one done on a tooth extraction/surgery. The pain was minimal when no wavefront analysis was required. It was operated faster and was completed in perhaps 3 minutes (base on my estimation). When the flap was covered, the vision was resumed, but still not clear because of the fluid surrounding the eye. The surgeon would inform me that the first eye was done and was reliefed. Then they would remove the cover of my second eye (left eye). The steps would repear itself, except that with wavefront, the computer will generate a laser to map the contour of the cornea. In my personal experience, this takes time and had a greater pain. I could feel the pain and was crasping my hand. The duration was close to 5 minutes. After the surgery, both eyes were protected by a plastic cover with operning for vision

My conclusion was that the wavefront was much painful and the effect was not that satisfactory. After so many months, my myopia was reduced to zero degree, but it was not sharp because of astigmatism. Occasionally, especially when driving at night, I have to wear a pair of glasses to improve the sharpness. Overall, I think that Lasik had improve my life as there was no need to wear glassess for photography.