Monday, February 12, 2007

My New Vision

Last week I had my LASIK operation. It was preceded by days of agonizing dilemmas, as there are quite a few choices available for this common procedure. Conventional LASIK or custom? Microkeratome or Intralase? Private doctor or a national chain?

I had a lot of people telling me not to skimp out - "it is your eyes". And I was not going to do it in a shopping mall centre for an advertised price of $599 per eye. But when it came to serious choices, I had to ask myself, whether I am paying for a doctor's expertise or his overhead and expensive advertising.

Finally, I went with LasikPlus national chain. Their MD seemed just as experienced as others I considered, with the same equipment for less money.

Some of the things you who considers the procedure should know.

1) There is a significant preparation period of about a week, when you cannot wear contact lenses. For me, it required some adjustments to the schedule.

2) Whoever tells you LASIK is not a big deal, is not telling the truth. It is a big deal, it is a real surgery, it is invasive, and there are dozens of potential complications and side effects, although they are supposedly rare.

3) Unless you go with the much more expensive Intralase technology, there IS a metal blade involved in the operation. And it is controlled by your surgeon's hand. It is used to cut the "flap" on your cornea.

4) You can actually see the doctor lifting up a thin part of your cornea before the laser beam is directed in your eye.

5) You can smell burning flesh when the laser beam reshapes your eye.

6) Although you do not feel pain, your eyelids are held open with a restrainer and there is a significant pressure applied directly to your eyeball when the doctor cuts your cornea and beams it with the laser.

7) You do not see clearly immediately after the operation - you see things as if underwater for a few hours.

8) You will feel as if your eyes have been injured and are very sensitive for a couple of days.

9) You will be on a strict regimen of expensive eye drops for a week. You will have to wear extremely uncomfortable goggles while sleeping for a week as well.

10) But you will see the world clearly the next day after the operation. Yay!

2 Comments:

Blogger sheeep said...

I am so glad that my eye sight is perfectly fine. Less pain, less money. Yay!

5:38 PM

 
Blogger T said...

Sounds like a case of the pros outweighing the cons. Though I think I'll stick to wearing my good ol' glasses when I need to see something far away.

10:06 PM

 

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