Elective surgery is one of those mixed things in life, where you try to turn a blind eye to all the potential dangers of surgery, in hopes that YOU won't be the one in a million case that went wrong; even more so with elective Lasik eye surgery!
I took the plunge. After living in Vietnam for a few months, I kept meeting people who told me how happy they were with their post-Lasik vision. Being a man of many glasses with slowly progressing myopia over the years, I couldn't help but want to be free. Contact lenses never agreed with me; since I had a problem with dry eyes.
After hearing what a "deal" the corrective vision surgery was in Bangkok, I booked an appointment at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok. You can hear NPR's take on this well-regarded hospital in Asia: "Tourists Seek Cheaper Medical Procedures in Asia".
When I showed up for my appointment, I registered in a busy outpatient opthomology clinic within the hospital. The opthomologist briefly assessed my potential success for the procedure and easily came to a "yes, can do." Forget about any discussion if this corrective eye surgery was right for me. Little did I know how quickly things would progress to the first incision!
By the next day, I was on the operating table. I was scheduled to have both corneas laser reshaped within a total of thirty minutes. Everything progressed along without much of a hitch. I had my eyelids forced open by small clamps that I had seen in the movie "Clockwork Orange". I couldn't blink and had to keep my eyes looking straight ahead at a small ring of light, that made me think of a sun eclipsed by the moon. The threat was that if I couldn't keep my eyes focused straight ahead during the procedure for 15 minutes, then the laser would not perform the perfect job on my cornea, and I would not achieve perfect vision. In other words, an unsuccessful outcome to the surgery would have been my fault!
In the end. I did it. I survived the feeling of a knife slicing open a thin flap of my eye open. I survived the feeling of the Lasik machine pushing up against my eyeball with such an intense pressure and sound; although I felt myself on the fringe of blacking out but somehow pulled through the weakness. I survived the procedure done twice over, one eye after the next!
Shortly after the surgery, I was wisked away to the recovery room, where I rested for two hours, then began my next ordeal. I was fitted with plastic eye shields taped to my face, that would prevent me from touching my eyes for 24 hours. The eye shields had little pinholes through them, where I could see the world in a peeping-tom fasion. I walked out of the hospital like this, and found my way to a nearby hotel two blocks away from the hospital--where I checked in for complete room service for 24 hours.
I took the plunge. After living in Vietnam for a few months, I kept meeting people who told me how happy they were with their post-Lasik vision. Being a man of many glasses with slowly progressing myopia over the years, I couldn't help but want to be free. Contact lenses never agreed with me; since I had a problem with dry eyes.
After hearing what a "deal" the corrective vision surgery was in Bangkok, I booked an appointment at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok. You can hear NPR's take on this well-regarded hospital in Asia: "Tourists Seek Cheaper Medical Procedures in Asia".
When I showed up for my appointment, I registered in a busy outpatient opthomology clinic within the hospital. The opthomologist briefly assessed my potential success for the procedure and easily came to a "yes, can do." Forget about any discussion if this corrective eye surgery was right for me. Little did I know how quickly things would progress to the first incision!
By the next day, I was on the operating table. I was scheduled to have both corneas laser reshaped within a total of thirty minutes. Everything progressed along without much of a hitch. I had my eyelids forced open by small clamps that I had seen in the movie "Clockwork Orange". I couldn't blink and had to keep my eyes looking straight ahead at a small ring of light, that made me think of a sun eclipsed by the moon. The threat was that if I couldn't keep my eyes focused straight ahead during the procedure for 15 minutes, then the laser would not perform the perfect job on my cornea, and I would not achieve perfect vision. In other words, an unsuccessful outcome to the surgery would have been my fault!
In the end. I did it. I survived the feeling of a knife slicing open a thin flap of my eye open. I survived the feeling of the Lasik machine pushing up against my eyeball with such an intense pressure and sound; although I felt myself on the fringe of blacking out but somehow pulled through the weakness. I survived the procedure done twice over, one eye after the next!
Shortly after the surgery, I was wisked away to the recovery room, where I rested for two hours, then began my next ordeal. I was fitted with plastic eye shields taped to my face, that would prevent me from touching my eyes for 24 hours. The eye shields had little pinholes through them, where I could see the world in a peeping-tom fasion. I walked out of the hospital like this, and found my way to a nearby hotel two blocks away from the hospital--where I checked in for complete room service for 24 hours.
Once the eye shields were removed, I moved onto the next stage of fun. The schedule of 6 different eye medications for several weeks was aweful. It involved Saline tears to both eyes 10x/day for 1 week; Solumedrol (steroid) drops to the left eye 12x/day for 2 days and to the right eye 6x/day for 2 days; Tobradex (antibiotic) drops to both eyes for 5 days, Visilube (moisturizing) drops to both eyes 4x/day for 1 week; Visdisc gel (moisturizing) to both eyes 3x/day for 1 week; and Restasis (immunosuppressant) drops to both eyes 2x/day for 4 weeks. All of these medications were used on the same days, with some medications finishing before others.
My opthomologist told me my vision would stabilize to its permanent form after 6 months. Prior to surgery, my eyeglass prescription was -3.00 in both eyes. 5 days after surgery, my vision was corrected to -0.25 in both eyes; which has persisted to the 6 month point! Way to go!
Woo hoo! All for $1795 USD.
