Eunz

BEFORE SURGERY

      SO. I've been wanting to do lasik surgery for a while, because I am tired of wearing glasses. My eyes are super sensitve, so contact lenses doesn't work for me. Plus, I'm scared of eyes. I'm scared of people touching their eyes, and I'm scared of touching my own eyes. I can't say that I've done much research on lasik eye surgery, because like I've said, I'm scared of eyes. I did all the research I can on places, pros and cons, side effects, etc though. I also knew the basic procedures + what would be done to my eyes. 

      I chose to have my LASIK done in TW because 1) it's cheaper 2) I feel that they have more "clinical practice" since lots of Taiwanese had done the surgery. Before I arrived in Taiwan, I had my mind set on going to well-known eye clinics (Nobel Eye Clinic, Xin He Mei, etc) rather than hospitals (I've read posts about how the big hospitals are too busy to care about you after your laser...) 

     As per my aunts' suggestion, I went to 3 different places (2 Eye Clinics + 1 Big Hospital) to check if my eye is suitable for LASIK. My first visit was He Ping Hospital. I got to say, I don't really like being there, and their services/check-ups felt very rushed. There were too many people there, and the nurses weren't even looking at me OR the machine when they were doing the checkups. They were too busy taking care of other patients. I waited at the waiting area for 1.5 more hours before they realized that two of their machine is not working, so they couldn't finish the complete test too see if my eyes are really suitable for the surgery. The doctor did tell me that my cornea are thick enough, but I was still told to go again another day to finish the test. I was charged 450 NT for the check ups + 2 eye drops. I ended up not doing back to finish the test after checking my eyes at the two other places. This hospital doesn't provide LASIK surgery anyway. I went only because my aunt heard that the eye doctor was well-known. 

 

DURING SURGERY

     Before the actual surgery, they did all the tests on me again to double check on if I'm really suitable for the surgery. The last two equipment they used on testing me is slightly different...probably because I paid for the more expensive option. They gave me two options since I have pretty bad astigmatism, but it's still in the boundary of the cheaper option- one is around NT50000 and the other is NT60000 (I rounded down btw). The test lasted around one hour; there were lots of waiting around. They basically kept calling my number and did one test with one machine, then told me to go back and wait on the couch, and then repeat. 

       So, after all the testing, they did that eye drop thing that would "numb" your eyes. Sorry I don't know the proper medical terms for them. But basically, you won't feel the pain while the lasik procedure was being done on you. After they put in the eye drop for me, they had me closed my eyes, and led me by hand to my bed/LASIK machine. BTW, there were two different types of bed/machine in the same surgery room. The surgery room was really cold...the AC was turned on really strong. I almost froze. The bed that I was lying on had a stuffed bear there, so I hugged it (to keep warm & give me a sense of security) during my whole time in the surgery room. Another patient waiting on the other machine already before I entered, so I thought that I still had time to mentally relax myself. Or like, you know, listen to what is happening and what they are doing to the other person. BUT, the first thing the doctor did when he walked into the room was sat right next to my bed (I'm not really sure where exactly, since my eyes were stilll closed._.), then I heard the machine turning on...and then the next thing I know was the doctor putting stuff on my eyes to keep my eyelids open (?!?! I wasn't ready for that yet!!! I thought the other person was supposed to be first D: ) While they were popping my right eyelid open, I kept hearing them ask “Are you Miss Tseng". (Like What?!?!?! They sounded far away and I wasn't sure if they were asking me or that other person ._. So I got super paranoid and weakly tried to say "Hi, I am". *Weakly because I couldn't really move my mouth since the doctor's hand covered half of my face. After I said "I am", I wasn't sure if they heard me either  ._. so I was super paranoid the whole time while they were performing the surgery on my eyes. What if they got the wrong prescription measurement because they thought I was someone else ???)

       After they popped open my right eyelid, they moved that machine over my head. And then trouble happened. Okay, not really, I'm just being over-dramatic. But yeah, I think the machine bed was too low or something...or I'm just too short, so they had to help me adjust my body position on the bed. Then, they moved that machine thing over my head again. Apparently, my head/body kept sliding down because I was too nervous, so the doctor threatened(?) me. He was strict and warned me the danger of not keeping my head still during the surgery. (It's not like I was doing it on purpose though! :( I couldn't control myself. Anyway. I was instructed to stare at the red dot, and according to the research I've read, THE REMOVING CORNEA PART WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OVER FAST. They lied. It felt like forever to me. I mean, yeah they were still counting to 10, but they stretched the count out really slowly.  Before the surgery, I thought that all I had to do is lay there and let the machine shoot some laser stuff at my eyes, and my eyesight would be good. I was wrong. After we were done with staring at the red dot, they moved my bed and the doctor performed some surgery. I honestly don't know or remember what they did to me, exactly, but my cousin did record the surgery for me from outside the surgery room (the room is transparent). I'm still scared of eyes, so I didn't watch the clip, but I will upload it here. If you want to watch, be my guest. 

     About 10 minutes later, the doctor told me we're done. I get to open my eyes. Then he said congrats to me, saying that the surgery went well, and that I would be able to see perfect vision. So，I was expecting to be able to see everything right after I opened my eyes. THAT WAS NOT THE CASE. Everything seemed blurry-ish and foggy to me. I didn't feel like my vision was perfect in anyway. They told me that was normal though...so. I went home with my baby cousin and my uncle. 

 

RECOVERY PERIOD

     My eyelids felt very sore and exhausted after the surgery. I mean, it makes sense, afterall, they did put something on my eyelid to keep it open the whole time during surgery. So, the first thing I did when I got back home was to lay on the bed and closed my eyes. I didn't really want to sleep because my heart was still, and I was still worry about the success of the surgery. Also, my two cousins were watching movies in the living room, so I wanted to join them, even though I can't watch the movie anyway. When I feel like I really couldn't stay awake any longer （I was actually dozing off for while before I finally gave in and fell asleep), I applied my eyedrops the clinic gave me. I also asked my cousin to help me tape that protective gear the clinic gave me to prevent me from accidently rubbing my eyes during sleep. I'll include picturs of the items they gave me too. 

     The next day, I no longer have blurry or foggy vision. But, I was still nervous, because it didn't feel like I had perfect vision either. I couldn't really the words closer to me. It felt like my eyesight were a little farsighted. When I went in to the eyeclinic for the post-surgery checkup, I was really nervous. I was scared that I might hear, "Unfortunately, your eyesight did not reach perfect vision"...However, I was relieved when I heard the actual result of the surgery. They told me I had perfect vision. It was 0 and 0 on both side. TBH, I have no idea what that meant, but they did tell me that my eyesights are recoverying very well. So, I was happy. 

    One week later, I returned to the clinic for the second post-surgery checkup. They told me that my eyesights are recovering at a very good pace, but this time my vision were 0.5 and 0.5 on both eyes. During this appointment, I handed over the eyedrops that I've received from other clinics/hospitals during the pre-surgery checkup. (I'll also have picture of that for reference). My doctor took them, and reorganized them, and threw away a couple. In the end, I left the eyeclinic with 3 bags/set of eyedrops. In each set there are at least 2 eyedrops. There were also the eyedrop for artificial tears, but since the bottle is bigger, they didn't include that in all three sets.  

     A couple days after that, my "farsightedness" disappeared, and my eyes finally felt like it's actually at perfect vision. Yay! 

     My red eyes disappeared after 3 weeks instead of 1 week :( They told me it was supposed to be gone after 1 week ._.

 

Update:

4/29/16 - I haven't been back to the clinic for checkup ever since the first week of Feburary, because they told me to go back when run out of eyedrops...which I haven't yet.

12/21/17 - Eyesight is obviously not as sharp/good as it was right after surgery; however, the optometrist (in U.S) told me that my eyes are still in good conditions, except that they are a little dry.