TRANS-EPI LASIK : DAY 6 - 8

5 July


Day 6


1500


in the doctor clinic now. waiting to remove contact lens.


1545


finally my turn


1600


when the lens is remove, the eyes sting a little. can see words clearer than before but other than that, no difference. dr ho said "you can now have a good shower and facial." HAHA.


1900


had a really long and good shower. scrub my face to maximum cleaness. HAHA. shiok!


6 July


Day 7


2230


vision was almost to perfect today. I can see everything clearly. no dry eyes at all too. head out for lunch and dinner normally. didn't wear any sunglass indoor when I was outside since dr said sunglass only needed for outdoor to prevent UV.


7 July


Day 8


1500


went to work today. no problem using the computer. but not as clear. yesterday was better. I had to zoom my computer to 125% in order not to strain my eyes. can feel that the right eye is weaker than the left.


1530


right eye power seems dropping further. left eye is stable. forgot to mention. my degree of my both eyes are -- (L) myopia: 400 astig: 175 (R) myopia: 325 astig: 275

TRANS-EPI LASIK: DAY 2 - 4

1 July



Day 2



0900



Woke up. Left eye a bit sting and teary. i have to put in the eye drops immediately. each eye drops have to have a 10 to 15mins apart. right eye have not much feelings though.



1230



begin my 2nd dosage of all the eye drops. eyes no longer feel sting or teary. vision still fluactuaing. cant really look at handphone. everytime i looked at it, there is a layer of rainbow like reflection blocking the screen. i have to ask family members to help me look at my hp messagaes and replying them.



2 July



Day 3



0945



just finished the 1st dose of all the eye drops. eye sight drop a bit. cant really make up the words at all. contact lens are dry and feel like falling off. i  have to wipe my face with the given TLC wipes then put in all the eye drops. eyes felt better after that. going to the doctor office at Mount E for the 1st review. hope all goes well.



1200



too many people in the clinic waiting for Dr Ho. their planning of appointment fails. my appointment was suppose to be 1130 but the nurse told me to go for a walk and be back at 1230 due to the crowd. head to the opposite building - paragon and had soup spoon. vision is still a blur. i have to walk slowly. and amazingly. some shoppers know and let me pass by before they walk. so gracious :)



1335



just came back from the doctor. good to kow that my cornea is clean, no infections, healing well. told the doctor everything i see still a blur, doctor mentioned things will be much better after the removal of the ontact lens. exercising can start after that also. is a good news i reckon since i havent been able to exercise for a while and mybody felt like a 70 years old.



2000



went out for dinner. traffic lights and headlights of the cars are quite glaring. i have to sit at the back of the car to prevent most of the lights. sunglass need to be put on as well to block the lights. no wonder they say you cant drive at night for 2 months. now i kind of understand. strangely, during the day is fine with the sunglass on. i should be able to resume my driving in daylight hours in 2 or 3 weeks later.



3 July



Day 4



0915



woke up. same old stuff. eyes are dry and lens felt like falling off.



2210



hungry always. presume the eyes need food to heal. havent had the thought of "best decision of my life" yet because i still cant see clearly. day vision is definitely better than the night. sometimes i can really see super clear in the day then super blur after sun down. had too much nap that i no longer feel tired. still though, i havent start using the sleeping pills. guess I will not use it either.

TRANS-EPI LASIK: DAY 1

30 June

0945

So my sister started the car. its about time to head to the clinic for the lasik surgery. i wanted to back up. yes, i am serious. the nerve gets into me suddenly. i started to worry things. worry about the essential and the non-essential things. then, a friend texted me..."are you on your way? dont worry la, you will have clear vision soon. then you will know this is the best decision you have made." so, i plucked up the courage and the journey begins...

1045

the counter nurse advised that i will be the 2nd person for the day for the lasik. it kind of calm me down a bit since i can have enough preparation of what it is like for the 1st person. another comforting sight to know is there are a total of 4 person undergoing the same procedures as me today. i heard stories that there are clinics whereby due to overwhelming patients, patients are going into the surgery room 5 mins per patients. it resembled sardine lined up to be packed into cans. the feelings wasnt really nice. so to know that there are only 4 patients doing the surgery wasnt that bad afterall. and the best part is... i am not the 1st person to do the procedure :)

1120

nurses just finish explaining all the eyedrops which we need to administer after the surgery and same to be done when we are at home. she explained on the emergency procedures as well. if the contact lens that will be placed onto our eye fall out, then we need to head to A&E for emergency procedures. so i guess i need to make sure the lens arent dry enough to be fall out then. VERY important - the nurse said again. 

1140

Made payment to the entire procedures. Goodbye $3600. 

1200

my name was called. i was dressed into the surgery rode, hair cap and shoes cover. the nurse helped to drip 2 drops of numbing eye drops into my eyes. i am practically shaking at this point. i asked the nurse several times..."you sure it will be a painless and quick surgery right?" HAHA. i was praying silently. then the door opened and the 1st patient came out of her surgery, and off i went. 

1205

the nurse double confirm my name and birth date. i was asked to lied on the operation bed. i was damn scared!! haha!! i grabbed onto the operation robes sides and kept looking around. the doctor said a calm "dont worry, is a very quick procedure. no pain." the doctor hold onto my head and then i looked at the green dot, the laser begins. of course, after getting my eye lash clamped. it hurt a bit though. but bearable. i mean the clamp. laser itself wasnt painful. thank god! it was also very helpful that the doctor was counting down. i focus on my breathing the whole time. it was really amazed that the whole laser was done within about 30 second per eye. after both eyes were done, the doctor asked me to sit up and turn me to one side. "look over there and smile" A nurse was holding an ipad and taking photo of us. LMAO! i was usher out to the dark room to rest. 

1300

left the clinic. i have to hold onto my sister with my cap and sunglass on. the sunlight was really glaring. i barely could open my eyes. i slept in the car while heading home. my eyes were tired. i could walk around the house with not much difficulties. i dont feel the need to hide in a dark room. so far, everything seems like a positive note for my eyes, because i saw a few reviews that they need to hide in a dark room after reaching home. i slept for abut 2 hours then search for food. HAHA. i guess the eyes need food to heal. 

20000

so far, no dry eyes ... no pain ... no bitter sensation when i drip the 4 eye drops :) 

TRANS-EPI LASIK : FEW HOURS MORE

Tomorrow is D-day

I thought I can don’t think about it or visualize it, but the nerve is starting to get more active than expected. I will be lying if I say I am not scare, because it is still my eyes at the end of the day (don’t let me go blind pls).

Dear Dr Ho, my eyes and probably my life is in your hands. Pls do a good job.

Dear God, pls make my recovery process easy and smooth.

TRANS-EPI LASIK : EVALUATION DAY

I started thinking about undergoing Lasik since 5 or 6 years ago. That time, it was the in-thing to do. However, I lack courage and money, so the plan was put off.

Now I have finally pluck up the courage and go ahead because I involve myself in active exercise like gym/yoga. Can you imagine everytime I did yoga, the specs just roll down to the end of my nose. Of course, my friend did persuade me successfully. She takes credit for it. With a little money in the bank (gonna eat grass for the next 3 months), a little older and wiser, a little more courage and many more urge to want to be free off glasses, I booked the evaluation with Clear Vision. Why Clear Vision, because online review (whether it is blogger review or not), I haven’t found one that has its degree/astigmatism returns from this clinic. Yup, it gave me a boost of confidence in going ahead. It was a 1 month wait for the evaluation.

The night before the evaluation:

I wasn’t able to sleep well. I don’t know what to expect on the evaluation. Is it going to be painful or uncomfortable? What is going to happen when the eye drop dropped and dilation happens? These questions kept running through inside my head. I was supposed to sleep for 7 hours. But I guess I only manage to sleep like 5 hours.

The day - evaluation:

I reach on time. Waited a little bit for my turn to undergo check up. It was station by station so it takes a while. Checks on the power of the eyes, the shape of the eye, eye pressure, corneal thickness and then some eye drops dropped by the nurse to wait for it to dilate at the end. Every test wasn’t scary or painful. Maybe just the part on the eye pressure, is a bit, itchy. There was a gush of air shoot right into the eye. 3 times per eye. Other than that is ok.

Dilation took a while. Probably about 20mins. After which, everything seems bright. And the words are blurry. I walked to Mount Elizabeth to meet my doctor where he analyzed and let me know if I am a suitable candidate for Lasik. AND yes I did.

"you have very healthy eyes. I should be able to give you perfect eyesight."

Those are the words. Yes. It is enough to triple boost my courage to go ahead with the operation.

Few more days to go and I am excited. I cant wait to have my eyes back. I already kind of forgotten when was the last time when I was without my glasses without going blind.

REVERSING

Finally changed my specs after 3 years of wearing it. But I am having some problems getting use to the new specs. Not about the vision mainly, is the frame that is too big and heavy. A regret move. Since I have paid so much on a specs (Emporio Armani. More than SGD500). For now, my ears are really painful due to the heavy weight resting on it 24/7. I need to make it comfortable, which only mean I need to go back to the shop (my 3^rd time returning to fix the weight) to get it shape up to fit my ears. So you can only imagine how grumpy and irritated I am right now. The pain vs the number of times going back to the shop. At this very moment, I WANT A LASIK.

Then I came across this article online regarding reversing of myopia and astigmatism. As well as 45% have permanent eye damage after lasik according to FDA (maybe not referring to Singaporean).

Interesting huh. Many other people who tried the method have significant result of reversing the myopia and astigmatism. I am determine to try.

The person online mentioned in his blog…"Let me tell you this, 100% for sure: eye exercises don't work. Popping "eye vitamins", doesn't work. The only thing that works, is positive, persistent habits. …"

Wish me luck. And I hope one day, I no longer need that heavy big frame specs hanging on my nose and ears.