Archived: Lasik or Epilasik: My experience Part 1

Aw below asked me where I did my lasik procedure and how high my eye power was when I did it. Well, this inspired me to re-post my Lasik experience which I had previously chronicled in my old blog.  I did mine at Optimax in TTDI. I’m not saying they are the best in the field, but they made me feel comfortable enough to go through the procedure. This is not sponsored by them in any way though if they want to sponsor me some preservative free eye drops I’m not going to complain!

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I had Epi-Lasik done on both my eyes recently (Nov 2006), and while I don’t know yet if its the best thing I’ve done for myself so far, its been pretty good so far.

Prior to doing it, I’d been talking to a few friends and they candidly told me about the plus and minus points of the procedure. In most of their cases (which was conventional Lasik as I only found out later) they only experienced a few hours of discomfort and sensitive eyes, and their vision stablisied in a relatively short time i.e. about a week. The downside I was most told about was of having dry eyes, so they had to use more lubricant eye drops more often.

Armed with this knowledge, I went for my eye test, fully prepared to go through with Lasik on the same day if I could. However, as I posted before, I was unable to do the conventional Lasik procedure due to various factors which was explained to me by the doctor, and optometrist as follows:-

• My eyesight power was too high (900+)
• My cornea was too steep
• My cornea was too thin

So, I was told about Epi-Lasik instead. The procedure is different from conventional Lasik as I have also posted before. I was told that while I might have less experience with dry eyes (since the cornea is not cut) I might experience “haze”. This “haze” affects some patients and it was not something that could be predicted. Part of it depended on how your eyes heal in the initial days and a whole week or 2 weeks rest for the eye was recommended just after the procedure.

I decided to take the plunge and this is my experience of Epi-Lasik and also how I felt over the 1 week.

Pre-Procedure

I was put into a hospital gown and told to wait in the waiting room. It is a bit chilly, so do wear pants (you’ll be lying down so pants will be most comfortable anyway), a light sweater/cardigan, and socks. You are also told to bundle up your hair into a paper cap and paper booties are placed over your feet. While waiting the nurse will ensure that your pupils are fully dilated.

Then, when it comes to your turn, the doctor will explain the procedure to you again just to make sure you understand what is going on. This is a good time to ask any questions in case you have further doubts.

Then numbing eye drops will be put into your eyes in preparation for the laser procedure to follow.

During the Procedure

You will be asked to lie on a flat bed machine thing while the nurses and doctor prepare the machine. The key is to relax. Its not easy but deep breathing as well as not dwelling on what was happening around me, helped me. Also a recommendation from another friend is to keep singing “Mary had a little lamb” over and over in your head - well, it helped her!

Then you will be asked to look and focus on a red blinking light. A sterile sheet will cover the rest of your face except the eye being worked on, and an instrument will be used to clamp your eye open. (I wonder if I lost any lashes to that instrument!) Then more numbing drops will be dropped into your eye so its totally numb. At this point I was feeling rather terrified due to my eye being clamped open but actually its pretty much the point of no return.

A machine is placed over your eye and you will feel something going over your eyeball. Its not painful nor is there any real pressure. This is where they remove your epithelium. The scary thing is that there will be about half a second when things sort of black-out before you see the red blinking light again. I had been prepped for this by a friend and by the doctor so I didn’t freak out too much. But it is definitely scary!

When the light returns, you’ll feel the doctor lightly pulling away the epithelium and then the lasering starts. Mine took a while due to my high power and you can hear the machine counting down as it goes along. It was probably the longest 1 minute 20 seconds in my life! I could hear sparking sounds (like electrical sparks) and smell something burning. Rather disconcerting when you realise its all happening to your eyeball!

When the lasering is done the epithelium is put back, more lubricating drops are dripped into your eye, a contact lens is placed over your eye, and its done! The amazing thing was that I could see! It was the first time I noticed that there were ARROWS pointing to the red blinking light! All I could see before was a fuzzy blinking red dot.

And then its onto the next eye. See Part 2 for more.

technorati tags: Lasik, epi-lasik, eyes, health

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