Entries Tagged 'Health' ↓

I went for my 4th month eye check up today, which is 4 months after my Epi-lasik procedure.

I’d been having relatively clear sight for the past month or so, but in the last 2 weeks, I’d been having bad nights which does affect the condition of your eye. So, I wasn’t too surprised when I was told that my present eyesight was:-

Right eye: short-sightedness 75

Left eye: Astigmatism 50

Otherwise, my eyes were doing ok. The consultant kept warning me that epilasik takes longer to heal and I had to expect a 6 month recovery period.

To be perfectly honest, coming from someone with near 900 shortsight in both eyes, having some residual short-sightedness is nothing! I can function on a day to day basis, which is good enough for me.

I still have some dry eyes, so lubricating eye drops are still the order of the day. Otherwise, I’m doing ok and am due back for another check up next month. Woohoo!

From Part 1

Post procedure

Once both eyes were done, I realised all of a sudden that I could see without glasses! I could see the face of the nurses, I could read the lettering on boxes, I could see obstacles in my way…. I could SEE!

Coming from someone who has been unable to function without glasses since I was 8 years old, its pretty much a miracle, I tell you!

You are given a care package containing eye drops, antibiotics and painkillers (should the need arise) and then you are off home. Its advisable also that you bring along a pair of sunglsses because your eyes will be very sensitive to light due to your pupils being dilated.

I had been told to expect a certain level of “pain” and discomfort which is higher than that of conventional Lasik, and it was supposed to last a day at least. Fearing this “pain”, I took the painkillers and pain drops faithfully as directed and did not suffer anything the first day.

Day 1

You have to go back to the clinic for a follow up check up the following day to make sure everything is fine. So I did, and was told all was well and to come back in 4 days when they would check if the contact lens could come out.

When I got home, I found that my left eye was starting to smart. If you have ever had to peel and cut onions in large quantities, you will know how it feels. It basically feels the same way. My left eye was smarting and tearing and it was beyond my control. Thankfully however, by the end of the day, it stopped and I felt better. I’m told it lasts longer due to the epilasik procedure. If you do normal lasik, it only lasts a few hours then you’ll be fine.

Day 2 - 3

I woke up in the morning and could see! Well, I could see more clearly than I would normally without glasses on. I stayed home with my curtains closed and lights off and rested my eyes the whole day. There was no more discomfort and I did not have any dry eyes. However, I faithfully dopped my antibiotic and lubricating drops anyway as per doctor’s orders.

Day 4

I went back to the clinic. I could see with near perfect eyesight in the morning! When I got to the clinic and after the routine eye check up, I was told the contact lens could be taken out - yay! It had been irritating me for the past 2 days. I did not have any further complaints, but my eyesight was not up to par again. Everything looks slightly blurry but I’m told its normal and will only get better as days go by. It is supposed to take 4-6 months to fully stabilise.

1 week later

Things have been going well. I don’t have 20/20 eyesight yet, but I can see enough to drive and function on a day-to-day basis. Its great not having to wear glasses anymore, except sunglasses, and I’m in the market for some nice sunnies! I don’t really have problem with night vision (its not too clear so I don’t drive at night) but while I was out at night I did not notice any particular problems with unbearable halos of light at traffic lights or street lighting as I had been warned about. In fact, it felt pretty normal to me.

Oh, there are some precautions though:-

• No swimming, sauna, facials for a month
• No eye makeup for a week to a month (ARGH!)
• No contact sports for a month
• No rubbing eyes for a month
• You have to sleep with an eye shield for at least a week
• No splashing water into the eyes for a month

And due to that last precaution, I have been having the hardest time washing my hair and face every single day!

This in a nutshell, is my experience with Epi-Lasik to date. I will update as I go along. Even as I type this, I’m not seeing the words too clearly on the screen and I’m resting my eyes often to reduce strain.

Every day is a brand new day, and every morning when I open my eyes, I will look forward to an improvement in my sight. Not having to wear glasses is, at the moment, very liberating!

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

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

A friend directed me to this piece of news this morning, knowing I had done Lasik on my eyes in November 2006. Apparently, an eye centre in Singapore has suspended all their Lasik procedures pending checking, as they have had 17 reported cases of infection in patients. Scary!!

I did not do it in Singapore but at a reputable centre in Kuala Lumpur. Nevertheless, one can never be too careful.

If you are in Singapore and have done or plan to do Lasik on your eyes to correct short-sightedness, do read this article in the Straits Times.

I’ll reproduce it here for those who can’t link:

Mar 14, 2007 Eye Centre stops all Lasik ops after spike in infections By Salma Khalik & Ben Nadarajan
		THE Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) has suspended all Lasik surgery - at least till the end of this month.It stopped all such operations last Wednesday, following a spike in the number of infections - 17 cases last Monday and Tuesday - among patients who had this operation to correct short-sightedness. This is the first time the centre has suspended its Lasik procedure since it began offering it in 1996. The type of inflammation the 17 had is not dangerous and will usually clear up on its own, but the centre decided against doing any more such operations until all equipment has been inspected. Seventeen cases in two days count as a spike when compared to the first two months of the year, when the centre saw 25 cases of inflammation following Lasik. Having 25 cases puts SNEC within international limits of inflammation - up to 3.2 per cent of patients is the norm - but it is still much higher than normal for the centre, which can go for months without a single such case. All 17 patients affected last week are recovering with treatment and will be monitored for some time. Another cause for concern, however, is that none of these cases were mild ones. The patients suffered some blurring of vision, a result of white blood cells rushing to the surgery site. Professor Donald Tan, SNEC’s deputy medical director, said there did not seem to be a pattern to the cases. The patients were operated on by different surgeons using all three machines at the centre. Neither private eye specialists nor SNEC’s outlet at Mount Elizabeth Hospital have come across similar spikes, so the problem appears to be centred at the SNEC in Outram. Checks will now been done on the Lasik machines by engineers. The facility’s air-conditioning system and the sponges and cleaning fluids used will also be inspected. Prof Tan said: ‘We like to over-react a little. It may upset some patients, but we put safety first.’ Aside from Lasik, there have been no problems with any other procedures done at the centre. Following the suspension, some patients will have their Lasik surgery done at SNEC’s Mount Elizabeth outlet. But because SNEC does between 500 and 600 Lasik surgeries a month, not all can go there. About 160 patients have been told that they will have to wait till next month. Because there is no subsidy for Lasik, some patients may well turn to the private sector instead of waiting. A civil servant who was to have been operated on last week may do just that. She wants to get it done soon because she is planning a dive trip and ‘having perfect vision makes it easier to dive’. Patients who need assistance can call the centre’s hotline on 6322-9599. salma@sph.com.sg benjamin@sph.com.sg KEEPING AN EYE ON SAFETY ‘We like to over-react a little. It may upset some patients, but we put safety first.’ PROFESSOR DONALD TAN, SNEC’s deputy medical director, on the centre’s move to suspend all Lasik procedures although there did not seem to be a pattern to the cases

So, if you are in Singapore or know someone in Singapore who might not be aware of this piece of news, the contact numbers etc are in there.