HEY GUYS!!!
Finally got the time to do this blog post on my experience on my intra-lase procedure done with Shinagawa Eye Centre.
Here a picture of me in front of the clinic entrance just cause everyone is taking a photo like this, I shall do it too!
So…
Lasik is a procedure that I have wanted to do since a few years ago, I mean c’mon, how awesome it is to have perfect eyesight again?! How I got myself sucked into this whole spectacles bullshit was how I would guess, many of you would too – spectacles (rmb Miki kids or sth, photo ref below) looked pretty chio to me and it was like an IN thing to be a bespectacled primary school kid, so having a 6/6 eyesight was like mehhhh.
I recalled how happy I was when my eyesight started to turn for the worse, 6/9, 6/12, 6/36 on my health booklet for a yearly eyesight check LOL. I wore my sister’s spectacles on purpose (good lord! Parents reading this, please tell your kids to not do foolish things like this!!!)
Ok so back to my story on Lasik.
The reason why I didn’t do it that soon was because I was actually very into the whole big eye lens look. I am super not used to it without my lenses THOUGH the contact lens are not THAT drying, but I tend to wear them for more than 8hrs everyday? It is actually very harmful for our eyes btw, so do take note!!!
How is it possible to be out only for 8 hours? Isn’t it very inconvenient to bring a pair of spectacles out every time?
Another reason why was because the thought of going through another op scares me! I have done 2 DST procedures on my eyes already btw!!!
My friend went to Shinagawa to have her Lasik done, so I decided to go for the pre-Lasik assessment first.
It cost $22 btw!
The whole assessment took about an hour?
& Note that before the assessment, pls stop wearing your lenses for at least 3 days (if yours is the myopic one), for me I stopped lenses for 5 days cause I was very kiasu.
My first assessment with another clinic, I didn’t stop till 2 days before and they didn’t allow me to go forth with the surgery so I guess it is the lenses that caused some weird shape on my cornea?
Staff were very patient with me because some of the machines are super hard to work with – I was required to have my eyes wide opened and because my eyes were very dry I kept having the urge to blink.
& Oh ya! Rmb to have your eyelash extensions removed before the assessment and procedure ya?!
After the assessment, I went to meet Dr Lee for the first time.
He was super friendly and knowledgeable about his stuff, gave me a very detailed explanation on the different procedures and such. He had this one concern with my eyes that he couldn’t give me a 100% green light with the procedure – I have a small cataract on my left eye and the computer might have problems detecting the middle of my pupil for the laser.
WTS right!! Cataract at the age of 26?! Apparently it might be genetic.
I have to admit that my heart sank a little because it is not a 100% that I can do the procedure, but he told me that it was because my cornea was really small and he needs to make sure that with my current eye power, the computer is able to scope in and give me the correct laser surface area to correct the eye power. All these have to be determined on the actual procedure day.
It could be a bummer because, imagine having to prepare for the surgery and all, be in scrubs, lying down on the surgery chair and then doctor will break the bad news to you and say that my eyes are not suitable for the surgery because the computer’s crossfire couldn’t get an accurate map on my pupil.
But I went ahead to book for my surgery date, feeling really hopeful.
So the night before my procedure, I was tossing and turning in bed. I was face timing my bf and I kept asking him for assurance that it wont hurt the slightest bit. He did his intra-lase a few years ago, so he is the best person to assure me right!
On the D-Day, I went thru another eye-assessment before preparing for the surgery.
Was really glad that Dr Lee gave me the green light for the intra-lase and we proceeded with it immediately.
There is two parts of the procedure,
1) the cutting of the flap
2) the laser
A picture below to show you what exactly I went through.
Trust me when I say this, zero pain!!!
It does sounded scary, the laser sound and the burnt smell caused by the machine, but dun worry, your eyes are not gonna get fried!
After the surgery, the nurse brought me to a resting room to have my eyes checked and also sterile eye drops administered.
My eyes didn’t hurt at all, just a slight blurry yet functional vision.
I had a small little blood clot on the white of my eye. This did not cause me any pain and did not block my vision and it went away after several weeks. I learnt that half the patients get this blood clot and all of them goes away with time, leaving no trace behind. So don’t worry if you get a little blood clot too.
This is Dr Lee btw!!! Took this photo with him on my review day!
However, I made a stupid mistake on the 2nd day after my surgery by not taking extra care while cleansing my face.
The cleanser seeped into my eyes and it caused a lot of pain!
If you were to take a closer look, there are two white dots on my cornea!
I went back to see Dr Lee urgently the next day because the pain couldn’t go away (by right the standard consultation is only on 2nd day of the procedure, 1 week later and 1 mth later). That immense pressure on my eyeball was too tortuous and I can only blame myself for that stubbornness and carelessness.
Dr Lee told me that the cleanser had caused some inflammation on my cornea and that it could potentially cause problems to my eyesight, so please, if you are reading this… please….
Daily visits to Shinagawa for that whole week was pretty taxing not only on the money part but it really drained me as I was feel very worried myself.
Thankfully Dr Lee told me that the infection didn’t cause any major problems so I had to guai guai administer my medicine.
He eventually cleared me on my 2nd week after the surgery, and thk god my eyes are still perfect.
I got to watch Ed Sheeran with my PERFECT eyesight and listened to him serenade with his guitar perfectly singing PERFECT and ending off this perfect date with my boyfriend HEHE!
& also got to celebrate my 26th birthday with my perfect eyesight!!!
Best decision ever I swear!!!
Updates:
Still feeling really happy that I made this decision to go for this intra-lase surgery. Never take your eyesight for granted folks!
My eyes, not as dry as when I have contact lenses on! In fact, I dun feel the dryness getting worse; it has been 3 months since I did my Lasik?
Some of you may be interested to know how much it costs to have the LASIK procedure. Please DM me on instagram @eexuan or email me at eexuan91@live.com.sg and I can tell you more. 🙂
Now, heres a video that they kindly allowed me to do my VLOG on!
Note that 1:40 I mentioned that my eyes are 6/4.5, but it is 6/7.5!!!