My Eyes! I'm Not Supposed to get Pudding in Them!

Yes, it's true. On Saturday, October 29, I had eye surgery.

LASEK surgery, to be precise. Back in 2002 in Minnesota, I had my eyes tested for LASIK, and the doctor determined that my corneas were too thin to have the LASIK procedure done. Earlier this year, some Korean friends told me about LASEK, which is essentially the same procedure but with a much thinner flap created on the surface of the cornea -- making it possible for people with thinner corneas.

Supposedly, the cornea needs to be 300 microns thick at a minimum, just to maintain structural integrity. My corneas were right around 500 microns. In LASIK, the flap is 70+ microns, and they would need to remove around 130 microns for my level of correction. That would cut it too close to the 300 micron mark. But in LASEK, the flap is thinner, and they would need to remove about 100 microns, giving me a "safe" zone of about 30 or so microns. Hard for me to picture 30 microns, or feel good about having such little room for error.

After several weeks of being afraid even to investigate the possibility, I finally made an appointment to get my eyes tested for LASEK. Kind of a funny story there -- since I had two references from two different friends, I ended up going to the place I thought one friend had recommended, but it was actually the other place. Two days later, I checked out the other one. The doctor at the second place disagreed with the recommendation of the doctor at the first place, and I got the feeling that the first doctor was just trying to get another 500,000 Won out of me for an advanced Epi-LASEK procedure.

So, after being tested for the second time (and confirming in my own mind that the measurements were consistent at both places), I asked how soon they could do it. He said "this afternoon."

I debated with myself about whether or not to do it, and then with Tahra about which would be the best time, and we decided (she helped me out) to do it that day. I figured if I got it over with I wouldn't be worrying for a couple of days about it. So, I returned to the place a few hours later for the surgery.

Unlike Tahra's LASIK surgery a few years ago, no spectators were allowed -- the surgery suite was separated off with no viewing window. So, I was on my own. The nurses escorted me back, and after washing my face, they took me into the prep room. I had to take off my shoes and wear the standard Korean slippers while they cleaned my face even more with iodine, and put anesthetic drops in my eyes. I got a nice surgical gown and cap, and then I was escorted to the chair.

Once I was reclining under the "eye blaster," they put a one-eyed hood over my head. Then they taped back my eyelashes and pried my eye open with some spring-loaded thing (I couldn't see much in detail, what with my glasses off and a bright red light shining in my eye). Best thing so far? Couldn't feel a thing in my eye.

I was instructed to focus on the red light, and he placed something on my eye very briefly, which I can only assume made the cut for the flap -- because the next thing I know, he's peeling it back. They wash my eye several times with some solution, and then fire up the laser.

I remember the clicking buzz of the laser from Tahra's surgery, but no one had told me about the smell. As I kept my eye on that red light with a determination rarely exhibited, the laser buzzed/crackled as it burned away a few microns of my cornea -- and a smell assailed my nose. A smell like burning hair.

Since I had really bad myopia (total correction with astigmatism was about 7.5 diopters), the laser made several passes across my cornea. I was already pretty tense during the procedure (no valium, as Tahra was given in the U.S.), and as the laser did its work my vision seemed to shrink and get darker. Apparently that's normal, but no one warned me. After many washings of my eye, the doctor put a protective contact lens in. The next eye went pretty much the same.

I've got various eye drops (antibiotics, anesthetics, steroids (to reduce the possibility of the cornea tissue scarring and becoming hazy), and artificial tears), and special goggles to wear at night to prevent accidental physical contact with my eyes.

The first few days were pretty rough (but I'm a wimp), with constant irritation. I don't think I ever really had "pain," just severe irritation. Five days later (and irritation lessening every day), I went in to have the contacts removed. So now I've been using my own eyes without the lenses for about 24 hours. I'm seeing 20/20 or better, but there's still blurring around the edges of things, which I'm told will gradually disappear. I haven't seen this clearly with my own eyes since the '81-'82 school year, when I got my first pair of glasses.

I'll admit that I was pretty terrified of the idea of someone cutting and burning away parts of my eyes (especially after I heard that having LASIK done would have caused my eyes to physically collapse on themselves). It "only" took me 2+ years of thinking about it, but so far (*crosses fingers*) I'm glad I worked up the courage to do it. I can finally wear sunglasses again!