Lasik Eye Surgery

Lasik Eye Surgery

(video blog to be posted)

My advice to you…STOP THINKING AND DO!

This was the most amazing surgery! There is absolutely no pain and the worst you experience is very dry eyes but if you wear contacts you will know the feeling already.

To have the operation your eyes must have been stable for roughly 2 years (mine had only been stable for 1.5 years though but that was long considering I usually changed a whole -1.0 every 6-12 months) and you have to be above 18 years of age minimum. Some doctors and I think quite a few, will only operate on you if you are above 20/21. It is advised to wait until you are older and it is certainly best to do so, however in my case because I had 5% vision and my cornea are thick enough to operate on them twice/do the surgery twice, I chose to do it at age 20. My eyes rejected monthlies and so I had to wear contacts daily. Glasses were not on option for me because I was very sporty and modeled as well. Being so blind meant I literally couldn’t do anything without them, so I couldn’t just take a pair of glasses off while I shot, because I wouldn’t be able to see who was holding the camera and if I was playing water polo, the ball would just hit me in the face. I couldn’t even see the different colour white and blue caps on the player’s heads amongst the water. While I was very grateful to have the invention of contacts, swimming in them and surfing in them was the worst. I could never sleep over at a friend without planning it because then I wouldn’t be able to drive home the next day without “my eyes” (sleeping in them was horrible). Living in windy Cape Town is not pleasant for a contact wearer and dust, makeup and mascara in your eye is quite sore. All in all contacts are great but I did not want to be dealing with it for another 60 odd years.

On the day of the operation, you arrive a little bit early so they can put drops in your eyes to numb them. It is as simple as that! Now, the operation might sound “freaky” but it really isn’t that bad. Yes, you are awake but it is kind of interesting! Haven’t you ever been curious to watch an operation being done? Well now you get to see your own! (Well if you can see at all, I was so blind I could only see 2cm in front of me, but I did manage to see some blurred activity and the doctor did tell me everything he was doing step by step) So, this operation was over a year ago but what I remember was something going on your eye to apply pressure or suck it to make the blood move away from your eye. During this you loose you eye sight for a few quick seconds, so it just goes black like you are falling asleep and then your eyesight come back quickly. I remember seeing the top layer of my eye being lifted, like a thin “flap” protecting my eye, (which to me was more freaky than the black out) and then the machine came down and I was told to stare at the red dot. The machine quickly makes a “zzzzzzzzzz” sound, which is reshaping the cornea so you can see and then its done and you can literally see instantly. They then repeat it on the other eye. It is so quick; men go to the bathroom for longer than the operation takes! Mine was about 15 minutes. I promise you it isn’t as bad as it might sound.

After the operation the doctor said to me I should go home and go straight to sleep as the first couple of hours your eyes are uncomfortably itchy. I followed his advice so I didn’t experience any itchiness and can’t comment on that. For the first day or two you have to leave your see-through eye patch protectors on and from then onwards for the next five nights, you just have to sleep with them on so you don’t scratch your eyes in your sleep. I drove the next day after the surgery, to my check up appointment.

The operation cost just under R20 000. That might sound a lot but I worked out that I had already spent R60 000 in total during the 7 years of wearing contacts and that doesn’t even include all the eye appointments every 6 months, glasses and glass frames. So if I had to keep wearing contacts until the age of 80, imagine how much money I would have spent (including inflation). If I also just wanted to wait a bit longer because I was scared or wanted to be older, so lets say until 27, then I would have wasted another R60 000 plus inflation. So it seems logical to do the operation as soon as you can for R20 000. The only thing that doesn’t make sense, is that medical aid does not pay for this, even though you can see it is cheaper for them to do so but fortunately my blog is not about medical aid, so I won’t go into the frustrations about medical aid. This operation you will just need to save up for.

My vision is now 100% and I am so happy. It has been the best money I’ve ever spent. My life is so much easier and I am ecstatic. My advice, is if you are considering it, don’t waste any more time thinking about it and go and book your appointment now, it really is worth it and you won’t regret it!