LASIK + Art Prints + Mailing List

This was supposed to come out the day after my LASIK operation. It’s been three days now. HUZZAH I have now earned the right to join the 20/20 club again. Thank you God!!! The moment you open your eyes the morning after LASIK is truly one of the best feelings in the world.

YES it deserves its BOLD formatting–plus sparkles, fireworks, the best orchestra accompaniment and the choirs of angels singing.

Okay maybe not really blind, but it did hurt to open my eyes! Since LASIK is quite a common procedure, and apparently a lot of people are interested in it, I’ve decided to blog about my experience to help give firsthand insight.

Unlike most people my grade (or “power” in some countries) wasn’t drastically high when I decided to have LASIK. At most it was 150 but I already felt so much discomfort from it especially when I can’t really wear glasses when I do shoots. I consulted my doctor about it (Dr. Cymmer Go at the Chong Hua Eye Institute; (032) 2549002) and he said I could undergo the procedure if I passed the screening test.

So obviously I did since I completed the procedure.

Most often the questions people will ask me are, “Did it hurt? How painful was it??” all the while thinking of that scene in FINAL DESTINATION 5 (Come on…).

Anyway, here I’ll outline some of the minor and major stuff that caused the most discomfort in my opinion:

Pre-screening Test:
1. The optometrist POKING your eye with a stylus-looking rod – The thought makes you shiver but in our modern times, anesthesia makes it possible to be as numb as juggernaut! The anesthetic drops totally numbs your eyes so you don’t feel any poking at all (which will be done during the screening test).

2. Little plastic sheets on your tear-ducts – In my opinion was the most uncomfortable 15-minute part of the test!! Coz of course, the aim is to make you feel uncomfortable enough to tear up.

LASIK Procedure (you can have this anytime after passing the test):
1. Before you get to the hospital, you would have already received the papers to be assimilated pre-procedure. In it contains all the possible consequences and unfortunate disasters that may happen during and post-procedure. Basically it’s what most people tell you. You might go blind, lose an eye, worsen your condition instead, yada yada and the like. It was quite long and detailed enough to scare me off the morning of my operation… But I prayed, thought about the many people with successful operations and went on with a brave face, legally declared I understood all consequences so I won’t be suing anyone from the hospital, and affixed my signature on the “waiver” sheet.

So this part isn’t physically discomforting, but it is emotionally! Hahaha. Unlike Internet Terms and Conditions, I think its common sense to read contracts/waivers before affixing our great signatures. We all have to face the facts and not jump the gun (which even sounds suicidal).

2. Lid speculum to keep your eyes open – The metal prongs prevent you from blinking. It did hurt a bit but not excruciatingly… More on discomfort. Pain factor five out of ten. You can actually see the doctor twisting the dial on the side to open your eyes wide.

3. SUCTION ON – is what the nurse said before I felt discomfort again, slowly dimming my vision. I literally went blind for a while but I didn’t ask why (more on I didn’t want to know what was happening to prevent panic haha). Pain factor seven out of ten. So now that it’s over… Is this the part where they cut the top layer of your eye?

4. After the procedure I found my eyelids super heavy (probably stress from the speculum). My vision was super blurry and it hurt to open my eyes wide. I could also feel the “wounds” on my eyes a bit. Best action is to have a deep sleep.

Sleep makes you recover faster.

—
Oh and I didn’t miss anything (in my opinion, to each his own). The laser doesn’t hurt at all. All I saw was the light with the sound of the machine and laser striking which is actually quite cool to live through. (BUT NEVER AGAIN! Lesson learned.)

TIP: Do NOT roll your eyes! I just found out yesterday I have a blood clot beside my pupil coz I kept rolling my eyes during the procedure. Maybe the laser hit it when it shouldn’t have. 🙁 Couldn’t help it. Eye fiddling hurts! Hopefully sleeping it off will heal it up.

After the procedure the doc gives you plastic glasses (the ones I’m wearing in the picture above) which actually don’t look as bad as I expected. Maintenance drops are included already in a paper bag.

Procedure costs PHP 40-60K on a case-to-case basis and pre-screening is around PHP 3K.

Quite worth it since vision is actually priceless.

Now on to other updates:

I received an email from ArtFlakes inviting me to join their site. After much deliberation I decided to give it a go and make it my printshop in the meantime. They ship worldwide and shipping in Europe takes only at 8-10 days at most (as if it’s important in my case! Haha). You can see the addition on the right panel.

I’ve added only a few prints for now, most probably more on my landscape and sky shots with a few photostory shots. It’s free to join so if you have paintings/digital art/photographs you want to sell as well, why not try? Filling in credit/PayPal details is only asked for when someone makes a purchase from you.

I also added a mailing list function because I don’t exactly update regularly… -_-; So for those actually interested, you can join my mailing list (right panel or below) and receive updates to your email! No need to be disappointed when you visit and there’s nothing new. Heehee.

Sorry if this hasn’t worked for previous subscribers. I didn’t know I had to redirect my blogger feeds to Feedburner. Assumed it was automatic. Please let me know if it still doesn’t work this time! You’ll do me a great favor.

Tis all for now. I have big news coming along but I’m still waiting on it. I’ve got lots of new ideas for shoots as well but I have to let my eyes completely recover first. Happy Sunday everyone! Hope this entry is useful.