4-Year Lasik Review

Reason for correction: I had been wearing ortho-k lenses for 10 years, and my vision when I started wearing them was roughly 0.2 and 0.3. At the time of LASEK, my vision was 0.099 and 0.2. I had planned to keep wearing ortho-k lenses, but both of them split in half while being rinsed, about one month apart, so I ended up getting vision correction surgery earlier than expected. In any case, after wearing ortho-k lenses for 10 years, I just could not live normally with glasses. I heard that vision correction surgery is generally recommended only after at least age 21 because growth usually stops around then. If growth has not stopped yet, vision can drop more easily... But due to personal circumstances, I had it as soon as I turned 20. I went to a large eye clinic near Seolleung Station. It was designated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and I went on a friend's recommendation, so I had many tests. I originally wanted SMILE LASIK, but my corneal thickness was borderline, and they said that if I ever needed another vision correction surgery much later, I would have to do LASEK so that a revision surgery could be done more stably. They also said that although there is pain, LASEK, which regenerates the cornea anew, is better than LASIK, which simply covers the cornea again, in terms of postoperative stability. So after all that, the cost came to about 3 million won, but with a student discount I had the LASEK surgery for 1.99 million won. Surgery review: The surgery itself was about 15 minutes, and because they put in anesthetic eye drops, I had no pain at all during the operation. They told me to look at a light for 45 seconds because it smelled like burnt squid, and I held my breath then. After surgery, they gave me a protective lens, so I just had to use artificial tears and eye drops on schedule, and there was no pain for the first two days. It just felt like my vision was a little blurry? I wondered if it was okay, but starting on the third day, about 24 hours felt like hell. My eyes hurt so much that tears were pouring out, and I could not open them, but when I closed my eyes, I could vividly feel the pain as if I could sense my eyeballs rolling back. Lying down made it hurt more, maybe because of gravity and pressure, so I spent the whole night lying on my stomach crying and sitting up all night. In the morning I called the hospital and asked if it was supposed to hurt this much, and they said it varies from person to person, some people hurt on the first day and others on days 3 or 4, and that if it still hurt continuously after 12 hours I should come in. After hanging up, I cried from the pain until I was exhausted and fell asleep sitting up for about an hour. When I woke up, the pain was gone and my vision was clear, as if the time that had passed was a lie. Everything felt unreal and amazing. One week after surgery I went back to the hospital to remove the protective lens, and from that point on a whole new world opened up. For someone who had worn glasses since age 7, a world this clear was incredibly amazing and happy. It still is. Care: The place I went to also handled aftercare well. At first I had checkups at 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months, and from one year after surgery until now I have continued to go once a year for regular checkups. Vision immediately after correction was 1.0 and 1.0, and currently it is 1.0 and 0.9. Some people improve to 1.5, but I was not that much. haha Thoughts: Although there was pain, even considering that, I would especially recommend it to people with poor vision. It really is a new world. I am living very satisfactorily. Since I originally had astigmatism, I did not strongly feel glare, but for the first year after surgery I did have quite severe eye stickiness and dryness when getting up (the pain was similar to the feeling that your eye might pop out if you cannot remove a contact lens properly, and it would happen if I suddenly opened my eyes after sleeping. This improved if I opened my eyes slowly or kept my eyes closed and placed a warm hand over them for about a minute.) Even though it was like night blindness and I could not see well in dark places even after my eyes adjusted to the darkness, that also got better exactly after one year. All of these were among the side effects explained to me before surgery. I was told to keep wearing UV-blocking glasses for about 6 months while using eye drops, to protect the cornea in case anything happened (they explained that UV exposure could make vision appear blurry, and that it was to protect against various side effects...), but I started wearing them on and off after about 3 months... There were no major problems, but please do listen to your doctor... haha Vision correction surgery is surgery after all, so it should not be treated too lightly, but if the inconvenience from glasses is severe, I think correcting your eyes for the rest of your life and managing them consistently is a good choice. It changes your quality of life. I am truly satisfied, so I am recommending it, and it would probably be even better to go to a clinic that provides continuous follow-up care after surgery. I will end it here. Thank you for reading this long post.