I had LASEK surgery in early 2019. I went to the hospital through an acquaintance’s recommendation (the acquaintance had surgery at the Gangnam branch. Somehow I ended up having it at the Jamsil branch, which had just newly opened at the time). My vision was very bad to begin with (I think both eyes were around -7.00 to -8.00), and my corneas were on the thin side (I signed a consent form saying I couldn’t have a repeat surgery because my corneas were thin). So my only options were LASEK and implantable contact lenses, but implantable contact lenses were too expensive, so I proceeded with LASEK.
On the day of surgery, the surgery went well, and as I was taking a taxi home, the insane pain started and lasted 72 hours. It felt like all the discomfort and pain I would have experienced over a lifetime of wearing glasses without getting LASEK was compressed into 72 hours. I remember telling people around me at the time that it felt like the pain of wearing a contact lens inside out while dozens of eyelashes stabbed my eyes. The only way to avoid the pain was to sleep, so in a pitch-dark room with blackout curtains closed, I only nibbled some food and took medicine when it was time, and slept all day. Of course, because it hurt, sleep didn’t come easily. Still, to survive, I had to sleep somehow. While I was awake, I couldn’t even open my eyes into a slit and just kept shedding tears. I didn’t want to cry, but it hurt, so tears just kept coming.
Anyway, somehow 72 hours passed and the pain gradually eased. Over several months, my vision also recovered to 0.8. But the glare/halos... ha.... At first I thought it would get better after a few months, but now it’s been almost 6 years and the glare/halos are still extremely severe... At night my eyes get so tired because of the glare/halos. Sometimes traffic lights spread so much that I can’t see the boundary between the opposite sidewalk and the lanes.
I thought it couldn’t be helped because my vision was so bad and my corneas were thin, but after seeing my younger sibling, whose vision was much worse than mine and who also had astigmatism, myopia, and all sorts of worse conditions, have surgery at another hospital and feel barely any postoperative pain and have much less glare/halos, I felt a huge reality check and anger.... My sibling also had LASEK and recovered in the same house, same room. The only difference from me was the hospital (+doctor)... The more I think about it, the more miserable I feel.
Conclusion: everyone, look into hospitals thoroughly before surgery~
This is a surgery review pursuing natural beauty.