My Lasik Story | The Best Decision of My Life?!

This post is about one of the most important decision of my life. The story of my eyesight and the Lasik Surgery…
***part of this article I wrote as a journal to frame my exact feeling and experience.

Eyes, the light of everyone’s life, I guess only those people realize the importance of it who have/had problems with it.

How does the story begin?
From my childhood, I had extreme headache issue, use to take normal medicines for that. I use to watch TV by sitting real close, no one noticed that. In school, I was a first bench girl, so never had an issue seeing the blackboard. I thought everyone sees the way I see. Not a single person in my family use to wear eye glasses or had any problem with eyes probably so I didn’t realize, even my parents never felt that I can have a sight problem. When I was in eight standard my headache issue gone worse then I fist went to an eye specialist and came home with heavy glasses(-4.5 in both eyes). Poor me!! But because of me my younger sibling got treated fast, within a year both of my younger siblings got their glasses..lol !
With time, it was increasing generously, by 12 standard my glass power reached to -7.5 with some cylindrical power. In the age of 22 it reached to -9.5 in the left eye and -8 in right and of course with cylindrical power. I was kind of blind without my glasses. However, I have started using contact lenses from my 12 standards but honestly, that was hard to use regularly in BD environment. By the age of 24 my sight power stopped increasing from them I was planning to do Lasik but I wasn’t sure and this or that took me this far to take the final decision.
A year before my friend did her Lasik from Mirpur Lasik center, BD. She was doing very well after her surgery though she hasn’t had a serious problem like me, that time I got a bit of inspired to do mine. Later on in September 2013 my younger brother(-4.5 approx) did his Lasik, he was doing well aswell. This time, I got real eager to sort out mine. So, decided to do my Lasik ASAP and get rid of the burden from my nose.
9th of November 2013, I went to Dhaka EyeCare Hospital, Uttara, BD to consult with my Doc. Haroon-ur-Rashid and did a pre-Lasik test. They took some test, readings and pictures of my eyes to do the pre-Lasik test. Then Doc. gave me the date of 15th November for Lasik and refer me to Gulshan Lasik Center where he gonna do the surgery.

I was excited throughout the week then…. !!
My doctor didn’t tell me much about the process of surgery. He only said it takes only 10min to do the whole process, it’s painless and you’ll be seeing the whole new world right after the surgery. I didn’t ask much that day and he hasn’t had much time to discuss with me as well.

Last night before the surgery so many questions went through my mind, how they do it, what are the preconditions or cautions, what if it goes wrong etc. Needless to say, I started researching on Google and YouTube. Things I saw and read there just blew off my mind. YouTube has the video of the whole process, what I got to saw is the surgery process involves a cut in your eye flap and it hurts while doing so. Also, I learned that there is two type of LASIK process in abroad, one is Custom Lasik another is Wavefront/bladeless Lasik. I was totally unaware of these matters and my doctor never mentioned those to me. I got scared and pissed, yes, I got literally pissed on my doctor. He should have told me these, I mean I have right to know what is he going to do with me!!!
However, I managed to calm my mind and thought to ask him before surgery.
So, 15th November 2013 doctor did some test on my eyes by himself, then he told me I have some sight issue in my left eye(approx -1) by born which is not going to fix but it will be fine to see with both eye. I discussed with him about my last night knowings, surgery types, he told me here in BD they do some kind of surgery which is between of both types. I was like huh!! what is he trying to make me understand!! Hence, I decide to take the chance and went for surgery…

I was sent to restroom situated next to OT 30 minute before wearing OT apron. As because I was aware of surgery process, I was very careful about the numbing drops what is usually given twice, one drops 5 minutes before another is just before the surgery. Read in one article that nurse forgot to give patient the numbing drops properly and because of that that patient suffered during the surgery. And guess what, my nurse forgot to give me that second time. Lucky me that I knew that from before!
Yes, the cut of eye flap was there, and I felt tremendous pressure in eyes while a suction cup got into my eyes to cut the flap. That was the main painful part, other than the surgery went fine and quick. After cutting the flap they wash and clean eyes, put the laser beam and then put flaps back in place. I was feeling every beat of it, also, the laser machine tells you what it is doing. Within 10minute surgery was done. I was sent back to the restroom.

Was I able to see right after my surgery, no! I was seeing everything blurs. My eyes weren’t hurting after the surgery but within an hour, it started itching and hurting. I was told about that, the doctor gave me three drops to use 12 times a day, one after another and also he told me to sleep if I want.
I got back home, took the painkiller(was not prescribed) and tried to sleep asap. It was hard to sleep because of irritation. However, I fell asleep within an hour and woke up at evening. By then my irritation was gone almost and I was seeing things a bit clearly.

Day after the surgery:
Its 10.31am  I woke up around 7am today. My vision is pretty good today than yesterday though it’s not clear yet. I’m still having blur vision and light sensitivity but much clear than yesterday. Just talked to my brother to make sure if it is ok to see the blur. He said he eyes took 2/3 days to see things clearly.

The pain and itchiness in the eye are gone just eyes feels a bit heavy. My right eye seems to have better vision than the left eye. I noticed 3/4 tiny red spots in my right eye…wondering if it’s gonna go away.

Still I’m having difficulties to look at PC screen n TV.

I have an appointment at evening with the doc. Let’s see what he says today.

….Just came back after visiting the doctor. He said, my eye condition is quite well. He gave me another appointment for next week and told to apply eye drops in every hour and avoid water contact from eyes for rest of the week.

Three days after:
The whole day I was literally depressed and frustrated about my eyes. I figured out my right eye is working completely fine, I can see thing crystal clear but the left eye is still having blur vision. Can even see things clearly by left eye only from two feet away. I cried, yes I got that frustrated…. I checked all my surgery reports all over again to find out if there is anything unusual about my left eye but everything seemed alright. Then at the evening, I remembered doc said my left eye had a short vision from birth so it won’t be fully clear after surgery.
I calm my mind thinking let’s have patience and wait till the next visit to the doctor with the hope it might get better by this time.

I am also having another problem today. Those eye drops I was using, they started to give me burning sensation almost suddenly and also making my eyes red. They didn’t behave this way before. I am totally terrified if there is something wrong.

Four days after:
This morning I discussed my eye problems with my husband, my friend and my brother. My husband told me to visit doctor imminently. My friend said, her eyes was completely fine right after the surgery. My brother said his eye took 3/4 days to have a clear vision and those drops also gave him burning sensation.
So, later on, I decided to wait till the next appointment.

A week after:
I met my doctor today. Went through a couple of sight test again. Doc said I’m doing completely fine. I discussed with him about the problem of my left eye. He said as because I had short sight in my left eye from birth which I never checked individually while wearing glasses so it won’t be as precise as I’m expecting but it will improve by one or two months and that won’t be a problem when I’ll be seeing with both eyes. I also asked him about the burning sensation I was having from eye drops. He said, ‘they are supposed to work that way’.

He gave me another appointment for the visit after a month and also said I’m ready to behave normally with my eyes such as touching water, taking a shower or else but with a bit of care.
Came back home with a peaceful mind.
However, the overall condition of my eyes is way better today. I can realize that my vision is better than before yet having the glare of light when I’m facing highly contrasted light environment such as in the road in front of cars at night.

26th November:
For the first time I went out in the sunlight today and this strange thing happened, I stepped in the road and the sunlight hit my eyes like hell. I felt like the light beam directly went through my eyes by giving numerous pain. I closed my eyes right away and realized my eye are not ready yet to face this bright light. My husband ran into the home and got me sunglasses, then it was ok though the pain I got in first hand it made me suffer whole day.

3rd December:
For last few days I was trying to adjust with bright light like sunlight by going out with or without sunglasses. Now it seems quite okay. I can freely go under sunlight without having any pain.

8 December:
ah!! it’s about to be a month soon. How is my eye condition? Great, I’ll say. everything is perfect but one thing… I’m still not comfortable at night on the road, glare from car and road lights is still there, hoping it will also be over soon. Otherwise, everything is completely ok. In this stage I started feeling like doing Lasik was the best decision I have ever made in my life !!

It’s 16th January 2014 today, I writing my final words for this article. Already its been 2 months after my LASIK. My eyes are doing completely fine. All my issues I was having after surgery is gone, though my left eye is not clear as doctor mentioned before but with both eye I see things crystal clear. By the way, one thing I believe that whatever doctor said about my left eye born issue it’s not true maybe they just can’t fix the cylindrical power as I had quite a lot cylindrical power in the left eye, though I might be wrong. Right now, thinking to do another reading eye test soon by some other doctor.
Yes my surgery was ok, I’m doing fine it did reach up to my expectation, now it is a new world that I’m seeing, I do agree to do LASIK did change my world and I’m very much thankful to doctor but I do have complaints with doctor, hospital and the LASIK center management team. They should have given proper time and information while consulting with a patient. In my opinion, every patient has right to know every right and real information about any surgery. They just can’t leave any patient with blank information.

To my reader, I’ll say.. don’t hesitate to do Lasik if you have a sight problem, it will change your life but do talk to your doctor where ever you go, ask for proper information about the process and whatever you wanna know.

Costs info:
Pre-Lasik: 5,000/-
Lasik: 46,000/-
Other tests, fees, medicine: 2,000/-

Hope will find this article helpful.
Best wishes for all of you who is going to do Lasik 🙂

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