I had 3 people inquire about my Lasik experience this week, so I figure I’d blog about it. Hopefully, my experience help these people in their decision making process. Warning: some may be grossed out…

I first heard about it when I attended a talk on Lasik on campus when I was a UCLA undergrad. Then about 6 years ago, I had Lasik done. Back then, I was playing a lot of basketball and started to scuba dive. Contacts were giving me a daily case of dry eyes after staring at computers all day long. Plus, my wedding was coming. I was debating it for a year or two, after all this was an elective surgery. Heck, how was I going to build software being blind?

My friend Jake got his done and recommended his surgeon Dr. Ghana in Long Beach. I called the office and was satisfied with the information they gave me on Dr. Ghana. She checked out but I was still wary that she wasn’t local. At the time, Lasik was all the rage and was expensive. Then, I heard on radio about a "sale" this Canadian company was offering. That’s right, special of the day–eye surgery on sale on aisle 9. 🙂 A lot of people think I make this up when I tell them about this "sale." By chance, I found that Dr. Ghana was affiliated with the company. I wasn’t shopping for cheap deals, but everything kinda came together. Perfect! I decided to do it and go under the knife (in this case, the laser).

Suzanne & I flew down for the weekend. We stayed at this one dark and sleazy motel in Long Beach, the worst I’ve ever been to. I was nervous the night before the surgery. To help us relax, we took a nice drive down to Huntington Beach and had a great dinner at a Thai restaurant. We then visit my sister in Orange County before turning in for the big day ahead.

So the big day came, I got on the operating room. The assistants put on a weird clamp contraption to open my eye lids. It wasn’t painful but was the most uncomfortable part of the entire operation. All the while, I kept myself amused by thinking of the scene in Stanley Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange where Alex got these contraptions strapped on his eyes as well. I am sure it didn’t look that bad as the movie…

Once my eye lids were "peeled" wide open, an operating knife came down and partially sliced open my cornea. The doctor then opened the cornea flap to expose the inner tissue. At this time the laser started to burn away a layer of the tissue. No anesthetics was used so I am totally awake and saw everything. My vision was blurred after the incision, but I could make out a red laser that came down on my eye. The next thing I remember is the smell of burnt tissue– I was BBQ’ed… 🙂 The laser only operated for a few seconds, the doctor then put the cornea flap back. It still amazes me to this day that no stitches were required (they were necessary in the early years). That was it, one eye done, all within a few minutes. They repeated the process for the second eye.

After a few minutes, I was told to get up. The doctor asked me tell her the time. My jaw probably dropped when I saw the clock on the wall with perfect vision. The doctor tested out my vision later and declared that I have 20/20 vision. Well, that hadn’t happen since I was in 7th grade. I spent the rest of the day recovering. I remember it was really uncomfortable. Actually, it was painful. My eyes felt dry despite repeated eye drops, felt as if there were sands in my eyes. I was especially sensitive to bright light for a few days. 

The next few days, I began to feel like a new man. The best thing is to wake up in the morning and not reaching for my glasses. It was great playing ball without contacts and it was better still when I went scuba diving without them! I did suffer a minor side effect. My 20/20 vision developed the common halo & glare effect at night. These effects are described on this page. The problem was pronounced the first few months after the surgery, but got progressively better over the years. To this day, I still see slight halos but they are now a lot more subtle. But I’ve grown used to it and it doesn’t bother me at all. I am not even conscious of it anymore. Heck, it makes things look prettier at night. I’d have to pay good $$ to get a halo filter like this for my camera. 🙂

The surgery really paid for itself– no more contacts, glasses and cleaning solutions. I think it’s great. Like any surgeries there are exception cases with with horror stories like this one. Jake’s wife had a severe case of dry eyes for a good few months! But these are exceptional cases.

If you live an active lifestyle, I’d recommend it. I’m glad I had mine. But obviously, do your research if you decide to go through it. Two main things you should look for: an experienced surgeon and up-to-date equipment. The equipment keeps improving and gets more precise. The operation is so automated, I almost say the equipment is more important than the doctor. I’ve heard that the machine can cut the cornea with a laser instead of a knife. But do look for a doctor with tens of thousands of operations, referals are best. Ask about the potential side effects like halos and glare. I’d expect the newer machines to minimize some of these side effects. Finally, ask about follow-up care.

And of course, doesn’t hurt to ask if they have a sale either. 🙂