6/6, almost!

While waiting for your turn for Lasik surgery, you do not want to hear horror stories of how someone's surgery has gone wrong. Like the girl who sat across from me. She kept dabbing her eyes, and I heard her explain to her mother how the cornea flap was not cut properly and the alarm in the machine that was supposed to go off to alert the doctor of the error didn't. I winced, and fretted and asked myself again why I was doing this.

The Lasik procedure itself lasts about 3 minutes and is totally painless. By all counts, it shouldn't generate so much fear. I can imagine how my wisdom tooth extraction is 10 times longer, and 20 times more painful. And let's not even get into the travails of labour pain (of which I endured 12 hours of it). So I shouldn't have to pray so hard, for myself, for the doctor, and even for the machine (let the alarm work for heaven's sake, if need be!). But I did, desperately.

It was indeed a strange experience. Amidst all my ridiculous and unwarranted fears about not being able to keep still during the surgery, of maybe having a sudden need to pee or sneeze etc, I managed to lie motionless, while my eyeball was being sucked up and locked into position, and the laser beam zapped my cornea. A distinct burning smell wafted in the cold laser suite. Could it really be that parts of my cornea was being fried, barbequed, incinerated?

Then it was all over. Sure my eyes teared and felt prickly for a while. But hey, I was out of the hospital at 6pm, and by 9pm, I could watch Germany thrash Ecuador on the telly, the scoreboard at the top right corner appearing as clear as day.

At the review checkup today, I was told my eyesight is almost 6/6. This is unbelievable! This is like being born again! I'm $3000 poorer, but I felt like I've regained my lost youth. A second chance at seeing the world the way it's supposed to be seen, free from appendages and external lens. Wow!