Cooperation: perfect

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I am happy to report that I had perfect cooperation during my 10 minute surgery on Saturday. Lasik was a huge success and I feel great! All I want to say is: EVERYONE should do this!!

Saturday, Jake and I took a bus to Seoul and grabbed Dunkin with just enough time to arrive at my appointment at 2pm. The Dream Eye Center is in Myeongdong, which has got to be the busiest area of Seoul. It's packed with Koreans and foreigners shopping and eating. The place is great but it gets frustrating really easily, considering you can't move without running into someone. (which unfortunately, is something koreans don't mind doing). Anyway, the second I walked in the nurses were ready to get going. I was shocked at how quickly everything went because although I was supposed to arrive at 2, the surgery was scheduled for 3 o'clock. First, my very sweet nurse Ji Ye Lee went over everything I needed to do after the surgery: eye drops, limitations, expectations, etc. (one of which was the possibility that I may experience "foreignbody sensation" ha ha) After this she asked me what kind of music I wanted to listen to after the surgery was over and I was resting. I said piano. Then I heard her say new age. I'm not really sure what happened, but I definitely didn't hear piano music when it all finished. Also, the paper told me that I can do "jogging, health" in a week but "swimming, boxing" in a month. Darn, no more boxing. And what is jogging, health? LOL I love Konglish.

They took me upstairs, ran a few tests, and then I met with the doctor. He told me he would do his best for me to have good vision. I was like "ugh, okay great, wouldn't expect anything less!!" ha ha....They did one or two more tests and then I met with the doctor one more time and he said, "see you in surgery." Then they took Jake and I upstairs and had me change into slippers and put a robe over my clothes. They she put a cap over my hair and put drops in my eyes and I had to wait in a chair for a while with my eyes closed. Then they took me to back behind a door and Jake waited in a chair that faced a glass wall. Behind the wall was my operating room! They took me back and put more drops in and washed my face with some sticky stuff. Then she took me in the room! At this point my heart beat was getting faster, ha ha! I was smiling and feeling okay but my insides were like "what are you doing?!" I laid down on the table and they brought me a Mario pillow to hold. Then the nurse said "your hand in mine" and we held hands throughout the surgery. She said "is that boyfriend?" I said yes and she said, "oh wow, very handsome" and preceded to ask me his job, where he's from, etc. And then I told her to focus a little less on him and a little more on my eyeballs. Ha ha kidding. Anyway, I laid down and then the doctor came in and they set up the machine, I had to open my eyes, then close, then more drops and then they started. The whole thing was only like 10 minutes.

First, they taped my eyelid back and they put a metal clamp around my eyeball so I couldn't blink. Then they did a lot of drops and then he dried my eyeball with gauze. That was weird because I could see and feel it. They told me to focus on the green flashing light above me and that's what I did the entire surgery. Then they put the meat slicing type machine on my eye and 10 seconds later, they had sliced off the top of my cornea. This is the only part of the surgery where you can't see, and your vision is actually gone, but it's quick. Then he pulled back the flap and dried my eyeball again...and then the laser came on for 18 seconds. That's when I could smell burning. He counted down the seconds and told me I had "good cooperation. Cooperation is perfect. Great cooperation" over and over again. He also told me during the surgery that "your eye is very big. Doctor's dream is to do surgery on big eyes. Small eyes is very difficult. Your eyes very big." Ha ha....and then the laser finished and he was like operation complete, and put the flap back and fixed everything up! The second eye was more of the same and if you want more details you can watch the video!! Ha ha...Jake was sitting and watching this whole thing and he illegally decided to video tape the screen. So we have the entire thing on video. Also, before the surgery the doctor walked by Jake and said "I try best!" ha ha!!! Hilarious.

The actual surgery is 30 seconds for each eye but the whole thing took about 10 minutes. As soon as it finished, I heard drums and music like it's a parade and the "Congratulations" song starts blaring! It's apparently a pretty popular song here in Korea. It was pretty funny. A great way to get a patient to laugh when they are still focused on their eye getting sliced open. Oh, and all of this was finished before 3pm...and it was scheduled to start at 3.

After this I went to a dark room with two beds in it. The top and bottom blankets were heated and I had to lay there for about 20 minutes without falling asleep and with my eyes closed. This is where I was supposed to get my piano music. Let's just say I didn't. Ha ha I got some other totally obnoxious crazy music, but it made the whole thing pretty funny. Jake hung out in the room with me and took some video. This is when he informed me that the surgery was worse for him (watching) then it was for me. Lol he handled it well.

After this we went downstairs and got our backpacks and a nurse walked us to the hotel they had reserved for us. It was about a 5 minute walk from the eye center and it was actually a pretty nice hotel. We expected that I'd be in great pain and want to sleep but that wasn't the case at all. I could see pretty well and after we got on the internet for a little while we went shopping and out to dinner! I felt great the whole time. I just had to put eye drops in every 2 hours. Then our friend Nick met up with us and we just walked around, got cold stone, and then crashed at the hotel.

Sunday I had an appointment in the morning. They checked my vision and I could read 3 lines underneath the line that was 20/20 so I guess I can see pretty well! I couldn't believe how great I could see the next day! I thought it was going to be blurry for a week or so but it was great. And the only thing I have to do besides eye drops is sleep with these plastic things taped over my eyes. I'm not allowed to rub my eyes for a month and if you don't wear those things, you would rub them while you slept. I only have to wear those at night for a week.

Anyway, it all went great and I'm so happy with it. The staff was amazing, so kind and professional. I'm sorry to friends and family for all this detail but I wanted to help other people who are considering Lasik in Korea. That is how I found most of my information, by reading other foreigners blogs who had done it so hopefully this answers questions for some people. It was definitely worth every penny and I highly recommend it! Now...no eye make up for two weeks... 😞

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Photos

Waiting
waiting with my eyes closed

New Age
relaxing with my eyes closed

Hotel
Yes, Korean hotel rooms are tiny

Eyes
Right after surgery...no redness or anything

Home
heading home

Comments

[Jeanne Curtis]

Woohoo!! So happy for you and so thankful that it went so smoothly!! You do have some of the biggest eyes!! And they are so beautiful!! Now they can also see!! Love you!! Jeanne

[Jeanne Curtis]

And you're so cooperative!!