Assalamualaikum and hello everyone, I'd been on a super long hiatus. My last post was during my 3rd year of medical school, and now alhamdulillah I'd finished my undergraduate study in medical school, which I may talk about in some other future posts in shaa Allah.

So I did LASIK surgery last year, after I finished my 4th year since I was on a longer break than usual. So why did I choose LASIK? Honestly, I had no idea LOL. The idea came few weeks before my 4th year examination and I felt so fed up of wearing glasses.

YES, THE STRUGGLE IS REAL! Especially when you wake up and you're trying to find the glasses with that blur view. So I decided to do LASEK since it requires proper rest and I didn't want to waste my final year holiday by just staying at home and be a couch potato. To be honest, I wasn't prepared for it at all. I didn't read enough information about it nor did I survey about the surgery prior to mine, which I regretted.

So I chose ADVANCE VISION.

Picture taken from my insta story

PART I 
Good news is this part is FREEEE. Yes, you can just walk in or it's advisable to call first because they have a lot of customers to take care of. So for those who are usually wearing contact lens, you will need to remove it first. And if you've made up your mind to really go for the surgery, it's also advisable to be free of contact lenses for at least one to three weeks before your surgery. This instruction is included in the Do's and Dont's prior to the surgery.

During the first part, they will consult you about the procedure and all the stages that you need to go through. So you can ask any queries that you have in your mind. The surgery can be either Standard one (RM 2888) OR Custom (RM5588).

Procedure
1. Standard (RM2888)
2. Custom (5588) - If your power (rabun) is >480 and/or your astigmatism (silau) >250.
*I had mine in Aug-Sept 2018. The price may vary since these prices listed were based on last year's. So you may need to reconfirm with the centre. I just googled and the recent price is RM2988 for the Standard one.

Side Effects
Next, they will tell you about the side effects. So bear in mind that you can still get far-sightedness (rabun dekat) when you're 40+ or even short-sightedness (if you don't take good care of your eyes). The other side effects include:
-Dry eyes (2-3 months)
-Haloes, you feel like there's a circle of light around the light source (2-3 weeks)
-Red dots (2-3 weeks)

Risks and Complications 
1. Infection (~3 weeks post op) - which explains why you need to take care of it properly, better avoid your eyes during shower and close them tight during wudhu
2. Regression (+/- 0.25 - 0.75) - if your power increases more than 1.00, they do offer free enhancement (FREE OF CHARGE) with a lifetime warranty as long as the doctor is still at the centre

Follow Ups - 5 in total
1. Next day (day 2 post op which is Saturday) and on Sunday to remove the lenses (they will remove them on day 3 post op)
2. 1 week post op
*1 and 2 are compulsory. You may need to bring extra money for the medications (if you run out of meds)
3. 6 weeks post op - flexible
4. 3 months post op - flexible
5. 6 months post op - flexible

So the surgery is actually called TRANS-PRK, which is quite different with LASIK surgery. There are pros and cons for both surgeries. I didn't know about this actually (yeah I told u I didn't really prepare for it at the very first place). From what I understand, these are the differences....

TRANS-PRK (or LASEK)
1. It takes about one week to recover (but not fully, it varies individually) - so your MC will cover for one week in total
2. It's a blade-less surgery. The doctor will ask you to look at the light. Yes, the beam of light will do the miracles.
* I will talk more about my post-op experience here

LASIK
1. Faster recovery (faster than TRANS-PRK)
2. NOT BLADE-LESS. That's why you may feel discomfort or even scared because you will see the doctor holding the blade and do something on your eyes. But you will not feel anything at all.

Next, it will be screening timeeee and that's it for PART I.

PART II
So part II consists of a session with the doctor, which you must pay RM 80 CASH (yes, no card please). You can do Part II on the same day as Part I or arrange for another session. And if you really made up your mind to do it on the same day, it's better to tell the person in charge so they can dilate your eyes as it takes about 20-30 minutes to wait for your eyes to dilate properly. After dropping the eye drop, you will feel that you vision becomes blurry and quite sensitive to light. It will ease the doctor to check your eyes using the tonometry to check for intraocular pressure and etc. So you are advised to bring someone to drive you on the way back because it's dangerous to drive with those blurry eyes.

This is me walking around under the scorching hot sun with those dilated eyes.

So once you have made up your mind to proceed to Part III, which is the surgery, you need to pay deposit of RM400 CASH (yes, they need it cash). Since the surgery is on Friday, you can choose the dates and you will be given MC for that day.

PART III 
This part is actually the surgery day - which usually falls on Friday unless they've changed it. Prior to that, there will be final checking 1-2 days prior to surgery. During this final checking, they will check again your power (you don't have to see the doctor) and you're good to go. Not to forget, you also need to complete your payment and tadaaa this time you can use cash / credit card / debit. SOON, FINALLYYYYY IT'S THE SURGERY DAY.

PLEASE HAVE SOMEONE TO ACCOMPANY YOU ON THAT DAY BECAUSE YOU CAN'T AND ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DRIVE BACK ON YOUR OWN AFTER THE SURGERY! 
(Yeah, this requires bold and capital letters to remind all of you how dangerous it is and it will be impossible to drive on your own after the surgery 😛)

I will talk more about the surgery and its preparation here. 
Goodbye for now.