Laser eyeballs

Getting perfect vision, check.

I've been think about getting my eyes done for a while. Last year I went as far as researching a trip to Thailand and getting LASIK performed there. But alas, the tight schedule cramming in a vacation and eye surgery just seemed a little too much.

Then recently my GF has been hooked on applying for "monitor" positions in Japan. Basically she's got all this free time since she's in-between school and starting her new job, so she signs up to be a secret shopper in different stores and if she gets selected to be one, at for example a restaurant, spa or salon, she pretends to be a regular customer, enjoys the food and or service, then writes a scathingly honest review in exchange for the cost of usually the entire bill. Simple.

Amazingly these monitor positions range from a ¥1000 yen meal, to a ¥280,000 yen LASIK surgery. Yup, no typo there, there are monitors for LASIK surgery. And so she helped me apply for the chance to be a monitor. The clinic I went to was smart. Every week they have a "drawing" for a limited number of monitors. Weekly, 1 person gets it free, 2 people get it at 50% off, and 5 people get it at 25% off. I got a 25% off slot. Granted I don't beleive this was a "real" drawing. I have a feeling that everyone that applied scored the 25% off. But hey, the clinic finishes a patients surgery in about 10 minutes. So I'm sure even at 25% off they make a killing with the amount of patients they get. And I get myself a hefty discount. Win-win.

Now you may think, "Discount surgery sounds a little sketchy" right? But does it really? I mean the clinic (Ginza Kinshi Clinic) is one of the top rated and busiest clinics in Tokyo. And as a "monitor" they'd be even more pressured to do a good job since my review was probably going to show up on their web page as a "testimonial". This clinics "monitor" program wasn't a secret shopper-check-how-our-staff-are-doing type. It was a write a detailed lengthy honest review, let us post it on our website, and in return we'll give you a discount. So they knew I was a monitor going in. And 25% off a LASIK surgery is a big chunk of change.

I'll skip the lengthy LASIK description because there are much more detailed and well written posts about the actual surgery out there on the Internet. So I'll just focus on the general stuff. I went in for the free 2 hour long eye check on Wednesday and decided on the "IntraLASIK Advanced" method. Normally ¥188,000. But after my 25% off, ¥141,000. I then got my surgery on Friday. About 10 minutes for the painless surgery, and a mere 2 hours after I was on the table being zapped by 2 lasers, I had perfect, clear vision. I was left with a little blood clot on my left eye but it's well on it way to clearing up. And honestly after the first 2 hours (which were a little rough with the cloudiness and the dry eye) my eyes have felt great ever since.

It was like magic for ¥48,000 off. My left eye was 20/200 and my right was 20/333 with some astigmatism. And now they're both a perfect 20/13.5! (divide that out to a perfect 1.5 vision for all you Japanese and European people.) How awesome is that!?

As a side note, I researched the price of LASIK back in the US. $2000 for each eye! Ridiculous. And in Thailand just ¥40,000 cheaper than in Japan. I'd go for the safety and piece of mind of a surgery in Japan any day.

So there it is. I'm so glad I jumped at the chance of getting it done when my GF gave it to me. After a week, I still have the urge to take my non-existent contacts out before I sleep. It's a new 24/7 super clear world!

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3 months ago Roy responded:

I got Lasik around 4 years ago about the time I stopped blogging. The procedure when well then about a week later my right eye started getting double vision, then triple vision, quadruple vision etc. Then it got to the point where looking out of my right eye was like looking at a bunch of xmas lights. I had to only use my left eye if I wanted to do anything like work. I couldn't drive. Apparently, getting Lasik made the surface of my right eye weaker and prone to swelling. But it got better soon enough and my vision was perfect.

However, due to it getting weaker and having dry eye in the morning, sometimes when I open my eyes in the morning it really friggin hurts cause my eye lid is stuck to my eye ball and open it up quickly basically rips the surface skin a bit. Very painful like when you have dirt in your eyes. It goes away after about 30 minutes though but sometimes it gets infected and my eye swells up and gets all red. I have to wear an eye patch for about a week. And it's also hard to look out the good eye because moving it around moves the other eye and it is really painful.

Anyways, right after Lasik this happened repeatedly like every other week and I was at the Lasik clinic almost every other day for about six months. Everyone knew me by name and I saw all the doctors. They gave me so many batches of eye drops and finally around the 8 month point when it started to get better I overheard one of the doctors say they could not be giving me any more eye drops. I estimated that I must have cost them over 120,000yen in eye drops alone.

After that, my eye doesn't get infected as much but I still need to have eye drops by the bed in the morning. Just last week my eye got infected again which was the first time in about a year but it really hurt this time and I had to take time off work and do nothing but keep my eyes closed for 2 days until the pain stopped. Luckily I have a stock of audio books to keep me occupied.

At first I was really freaked out and worried I'd lose my right eye but after about the 3 time I realized this was going to be an ongoing thing and that it eventually gets better so it's become more of an inconvenience than a worry. I used to enjoy going to the clinic without my eye patch and all the people who were waiting to get their procedure or signing up would be freaked out when they saw my big fat bleeding red eye dripping with eye poo. The staff there asked me not to do that and wear an eye patch.

Even with this experience, I don't regret it. It's great to never need contacts or glasses ever again. I used to participate in some of the online forums for Lasik problems and I can tell you that my problems are nothing compared to some of the others who were less fortunate. At least for me most of the time my eye sight is perfect and I just have to deal with discomfort in the mornings and the occasional infection.

Do you have any dry eye yet? I would make sure to keep eye drops bedside and use them in the morning and throughout the day, especially for the first couple months. I only use ソフトサンテイア which you can buy from most drug stores in a box of 4. Or I go to another eye doctor to get other ones.

I meant to keep this short but gave you the long story...oh well.

3 months ago ritsuki responded:

Holy Moly! I had no idea!
That was a great read btw.
But anyways it's such a relief that there was a happy ending to that. Having Xmas light vision. Wow. That must have been a really traumatic experience. Did that have anything to do with the end of Q-Taro?

I was extremely diligent about putting the drops in EXACTLY on time after the surgery. I used the timer in my iPhone and everything to use my3 types of drops exactly every hour, giving an exact 5 minute break in between each set of drops. I'm not sure if that helped me at all but I was really paranoid about my eyelids peeling back my cornea. Paranoid probably because I honestly thought I was a pretty bad candidate for LASIK too. For one, my cornea thickness was borderline too thin. The doctor almost forced me to to Lasek (PRK) instead. And I lied to the doctor about not having dry eyes. In the past I had a terrible habit of keeping my one day disposable contacts in use for about 2-3 weeks. So every evening my eyes would dry out like crazy And I would use my daily contacts to the point where my contacts would almost fall out of my eye. I was OD'ing on dry eye drops daily. I had mad eye discharge daily from those dirty lenses. So when I had my surgery done. I followed the doctors instructions to a tee.

Amazingly my eyes aren't dry anymore. Throughout the day I yawn enough to keep them pretty well lubed. Other than the little I have when I wake up, eye discharge isn't a problem anymore either. I do keep a bottle of Mucaloid eye drops near my bed though. The first thing I do every morning is reach for those eye drops. and making sure they are good and wet before I open my eyes all the way. Still scared of peeling my corneas back I guess.

The first day was drops every hour. Then the first week was drops 5 times a day. Now I'm on drops 3 times a day for the next three months. The doc gave me enough drops to last me till the 3 month check up so I think I'm good.

Where did you do your surgery? Did you get your flap made with a mechanical microkeratome or a laser one? Maybe you rub your eyes when you sleep? My GF rubs her eyes all the time while she sleeps. And since I'm a light sleeper I always notice it and make her stop. Yet when she wakes up she has no recollection of it. She thinks it's from the dust or pollen. I plan on making her sleep with snowboard goggles on once she gets her LASIK done. :)

But like I said. I'm glad that you're all good now! I'm glad you took the time to write it all out!

ritsuki.

Ricky Tom in Tokyo, Japan.

Laser eyeballs

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