the basics about lasik

This post is a summary of my experience getting lasik eye surgery in Seoul, Korea.

spoiler: it's a success story.

they advertise on facebook, "Seoul Eye Group"
with a very catchy "600,000 won minimum" (less than $600) for lasik...
including a FREE hotel for one night so they can check on you the next day before you're on your way.

Sounded unbeatable, since in the states, it's rather common to pay $1,000 per eye!

i scheduled my appointment, with the understanding that it's a quick 15 min procedure after some testing
and then upon waking up after one night of sleep *boom* 20/20 vision-
no pain and CHEAP.

only parts of that ended up being true, but i have no regrets.

I went to seoul, ($25 for the fancy bus and 3.5 hours later) and went to this clinic
 in the recently made famous area of "Gangnam"
(readers over the age of 60, click here-> Gangnam Style )
having only read the review of one customer who had lasik there...

As soon as the elevator opened, my stress about any shadey-ness was relieved.
the wall waterfall, open cafe sitting area, and long white desk with 6 beautiful uniformed korean secretaries...
 one of whom immediately smiled at me and said "jaime?"
as if I was the only customer of the day... except that the entire place was buzzing with appointments.

So far so, wow.

The staff was super friendly... almost eery how they all knew my name...
after about 20 minutes of eye tests from funky machines,
i consulted with the doctor who ended up doing the procedure--
this "consultation" involved him saying a lot of things (in english) but with his accent,
on top of the fact that he was spewing "scientific eye words" 50 miles an hour...
i had literally no idea what he was saying... all i heard was "cornea" "not special" and "good"
(all i really needed to hear was "good")
before he recommended the lasik procedure (as opposted to "lasek")
- differences being operation and recovery time, and cost.
(lasik being cheaper and seemingly, much more convenient.)

I knew all I needed to know (which was barely anything) so, excitedly, I said sure!

Some man I can only assume is the sales manager, informed me that the procedure would cost 1.3million won... Over double what i was hoping for...
2 eyes ... double the advertised cost... hmmm... turns out that price was very misleading,
considering- i'm not sure who would only want one eye corrected.  Minimum, my eye.
and the FREE hotel... yeah sure... we all know where the additional 100 bucks you tacked on is going.

any who, i figured it was still a wise investment... and STILL significantly cheaper than in the states. (~$1,169)

I was promptly escourted upstairs,
where immediately, my hair was put in a net and i laid down under a laser.
They put what i can only explain as some kind of duct tape mask on my face,
and assured me there was no pain.
I said I wasn't scared... although my heart started pounding wildly, in disagreement.

The doctor put my head at the proper angle and "explained" what was going to happen in a matter of seconds... all i could make out was "the razor will last for 7 seconds." "DON'T MOVE. don't move. don't move..." (razor aka laser)
i silently debated whether to breathe or hold my breath... and opted for a combination.
barely breathing, no time was wasted.

I noted the doc must have been taught english by an Australian because he had a korean-aussie accent. a funny thing to witness.

Next thing i knew, he shoved some eye-opening tool in my socket so i couldn't blink even if i wanted to...
I was grateful.
then "buzz" and my eye vibrated...
everything went black.
I was informed not to panic because that's supposed to happen...

naturally... they make you intentionally blind... and THEN give you 20/20 vision...
why didn't i see that coming? ... no pun intended.

the first eye was freaky dark, but when it was repeated and both my eyes were open
but i saw nothing...
all black except a faint glow of red where i knew a crap ton of lights were shining in my face...
I started to silently admit this is scary.

Then the doc did something else to me and suddenly,
 i had the gift of extremely blurry sight!
I'll take it.

Then i was shuffled over to a different bed and a different laser...
all occurred very quickly, and while i was still stunned that I was just actually blind.

"The next 'razor' is loud and will last 10 seconds..."
only they didn't warn me that burning eye ball smells awful...
SURPRISE AGAIN.

I heard a lot of talk of "eye flaps" and after the laser did its thing,
dr. korean hugh jackman moved my "flaps" around-
which essentially felt like the eye test where they place many different lenses in front of your eye
 to change your vision and test how bad your sight is...
 except the lenses were parts of my eyeball that the first laser had sliced open horizontally
in prep for the second laser.

weird weird weird.
but seriously, zero pain this far.

and then i heard "perfect" !
... twice... !
and a round of "congratulations!"
from the nurses (who had been dropping liquid in my eyes almost nonstop during the entire procedure... occasionally with warning)

Then my favorite part:
 I was relieved of approximately 3 layers of skin and unwanted facial hair when the duct tape face mask was peeled off..  next, off with the hair net and of course -- "poto please?"

so about 13 blurry seconds after my surgery, the nurse took a polaroid of me and doc jackman,
a memento of this joyous event,
because perfect sight obviously isn't an efficient reminder-
I laugh because this is so korean... they love pasting evidence of their work on foreigner patients,
such as myself, all around the office.

The fun part is over, the next phase was about 6 hours of burning eyes- sensitive to all light and breezes- no less than 100 drops of an array of medicine later...
then suddenly things became less blurry, and my eyeballs weren't on fire...
i also realized my sleeping goggles aren't so bad,
 and by the next morning, i was feeling and seeing great.

by day 3 my eyes are perfect... better sight than with glasses... and no pain.
still using drops often, but all and all, VERY happy with the results of my investment.
even if it was more expensive than i was hoping. EYE recommend it.