LASIK @ Prince Court Medical Centre - Pre Operation

It has now been one week pass my LASIK Procedure with Prof Muhaya at the Prince Court. I am still getting used to my 'new' set of sights :-) A lot of people have been asking about my experience going through it, so I thought I should penned them down on how the whole procedures felt from my point, pre LASIK operation, during and immediately after the operation and my current recuperating & adjustment status.

Some people, including the Prof herself had asked me why I wanted to do it. Personally, I think I wanted to 'liberate' myself, no longer having total reliance on my glasses to see. And I guess the timing is right, with my PhD thesis submitted. Me sans glasses meant I can 'rough' play with the children without worrying about my glasses anymore and I can also start taking swimming lessons and accompany Aliyah during her swimming trips :-)

After several days of Istikhoroh, I decided to go ahead with the process and booked myself for a screening session. The staff nurse at the LASIK centre had promised me that the screening can usually be done the day before the procedure, and suggested that I came in on a Thursday for screening and proceed with the operation on a Friday. So I was booked for screening on the 9th of August. I came down to KL with Aliyah on the 8th and on the 9th morning drove myself to the PCMC in Jalan Kia Peng, KL.

First stop was the LASIK Centre on the 3rd floor of the PCMC. I registered myself by filling up some forms and were asked to later enter the dark room to do 3 types of eye scans. All 3 scans requiring your eyes to focus on certain lighting on the machine and to hold & open your eyes for awhile for the nurses to scan them. That took less than half an hour.

Next I was asked to go the ENT clinic on the same level, but at the other end of the hospital's wing. (Oh yes, so just you know, the hospital looked more like a hotel to me, than a hospital - even had a concierge service). At the ENT clinic, I was supposed to be going through more tests. But I was held at the waiting area for almost 2 hours. I guess, from the 'sound' of things, a lot of people had wanted to do their LASIK before hari raya, because the Prof's timetable is quite full after Ramadhan. I had to 'watch' these elephants painting and wondered why they had used elephants to represent the ENT clinic. (Later, Hasbi, a friend on FB gave me the connection, looking at those big ears and long trunks/nose and those eyes - clearly elephants make a great 'mascot' for the clinic) 

Finally, after Zuhr, I was ushered inside the screening waiting room, waiting for my turn to see the optometrist, Mr Yap. Mr Yap, first explained in lay man terms what's involved in the whole LASIK procedure. Then he check my sights and confirmed my powers,  astigmatism level, the age of my eyes (it was 32 years old) and for eye-dominance (it was my right left eye). Then, came the 'fun' part haha...He discussed the option for me to have 'blended vision' LASIK considering my age and the probability that I would be needing reading glasses to read sooner after LASIK. 

With 'blended vision' LASIK, the operation will leave one eye with minimal power so as to produce one eye that sees objects close up, whilst the other sees objects that are far away. The brain will merge images from both eyes, interchangeably depending on the distance, allowing good vision for near, intermediate and far minus the glasses. This meant   with this kind of operation, getting a 20/20 vision is most probably not going to be the case. 

Mr Yap later had me gone through a simple procedure to see whether I will get reading problems in the near future. Several eye drops were instilled in my eyes including the 'cyclo' to dilate my eyes, and temporarily paralysed their focusing muscle. I think they are several others including the ones testing my reading abilities with my current glasses. In a few minutes, I then experienced how it was to have reading problems. OMG!! it was sooo annoying!! I think it's even worst that wearing glasses for my shortsightedness.

I then went in back to check my sight with Mr Yap and agreed to do the 'blended vision' LASIK considering that I will still be doing a lot of reading in my line of work and no way am I going to suffer wearing reading glasses so soon. He confirmed my latest power and took my photos to go along with the records. More drops were then instilled to dilate my eyes and later more scans were done. A few minutes before meeting the Prof, more eye drops were instilled again for confirmed dilation for the final eye check with her. By the time I got to meet her, it was already 4 pm. A whole day at the PCMC.

Prof Muhaya was how I imagined she would be, sweet and charismatic. She checked my eyes and confirmed that they were healthy and asked when I would like to proceed with the operation. I asked for the next day, considering that I had to travel from Sungai Petani again if I had to do it another date in the near future. So she discussed with her staff nurse and manage to squeeze me in for Friday's schedule :-) Alhamdulillah. I made payments, collected my medications and had to drove back with my eyes partly dilated. It was a bit difficult to see, like driving in a haze but I managed and Alhamdulillah safely arrived home.