The Experience
I had my surgery done in June of 1997. It was a very exciting day for me at that time, but now it has turned out to be the unluckiest day of my life. Since I couldn't wear contacts anymore and I didn't like to wear ugly glasses, I thought that I could live an even happier and freer life by having this surgery. My prescription was L -7, R -7.5, with no astigmatism at that time.

The surgery only lasted about five minutes. I have used two years to recover from what it brought to me, and it seems that I have to pay even more. The first half-year post-op was pretty happy. I even recommended it to my friends. But the nightmare began eight months post-op. I found that my vision of both my eyes began dropping quickly, especially my right eye. One day when I closed my left eye, I found my right couldn’t see the road sign very nearby. Also, the nearsightedness and imbalance of my vision began to cause eye strain and gave me headaches. I went to see a surgeon. He told me that there were serious scars on both my eyes. The scar on my right eye was in the center, and the scar on my left eye was around the center. This caused blurry and double vision all the time. I had gotten a new pair of glasses, the prescription was : L -1.5 -1.0*100, R -3.00 -1.50*90. I still couldn’t see clearly in the distance or nearby with my right eye. From that time on, I knew that I lost my visual acuity forever. I developed dry eye and eye strain. Also there was some disfigurement in my right eye. It is not the bright eye that I had gotten familiar with for twenty years. This is also a disaster for me, a girl, at 23 years old.

The next year was very difficult year for me. I developed depression due to my vision problem. I was afraid to get up in the morning. I was afraid what would come with a new day: I felt so lonely. I often cried several times a day in the restroom. I lost the confidence that I had built in my youth. I began to recall the easy and happy time before the surgery. I found once-easy studying was now so difficult for me, a partially vision-disabled person. Then, I began to surf the web. I found so many people who have had similar experiences like mine. I felt not so lonely as before. I received an email from Ron. All those make me feel better. But still I feel there is something very delicious in life that has been stolen by this surgery. I am no longer the person who always wanted to do the best. Now I only want to do the very basic things. This experience changed my character very much.

Because of this sad experience, I began to think more about these surgeries, PRK or LASIK. Before the surgery I thought it only cut a very thin layer from the cornea, very simple and harmless, but now I know it is more traumatic to a healthy eye than you can imagine. And your eye is not aspherical anymore. You should tolerate the scarring, the haze, the haloes, the off-center ablation and other side effects? The rate of these is much higher than in advertisements. Formerly, one pair of glasses could solve all the problems. You didn’t need to worry about the health of your eye. You could change your glasses, but you can't change your eyes. If I could choose once more, I would not have had the surgery done. I will wait for a long time for some more advanced and less aggressive technique. Since everyone only has one pair of corneas, they are so precious, never risk on it.

Now, I only want to say that I am so regretful that I had this surgery. I would pay much more money to buy my original corneas back. Now, I have to live with it for many long years. And, I have to pay more, for what I decided for myself, in the future.