Well, the day started as usual, with me rolling on the bed refusing to get up. A warm shower did help to bring me back from dreamworld. In fact everything was the same, including the late part.
Throughout the journey, I kept feeling my pulse to see if my heart was thumping. Not really. Not nervous too as I predicted I would be. The only thing I was anxious about was me being late. Otherwise, I got to the clinic without any incident.
I learned something new today at the clinic: our NETS card can only have a maximum daily transaction of $2,000! Felt the panic slowly crawling up my throat when the nurse told me that my chipped Masters card cannot be used. And she informed me about maximum limit for NETS, meaning I didn’t have enough money to pay for the procedure.
Gave her that by-now-famous-Daji’s-howhowhow look, before she told me I can pay the remainder on the following day. Phew~ No more hiccups from then on.
Next I was led to do some final checkups on my eyes, before the nurse gave me a sleeping pill and some panadols. She then took some time to explain to me what to do and what not to do after the procedure. Found it quite cute as she demonstrated the use of the eye shields. And then I was led to several rooms to be left alone, apparently to rest and wait.
It was in one of these waiting rooms that I first heard the lasers doing their work. Peee~ Dek~ Dek~ Dek~ After the nurse came in for the last time to clean my eyes. I had the chance to sit and reflect against the machine precision of laser sounds. It’s like an oral exam; I sat there and wait and wonder what would happen later.
Dr Lee popped in for a short while and interrupted my reverie. He explained that there would be no pain. That was a point they stressed a lot. The only thing I’ll feel would be a slight pressure on my eyes. Then he disappeared again.
Then it’s my turn. After I was laid down on that bed, everything became blur. Even the words Dr Lee and his assistant said didn’t connect in my head. Then I felt a not-so-slight pressure around my eyes. It wasn’t slight as they said and though it wasn’t particular fierce, it was enough to make me stiffen. I guess this was the stage that the Intralase was used to cut my corneas. Thankfully it went fast. I vaguely hear the assistant calling out times.
As I mentioned, everything was a blur. And fast. They dropped lots of eye-drops on my eyes so that I could barely see out of them even if I had perfect eyesight. I only caught one instruction then, which was to look at the blinking red light. It was one I adhered to religiously. They had to repeat the instruction to close my eyes a few times before I relent.
Didn’t feel anything at this stage. There was only the acrid smell of burning tissue and the aforementioned laser sounds. Just felt like an observer, watching them as they shot green lasers (I think)at my eyes, use an ice cream stick-looking thing to push back the flap and staring at that persistent red, blinking light. That part was certainly more comfortable than that pressure part.
It was over as soon as it started.
I was told to blink to clear the eye-drops and helped up. Everything still seem blur but it’s like surfacing from the water; clear (relatively) vision came after a few blinks. That was then the full power of sleeping pill hit. Wow, I staggered after let me go. It was as if I forgot that I took the pill after the whole procedure.
What happened after that was trivial already. I was led to this dark room to sleep for supposedly half an hour. It certainly felt less than that when the nurse peeked in and woke me up to be congratulated by Dr Lee on a successful operation.
All in all, a really simple operation with very little discomfort. Maybe except that pressure part, though it was still bearable. Everything is still hazy now and light sources have these pretty auras but I was told to expect these. Things will gradually go back to normal.
Now I’m just feeling exhausted after the operation, the sleeping pill and the guitar lesson (yup, I still went).
The eye shield thing quite fun. Haha~
