Laser Eye Surgery in Korea

Even before I came to Korea I decided, that I want the mystical laser beams to fix my eyesight. I was diagnosed with shortsightedness and prescribed my first glasses when I was about 12 years old. At the time I thought it would be really cool because my dad had glasses too. Unknowingly, I was wearing my new pair on my first day back to school but the boys were laughing and making fun of me once say saw what was on my nose. In addition, doing sports was so annoying because the glasses would slide of your nose when you sweat. In winter, they would steam up from the difference in temperature once I entered from the outside. Wearing eye make up is meaningless in my case because it vanishes behind the frame. In addition, nearsightedness makes your eyes looks smaller, if someone is looking directly into your face. Hence you look tired all the time and people ask why your eyes are so small. Of course, the time that my former classmates made fun of me is WAAAY behind me nowadays, and with the recent hipster-glasses trend I came to appreciate the sophisticated aura glasses are able to give you. You can be as stupid as a donkey but hide behind your glasses as long as you do not open your mouth.

Still, my nearsightedness reached new proportions recently by cracking the -6.5 diopter benchmark. To visualize what that actually means, take a look at that picture below. The right side was my normal eyesight without glasses. It was pretty bad. I was unable to live without glasses and they were the first thing I had to put on in the morning and the last item to take off at night.

Courtesy of Sara Lynn Hartmann

So, when you actually hate your glasses but your eyes are so bad that you need them to find your way out of bed in the morning without killing yourself by bumping into your furniture, what do you do? Yes, you try to wear contacts. And I did. Extensively. Over the last 2-3 years I wore lenses almost every day. I know that some people find it disgusting to touch your own eyeball but I got used to it. In the beginning, I loved the lenses. It was a new feeling of freedom after almost ten years with frames. I did not feel the soft shell at all and it made my life easier. I was able to wear make up that was visible and sports was not such a dreadful affair any longer because the frames stopped dropping on the ground from the sweat on my nose. However, I wore the lenses too much, sometimes more than 10 hours a day for several weeks. As you can imagine that is not very good for your eyes because the lenses are covering your cornea, which prevents oxygen exchange. I had constant dry and itchy eyes and I was told by my optician and my doctor to not wear them that much any more. Otherwise my eyes could develop an allergy against contact lenses. Therefore, I made the decision to get a laser treatment to fix my eyesight once and for all. My parents already got the surgery a few years back and they are very happy with their decision and encouraged me to do it as well. As Korea is well-known for ranking among the countries with the most plastic surgeries performed worldwide, I was confident to find someone over here who would be able to do the surgery and I started my research....

 After reading some online blogs and reviews I finally settled for the Dream Eye Center in Gangnam,  the so-called 'beauty-belt' of Seoul with over 500 plastic surgery clinics in one district. Yes, that Gangnam from Psy's 'Gangnam Style'. Dream Eye is a well-known clinic and omnipresent in all Google searches, on Facebook and on YouTube. There might have been cheaper options out there but Dream Eye has an excellent English service, incredibly friendly staff, and, they are very professional, which is part of the reason why I chose them. Actually, it is amazing how quick it all went. I filled out one of their online contact forms and got a call on the same day to schedule a consultation appointment a week later. In Germany I couldn't get an appointment at an oculist for f***ing 5 months in advance and in Korea it took them one phone call and a few days. I was told not to wear contacts for at least a week because they want to test my eyes and they should not be affected by wearing contacts. The clinic is on the 14th floor in one of the many skyscrapers that can be found in Gangnam.

View from the clinics waiting room

 The first thing I had to do was to fill out a form on why I want surgery, the fears I have and my general data. Sitting in the waiting room is not that bad because you are able to enjoy the awesome view, make yourself a coffee or use their free Wifi. I was assigned to my own personal nurse/consultant who guided me through the testing. And there were a lot! Next to a regular visual test, one to measure the pressure of my eyeballs, the thickness of my cornea, the dryness level of my eyes, my reaction to light etc. I cannot remember all of them. In the end I was guided to the oculist and he had a look at my results and my eyes and made a recommendation for the surgery that is most suitable for my case. Basically, there are two different laser eye treatments LASIK and LASEK. The first is the most common one, very easy to handle with a quick recovery. The second one is a bit safer, for people with a very high dioptric record. It involves more pain and a longer recovery period. Obviously there are more medical intricacies to it and if you are interested in the differences between LASIK and LASEK, check out this video:

As for me, I was recommended to do LASEK. Partly because my level of shortsightedness was really high and because I wanted to play it safe. That means, there will remain enough cornea to get a re-treatment if my shortsightedness returns in the future. On the other hand, it also meant more pain and at least a few days of recovery in bed. My consultant went on to explain everything from the post-treatment, the different eye-drops I should take to wearing make-up and doing sports afterwards. What I found extremely clever is, that they addressed all of the fears I told them had on the arrival form. Although I knew its almost impossible, I wrote down that I am afraid to get blind. Hence, they offered a free DNA test because blindness due to laser eye surgery can only occur if you have certain type of DNA.

Now, I know you might be curious about the price. Before I tell you, let me state that the price depends very much on your individual conditions and it cannot be applied to everyone. However, I was able to receive a discount because they had a promotion in September. Hence I paid 1.500.000 Won (+/- 1200 €) including post-treatment with monthly check-ups for 6 months, blood serum eye-drops against infections mixed from my own white blood cells to prevent allergic reactions, anti-inflammatory eye-drops, antibiotic eye-drops and night goggles plus a guarantee for re-treatment if the results are unsatisfactory. For me the deal was good enough to agree, especially considering the price range on the German market.

So, I scheduled a surgery appointment within two weeks (How is everything so fast over here?!). My eyes still had to recover from extensive contact lenses usage. On the day of the surgery I had Korean class in the morning and went to the clinic afterwards with my friend Carina. She would help me to get home safe. I was really nervous. I mean, when do you ever get the chance of someone pointing a laser in your eye? It was over really quickly, they took my blood to mix the blood serum drops. Then my face was disinfected, so that no make-up, dirt or whatever else you have on there can get into your eyes during surgery. I was given a pink surgery robe and some slippers and entered the disinfected surgery area through some electric doors sliding to both sides. My hair was hidden under one of them sexy blue surgery caps. Now it was time for my local anesthetic. How? Eye-drops of course! I urge you to try these if you ever feel the need to have the feeling of seeing through someone else's eyes. Quite literally, that is what I felt. Then it was time to get it over with. I was really nervous by now as I laid down on the table. I was surrounded by different nurses and one of them was only there to hold my hand and pet my arm to calm me down. It was all over within five minutes but I must have smashed the bones of the nurses hand. The most surreal thing was that they played a weird 'Congratulations' song accompanied by cracking fireworks sound in background once I was finished. I mean, I just had surgery and your going full-party mode?.... OK.

Post-Surgery Selfie with swollen eyes!

I was already able to see and it was amazing! It was all a bit numb but I was able to get home safely with the help of Carina. I had to take eye-drops every hour for the first two days. More importantly, I was unable to watch television, use my computer or my cell phone for more than two minutes. For that reason, I listen to the Harry Potter audio books for two days straight (Spoiler alert: Snape kills Dumbledore). It was not a comfortable affair, the first two days my eyes were itching a lot, especially at night. And it was a challenge not to rip off the night googles and scratch my eyes out. However, on the third day things started to normalize and now, after three weeks my vision has returned almost completely! I was told that full recovery can take up to 6 months but I am already able to see everything, except for a glare at night (which is normal).

The only thing left to say is: Bye Bye Glasses!