LASIK Quest (Sydney, Australia)

Greetings readers!

I've created this blog to follow my 'quest' to get LASIK. At this stage I don't know if I'll be doing it, but I've always thought that the most interesting blogs are those that tell of a journey, with interesting observations along the way.

I've had glasses every since I was in 6th class at school (aged 11 or 12). I had started to notice that other people could read things that I couldn't see clearly. I remember going into my parent's bedroom one morning, crying over the realisation that I might need glasses.

I went to the Optometrist (some doctor in an old house, very different to the shop-front Optometrists of today) and she put a set of lenses into a frame and asked me to look out the window. WOW! Everything looked polished and clean. I hadn't realised what I had been missing.

I didn't wear the glasses immediately, since I was used to not having them. Then, my teacher tried to reorganise the classroom, putting me at the back (I obviously wasn't a trouble-maker!) and I then had to tell him that I couldn't see from back there. So, I started wearing my glasses and it's now 26 years later.

I tried contact lenses for a while during my days at University. They were tinted slightly green and the girls used to look into my eyes and ask "Is that your real eye colour?" When I told them it wasn't they immediately lost interest. So, from then on, I only ever replied "I'm not telling" and would you believe they actuallly maintained hope!

Then, after about 6 months, my eyes started rejecting the contacts. I didn't like the irritation, so stopped using them.

Recent Events
Last month, I noticed that the Nose Pad on my glasses had come off, making my glasses rather uncomfortable to wear. I then discovered that it wouldn't be easy to fix. I went to over a dozen Optometrist shops and nobody had a Nose Pad that would fit my frame. The closest was one who offered to do a Super Glue job to stick on a non-conforming nose pad.

Then, I just happened to be passing an Optometrist at lunch, so I thought I'd try them. Guess what -- not only did they know which company produced the frames (which nobody else could tell since the writing had rubbed off over the years), but he even had one in stock -- hooray!

However, my joy was short-lived. In fitting the nose pad, he broke the frame! That meant I had NO glasses, which makes me blind as anything! So, I had to select a new frame on the spot, to which they fitted my existing lenses. I didn't realise at the time, but the new frames were smaller, which resulted in my visual range being limited to a horizontal zone, much like watching wide-screen films on a standard TV.

I've been unhappy with my glasses ever since. I even tried returning to contact lenses again, but my air-conditioned work environment meant that my eyes were getting too dry. Thus my renewed interest in LASIK.

Advice
I asked my Optometrist if LASIK was OK these days. He spoke very positively of it, and recommended two people -- a Dr Versace in the eastern suburbs of Sydney (whom he said always dresses well, haha), and The Eye Institute in the North (where I live).

So, I've signed up to attend an information session and I'll see what happens (sorry about that pun!).

-- Fabbo

Tags: LASIK Laser Eye Surgery