Melissa Gets Lasik!

Last month, I decided to get Lasik eye surgery after wanting to have it for years. It turns out that one of my student's father is a Lasik surgeon at the best eye clinic here in Ulsan. So, after a couple of consultations and a month of wearing glasses, I finally had the surgery last Saturday and everything went perfect! My coworker Josephine got it done with me. It was definitely much more fun going through it with her by my side.

The Lasik machine I used is called Amaris. There are only 3 of these machines in Korea and only one in Ulsan. It is supposedly the best and newest Lasik machine worldwide. It's also the most expensive, but because I had a connection, I got a big discount! Usually it costs 3.5 million won ($3,000), but I only paid 2 million won ($1700).


This is my student Robert's father that did the surgery.

The Lasik office is on the 6th floor of this building in downtown (Samsan dong), Ulsan.

This is a picture of Frank in the reception area.

Me and Josephine with the Lasik consultant minutes before the surgery process began!

One final eye check then they brought us back to a dim room with big comfy recliners and classical music. We relaxed in there for about 20 minutes to calm our nerves. They also put numbing drops in our eyes. Next, they took me back to the operating room where I laid on a table and didn't move a single inch for the next 15 minutes. It pretty much went like this: they washed my eyes with water, put a device in them to keep them open, peeled back the top layer of my eyes, zapped the laser on them for a couple minutes, then finally put the top layer back on my eyes with what seemed like a plastic paintbrush. Literally 20 minutes later I was back in my recliner with funny looking goggles on my face. I didn't really feel any pain during the surgery, just a little pressure.

I slept here for about an hour and a half. I felt a little burning in my eyes and this was the most pain I had during the entire experience.

Josephine is getting ready to get hers done...she volunteered ME to go first! :)

Frank was entertaining us by taking lots of pictures.

He even took pictures of my socks...they are cute, though!

After both of us were finished resting, the office people drove us home in a van. I slept the rest of the day and had to go back Sunday morning at 9am for a check-up. Frank was great at making sure I was comfortable and putting my drops in every couple hours. For the next month, I have to put drops in my eyes 4 times a day and go back to their office every week. I also can't wear any eye make-up. Overall, it was a great experience! Here's a link to a commercial of the Lasik office...it's in Korean, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like inside. http://www.ulsaneye.com/pop_091230.html

Today I went back for my second check-up and they took a picture of me with the doctor for their website. They also asked me to write an operation review. You can read my review below or you can see it on their website:

http://www.ulsaneye.com/

(If you click on the korean word all the way to the right on the black line, then look to the left of the screen and click on the fourth word down, you'll see my review).

I received my Lasik operation 3 days ago using the Amaris machine and I am 100% satisfied with the results! I can actually see better now than I could with glasses. The doctors and assistants really took the time to explain the procedure to me, which made me feel very comfortable. I didn't feel any pain during or after the operation. Also, the staff was very fluent in English, which made communication much easier. I would DEFINITELY recommend going to Ulsan Eye Clinic to anyone thinking about having Lasik. ~Melissa