This time no poker at all. Since a decent amount of people seemed to be interested in the stuff regarding my LASIK surgery which was done around a week ago i will give some infos here there especially those who considering it have a better picture how the whole thing is going down.
Will start with abit of history about me and how i ended up at that point where i really wanted to get it done and afterwards lead you through the procedure and describe what to expect. So for those who are only interested in the hard facts just jump straight to 2nd paragraph.
background:
I basically always thought my eyes were fine up to when my driving license came around and i had to take a visual test. I was 18 back then and went to an optician to get that test done and directly failed it. I was devasted at the thought of having to drive car with glasses and the doctor seemed to realize my disappointment and didnt charge me for the test. Outside i reevaluated what to do and since i dont like giving up i came to the conclusion i had to take the test somewhere else and this time not fail it, just guess the last row and see what happens. So i walked down the street to the next optician and passed it - no glasses needed, big success, my eyes are fine :) At least i thought that.
Nothing much happend the next 2 years until i was serving at the german army and was chosen as a truck driver and needed to make new driving license for a truck. Obviously another visual test was needed and i failed again and i think this time it wasnt even close. There was no 2nd chances here and i got my first glasses. However i managed to twist my ankle very soon after this so that i was never able to make that driving license, was never driving truck and therefore never wearing those glasses until like 4 years later at a student party where i lost it drunk - no big deal, expected to lose them anyways.
From here on no more test and i assume my eyes got worse and worse but i just got used to it. If you have bad eyes there alot of instances where you realize you should get something done but i always blacked them out. If i wanted to know where my flight goes i had to step up to 1meter before the thingy in order to read it, if i wanted to read a street sign i had to stand right before it and i couldnt read subtitles in movies anymore at a certain point of time. Also funny is when a mate tells you "look at that girl right there shes so hot" and you nod in agreement but in reality couldnt even tell if the person is male or female let alone if hot or not.
I always had a LASIK back in my head but always pushed it further away. Didnt wanted to get it done in Malta, because well, its Malta and in Bali there weren't any options so when i came to Bangkok it definitely was on my list to get treatment there. After i went to a dentist there i came up with the conclusion thought to let none of those nutjobs close to my eyes ever.
When i arrived in Austria i didnt really thought about it either until the one night i accidentally ended up with the glasses of a friend in a club which was just a bizarre mindblowing moment for me because i never realized how bad it was. All of a sudden i could read the drink menue behind the bar, see faces of girls on the dancefloor 30meters away, etc. In that drunk moment i made the decision something needs to get done asap.
Next day i started googling for options and came up with what is allegedly the best laser specialist in Austria and decided to make an appointment and pay this guy a visit to get those eyes sorted once and for all.
lasik procedure:
I wrote an enquiry about 2 weeks ago asking for and appointment to check my eyes and discuss surgery at Eye Laser Wien. (homepage unfortunately seems to be german only yet). I got a call straight from the doctor where he checked if i was wearing any lenses currently (i think you shouldnt were lenses 3 weeks prior to test and operation but not sure about this) and some other basic questions and we made an appointment at the doctors office a couple of days later. At this appointment your eyes get checked with some futuristic machines to determine how much minus or plus you have, if you are suited for a LASIK and if so for which one (there are different ones and i will refer to the one i received which is the newest and safest method called femto-lasik) and also a general visual test. I scored with around -3 (which is quite significant if you consider i never wore glasses nor lenses) and the first reply of the doc was "how is life working out for you like that?" with a worried look on his face.
He then wanted to take an additional test after giving me some eyedrops in which i scored abit better with slightly below minus 2. He told me that my eyes were suited for their standard operation method which they recommend (which is the femto-lasik) and that they have available spots for tomoro and for mid august. I snap shouted "tomoro is fine" into his direction and that was that. So i ended up having an eye surgery schedule not even 6days after my drunk facebook rage that i'm going to get it done asap - safe to say i was proud and happy.
That evening i was quite excited but also abit anxious of what was about to happen. I made the plan to not look up to much about the whole procedure but obviously failed so that i had a pretty good overview what was going to happen when i went back to the doctors office the next day to get the LASIK done.
day of the operation:
In the beginning you have to sign an agreement that you are aware of the risks and stuff and yadayada. You also get a back which included 2 different sets of eyedrops you will have to use over the next week, a dark sunglasses, some ibus (for the case you feel pain which you normally dont) and a sleeping pill. Before i forget to mention it the whole procedure costs 1600euro per eye currently, 3.2k in total. Different operation methods cost different amounts but are always between 1.2-1.6.
Afterwards you get dressed accordingly for the operation, have to lay down flat and the doctor gives you some special eyedrops to anaesthesize the eyes. Doctor then tell you your task for the next 10 minutes will be to always look straight into the greenlight. One eye gets covered and the first laser (which creates the flap - whatever that means) comes over your other eye. This eye turns dark then and 10 seconds later you hear the doctor "cut is perfect". Now the 2nd laser comes which fixes your bad vision. This takes another 10 to 20 seconds and you can smell the burned skin/flesh/whatever (sounds way worse than it actually is). Finally you get a protection lense which will stay in the eye until the check up the next morning and you are already done and ready for the 2nd eye. Same procedure. After max 15 minutes everything was done and effictively you maybe have 2minutes total the lasers working. There was zero pain the entire time. Its definitely not a superpleasnt feeling but every visit at a dentist is miles worse. You just make a big deal out of this usually because it involves your eyes and therefore you are scared. The main difference between the femto lasik i received and other methods is that everything gets done with 2 different lasers while with other methods the flap gets created manually via a small knife or something like this which is obviously way more scary than just get the same thing done via computer and laser. Also the recovery with the femto lasik goes way faster and much more painless then other methods from what i read.
Ok, operation done. Way quicker than i wouldve ever imagined - as being said in max 15minutes i was in and out. And you can see way better straight away. It's abit blurry, eyes are very slightly burning (again, sounds probably worse than it was but not other way to describe it) but you already can see way better than before.
after the operation:
In your goody bag is also a couple of pages which are explaining to you what to take care of after the OP, how often to take the eyedrops, etc.
I went straight down to the street, ordered and UBER and went home. The day after you shouldnt use computer, mobile, tv, w/e. - just dont use anything which involves the eyes much and they recommend to keep them closed as much as possible. So your best bet is just to sleep until the checkup and in wise forsight of this i grinded long the last night and woke up fairly early so that i was sleep deprived already. After arriving at home at 5pm i applied the eyedrops, took an ibu, just to be safe even though i barely felt any pain, and went straight to bed. Slept for a couple of hours, ordered a pizza around 9pm, took the sleeping pill after and managed to sleep another couple of hours until like 4am and now it was already much much better. Slight burning was pretty much gone and i went up to the balcony to have a smoke and could basically see pretty perfect already. All of the sudden i could see what stuff people had on their balconies next door, could look into flats i havent even seen before etc. A fucking awesome feeling. Now unfortunately couldnt sleep anymore and just dosed until the checkup which was schedule at 9:30am. Doctor was fairly satisfied with the results and removed the protection lenses i mentioned earlier on. I asked him if i could start using mobile and computer again and he was like "yeah, no problem, just dont overdo it and take breaks" and so i was back on teh grind already 18hours after the operation. That saturday and sunday i really had to take breaks more frequently because the eyes were just getting tired after an hour of work at the computer. But besides that no limitations. On monday pretty much everything was perfect and basically back to normal just with eagle eyes. If i didnt know i had the procedure last friday i couldnt tell.
Now almost one week past and im feeling better than ever. Kinda regret i didnt got this done alot earlier but well, better now then never.
So in total i would 100% recommend the Lasik and 100% recommend the doctor i got it done from. You also have to consider that for me that is way bigger than for anybody who has glasses/lenses/whatever. I just had nothing and was walking around the last years half blind essentially and all of a sudden you wake up and see the world in full HD again, can read signs, movies look completely different, etc. It's quite surreal and almost like being born again as sick as it sounds. Definitely the best investment i made so far in my life and worth every single penny. In fact if i knew it would be like this i probably wouldve instantly paid 10times the price - just such a massively increased lifequality.
Hope i could shed some light and if there are questions just holla. Poker is treating me well so far this month so next update is expected to come out on time at the very beginning of august.
Peaze!
