My Story

Suffering from Complications After LASIK since 2001

On 9th March 2001, I underwent a standard LASIK surgery at one the LASIK centres in Malaysia. I had quite a high prescription before the surgery. My pre-operative eyesight was –11.0 diopter (left eye) and -9.5 diopter (right eye). After two days of the surgery, when my corneal flap is healing and my vision started to become clearer, I started to see some ghosting/double vision effects on my left eye (no, it is not normal Astigmatism). I am actually experiencing this not only during the night, but during daytime as well. When I’m in a dark area for more than 5 minutes, both of my eyes will see glares, haloes, starbursts and not to mention the ghosting effect.

It is true that I almost had 20/20 vision without optical aids, but having these other LASIK complications is really disturbing. Since then, I have been complaining about this and made very frequent visits back to the LASIK centre to seek consultation. During the visits I have been told again and again that these glares, ghosting effects will be reduced as the time goes by.

Now, four years have passed, not only my vision does not improve, but instead has become worse. I started wearing glasses again on December 2003. For the past few years, I have sought advice from a few eye specialists and ophthalmologists from Penang and also from Tun Hussein Onn Eye Hospital. But to no avail, nobody can give me a satisfying answer on what is happening to my eyes and how to solve these problems. Some even suggested that I should go seek for psychiatrists help. Helpful? Sure is.

On November 2004, I visited the LASIK centre again and found out that my surgeon (I will call him Dr.X) has resigned from the centre. I was introduced to another 2 doctors (Dr.Y and Dr.Z) whom I have never seen before. They have made an assumption that I am having irregular astigmatism due to higher order aberrations. The reason of seeing halo, starburst, ghosting at night is because of the dilation of my pupils has exceeded the treatment area (Optical Zone). Dr.Y has suggested that I could go for an enhancement surgery with LASEK instead of LASIK because my cornea tissue is too thin. The data that they obtained from the latest abberometer was sent to Singapore’s Bausch & Lomb for further studies.

Sometime later on that month, coincidentally, I met Dr.X (my LASIK surgeon) when I did my eye check up. He told me to go to his private clinic to have my eyes checked using the abberometer there. But when I call up the clinic, a lady picked up the phone and told me to get a RM4000.00 (about $1060.00 USD) bank cheque from my LASIK centre if I want the enhancement surgery to be done at Dr.X's private clinic. I can’t see the logic in it, all I want is just to get my eyes checked using the abberometer in his clinic. Now, please tell me what to do if you are in my shoes.

I went for a check up again on 30th June 2005 by one optometrist near my area. Below is the prescription:

Left eye: -0.50, -0.75
Right eye: -0.50, -0.75

I was told that with such a low prescription, wearing glasses is not necessary. But the fact is, I really cannot see clearly without the glasses, and not even with the glasses on. I repeat, I cannot see clearly even with my glasses ON! Because of the ghosting, double vision or triple vision effects, whatever you want to call it, my vision becomes very hazy and sometimes blurry even with my glasses on. I can’t seem to focus on near objects. My eyes feel very tired and dry all the time. The ghosting/double vision effect is so bad that I cannot drive at night. My dry eyes problem is becoming more and more serious day after day. My eyes feel extremely dry as I am typing this letter. Dr.Y has given me some Refresh Tears eyedrops. Unfortunately, it only lasts for a few seconds. After that, my eyes become dry again.

A picture is worth a thousand words, below are some of the images (courtesy of www.visionsimulations.com ) that I see even with my spectacles on:

Starburst

Picture A(1): This is what normal people see Picture A(2): This is what I see.    

Glare

Picture B: Picture on the left, without glare. Picture on the right, with glare and this is what I see usually.

Halo

 
Picture C(1): Without halo                       Picture C(2): With halo