Alright…. I’ve had it, seriously, I’ve been receiving TONS of emails lately basically asking me the same question over and over and over and over again, questions like, who was the surgeon who did my surgery, where , etc. It has come to a point where I feel it’s a little bit annoying, so I’ll be posting the info here.

Actually, I’ve written an angry post during Raya last year which I didn’t publish. So here you go, it has the answers to some of your questions that could probably help you to make the biggest decision of your life…

Okay folks, I’m still alive. Sorry that I haven’t been updating my blog lately. I’ve been busy. I just quit my day job in the oil and gas industry and now working full time at home. Due to the eye problems and stress, I’m actually suffering from ‘something’ that nobody can explain, it’s pretty hard for me to describe so let’s just say I quit my job because I want to live a more peaceful and healthier life.

I’ve received quite a number of emails over the past few months. Some of them were comtemplating whether to go for LASIK or not and some of them were ex-patients with complications like myself. From some of the stories I heard, I can’t help but feel disgusted by the whole LASIK industry and how irresponsible some of the centers and doctors can be. Anyhow, thank you all for your concern and I really appreciate it.

To those readers out there who are wondering, well, my latest answer is – NO, my vision is not getting any better yet! If you still remember, I mentioned in my blog that I went to a lady optometrist to try fitting with RGP lenses. They didn’t work and had created more haloes, glares, multiple images and most ugly of all, starburst. I was struck by disappointment and depression. I didn’t went back to see them eversince. I don’t blame them as I knew they have tried their best to help. I appreciate it.

Most of the emails that I received sound pretty much the same and one of the most frequently asked questions was this:

“Which LASIK center you went to and Who was the doctor who performed the surgery?”

This was mainly asked by those who were deciding on a LASIK treatment. In my opinion, while a good doctor/surgeon plays an important part in a surgery’s success, it doesn’t mean that LASIK is safe (by safe here, I mean without creating side effects, complications etc). Because it is not, one thing you need to understand is that, the LASIK technology is still relatively new and still in its infancy, it has a lot of flaws and it’s statistically recorded that 1 out of 3 patients is not happy with their outcome. Yes, that means there are whopping 33% of unhappy LASIK patients living among us. I’ve received complaints from patients with only -4.00 in both eyes pre-op. You think I’m kidding? go and do a search in Google and see for yourself. Almost every patient will eventually experience some kind of HOAs like glare/haloes, the question is to what sort of degree? and when..

My point is, it doesn’t really matter which LASIK center I went to because they are all the same. It’s still risky even you had the best doctor and the best LASERs. My doctor claimed to be the best at that time and he was one of the LASIK lecturer in Singapore. So what?

Now if you think I sounded like I’m trying to protect the LASIK center I’m NOT, I have had issues with them. If you want to know, FINE, I’m going to spit it all out. I really hate to mention their names as I’m trying hard to forgive them and forget about the whole thing, I feel pain everytime I think about it, but I feel this is NOT something that I should hide as what I’m saying is 100% legitimate and of my truest words.

The LASIK center I went to was EYETECH LASER CENTER (eyetechlaser.com.my) located near Sunway Pyramid and the doctor who performed my surgery was DR. CHING WING SENG. (I think he is one of the eye specialist in Pantai Medical Center).

I have to admit that part of the reason why I’m suffering from all these is my own stupidity and me being too naive and gullible to fall for their shitty marketing scheme without doing more research (Anyway, back in 2001, I didn’t know there was such thing called the INTERNET). You may think I’m stupid but you don’t have any idea what kind of shits I’ve been through.

BUT nobody can DENY the fact that my prescription was too high for any kind of refractive surgery and I wasn’t a good candidate at all. They should have warned me and rejected my case in the first place! They didn’t tell me anything about HOAs like permanent Haloes, Glares and double vision.

What really pissed me off was how they were trying to avoid me and kept tossing the responsibilities around. I’ve been to the centers for God knows how many times and I’m SICK and TIRED of talking to them. You see, the doctor that performed my surgery ‘Dr. Ching’ had quit from the center and opened his own LASIK clinic – (suneyelaser.com – I would avoid this if I were you). So the LASIK center is trying put all the blame on the doctor. And the doctor on the other hand, was asking me to deal with the LASIK center. I can understand that nobody would want to get involved in this kind of situation. But please, this is a responsibility that you must take. How can you do this? I’m a human being, I have a life to live too, how can people be so cold-blooded. Just because of money??? My life is half destroyed because of you, fuc- kers!

Now this is another great one. In early 2006 I gave a call to Dr.Ching a few times and he refused to see me, giving me excuses like the machine was broken and needed to be fixed yada yada yada. Fine. And I called them again several weeks after and he finally agreed to see me in his own LASIK clinic. So, my parents drove me there (why? because I can’t drive obviously) and waited for him. The appointment was at 2.00pm. I reached there early at 1.30pm, and we waited until 2.00pm and went into the clinic and the assistant told us to wait. So we waited, we wait, wait and wait until 4.30pm. And he still didn’t turn up. And then his assistant told us that he was not able to make it. WHAT ??? We’ve waited there for 3 freaking hours and she told us that he’s not able to come???? Yup that’s right. But what really got into my nerves was the fact that they didn’t apologize. Not even a single word of ‘sorry’. MAN I WAS PISSED!! Who wouldn’t??? I mean how hard is it to apologize? Oh, so you think you are some sort of bigshot doctor and could just walk away like that? I mean come on, where are you balls doc? what kind of ethics is this, if you can’t make it let us know earlier!! You made my family and I waited for you for 3 hours. And I would not be so mad if you could just gave us a phone call .

Dear Dr.Ching, if you are reading this, I think you owe me an apology. If you can’t simply pick up the phone and do so, then, shame on you and you don’t deserve to be a doctor, really ….

Okay, I apologize if I sounded a bit angry above, I just can’t help it.

Here’s the deal, IF you are still deciding whether to go for LASIK or not, please, please, please do yourself a favor by finding 2 other lasik patients that had their surgery done for over 3 years and ASK for their opinions, see if they are really satisfied with their outcomes, then only decide. (you really need to ask those that have done lasik for a few years because our cornea will change in time, asking new patients would not help much as they will probably tell you LASIK is a miracle and it’s the best thing that ever happened in their life, trust me, I know, I’ve been there.)

Bottomline is, DON’T TAKE THE RISK WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE TO, IT’S NOT WORTH IT!

Here are the two forums that you might want to check out – www.lasermyeye.org and www.lasik-flap.com

All The Best!