Matthew weaver
I have worn glasses since I was 11 years old. While I have grown accustomed to them over the years, they have affected my life in numerous ways. On my honeymoon I couldn't see anything properly while snorkelling and scuba diving because I forgot to take my contact lenses. When riding my motorbike putting my glasses on while wearing a helmet both dangerous and frustrating as they never really sat right on my face. Contact lenses irritated my eyes and made them really, really dry. I could live with glasses, but they caused me problems in lots of little ways. I had previously looked into laser eye surgery, but it was too expensive (especially in Australia) and the technology didn't really seem mature.
When returning to Korea in 2009, I needed new glasses anyway, so I thought it was time to re-evaluate surgery. When looking into the options in depth, it turned out that the price had come down and the technology had improved. Looking at a few threads as the ESL Cafe forums, I saw that several people had their surgery performed at Dream Eye Clinic and all had positive things to say about the effect of the surgery on their lives and their experience at Dream Eye Clinic. I had a look at their website and it was very informative and helpful. After having my initial appointment there, I felt comfortable that the staff at Dream Eye Clinic had lots of experience with western people and with the surgery techniques to be used.
In the first few weeks after my surgery I found that I still had all my old habits. I was still reaching up to take my glasses off when getting into bed or having a shower and reaching out to put them on first thing in the morning. My vision improved slowly but steadily over the weeks following surgery. I was taking extra care of my eyes, following the doctors instructions for using the eye-drops and being careful of any eye trauma and UV light. The result is that now, about 3 months later, my vision feels great.
I can now see at 100% almost every day. My eyes still get dry and I have to use the artificial tears regularly to keep them moist. But this was something that was explained to me before going into the surgery. Occasionally it feels like my vision drops below 100% on certain days, but again, it was explained to me that the healing process takes about 6 months.
Since having surgery I've been able to wear my first pair of non-prescription sunglasses since I was 11. It's good to finally have some choices when shopping. This winter, I'm looking forward to going snowboarding and being able to wear proper goggles on my face and next summer I'm really looking forward to going swimming and maybe doing some snorkelling and finally being able to see under the ocean clearly.
Throughout my preparation, the surgery and all the followup appointments, the staff at Dream Eye Centre have been both friendly and professional. They explained what they were doing at each step and why they were doing it. They answered all the questions I had, put all my fears to rest and made me feel comfortable about my decision to have this procedure done. I would recommend that any foreigners who are considering laser eye surgery have the procedure done at this clinic as they will definitely take good care of you.
