Corrective Vision Surgery in Korea

After 9 years of wearing contacts and 10 years of wearing glasses, I've finally bid goodbye to them all. Yes, that's right, I am no longer wearing contacts or glasses. I'm freeeeeeeee~

For the past couple of years, I've thought about getting laser surgery for my eyes to correct my vision. I don't know why I waited so long...actually, I do know why. Cost was a major factor, but I was also afraid of the results. What if something goes wrong? What if I become blind forever because my head twitched in the middle of the surgery? Hey, I'm not that weird for thinking this! Finally after a year in Korea, contemplating on whether or not I should do it, I mustered up the courage to just call and set an appointment. I mean, after I go in for a consultation, I can decide if I want to get the surgery or not after. This is only a test run through, I'll probably chicken out.

First off, why get it done in Korea? Well, why not? It's cheaper. My friend had Lasik done in the States for (as far as I remember) ~5,000USD. That's like, 2500 per eye! I definitely didn't have that kind of money to be spending.i

Where in Korea?
I went on a whim with this one. Originally I was going to go to a place in Seoul where one of my friends got her eyes done. However, when I came around to calling and setting an appointment, her doctor that performed the surgery was no longer working at that hospital. Well, I wasn't going to just let anyone play with my eyes. I needed to see results first before I even let anyone take a look at my eyes. Another friend told me that she was going to get her eyes done at a well known hospital, and that if I was considering on getting my eyes done, I should go check out the clinic. So, I figured, she's getting her eyes done here, I should check it out. So which clinic was this? It was no other than B&VIIT (aka BNVIIT, I've included the English website for ya interested interwebs).


So, I decided that if I was going to do a consultation and if I was going to do the surgery, I'm going to do it all in one go! Probably not the brightest decision, but it was one of the smarter ones I made. Haaah. I made a reservation for consultation on a Saturday, as soon as I knew I had vacation the weeks following, you know...so I can have time to heal. Another smart decision made by me!

The consultation lasted about 2 hours. Seems like a pretty long time yeah? Well, they need to test your eyes and make sure they don't screw up your eyes. They wouldn't want a big fat lawsuit at their door. After a series of tests, they took me to a room where they explained to me that my eyes were very healthy and that I can choose between Lasik and Lasek surgery. It was my choice, they didn't pressure me into getting a specific one done. Which was pretty cool. I did some research before I even thought about getting surgery done, and I went in knowing that I wanted to get LASEK done. Between LASIK and LASEK, LASEK was "stronger" and it would be the better route if you're into extreme sports. I mean, I'm not an extreme sport-ologist but, if I had LASIK done and I decided one day to do some extreme sporting and I knock my head, I could probably lose my vision and that'd mean that I would have to do surgery again, if possible. So I went the safe route and chose LASEK even thought it was a longer recovery time. I gots time fo dats but I ain't gots time fo re-surgery.

The awesome thing about this clinic is that, (and I wouldn't know if the other clinics have this too or not but...) they had 3 classes for surgery. Just like any air flight, you have first class, business class, and then economy class, and respectively the price ranges from high to low. This clinic had Red (first class), Blue (business class), and Green (economy class). Red has all the perks of a first class trip such as choosing your own Grade A, experienced doctor (from their selection, of course) and better healthcare benefits, etc etc etc. Blue had experienced doctors, good benefits, and cheaper prices. Green, you can't choose your doctor who will perform your surgery, had okay benefits, but had the cheapest price. ME? Of course I went with first class, I mean...I don't roll with anything but first class, ya dig me? Actually, because the overall price was cheap, I went with Red because, well these are my eyes you're talking about and without my vision, I am nothing, so this was something I was willing to pay extra for. Plus being able to sit in a special secluded area for first class is always a plus, and way cooler than you folks sitting in economy class. Hmfph.

Shortly after, I went through another test to check the "nutrition" of my eyes. Why? I'm not sure because 5 minutes ago, I was just told that my eyes are very healthy. They made me put my hand on a machine, asked for my height and weight, and within a minute, the results were reveal. I had horrible nutrition in my eyes! Apparently, my eyes were one level from the lowest eye-nutrition level. WHAT?! You're telling me that my eyes are healthy, but they have the worst nutrition? I don't get it. How do you know? You tested this through my hands, are you sure this is accurate? I didn't bother to argue and nodded my head like any foreigner as she explained that I should take supplements to improve the nutrition in my eyes. Add that to my list of things I care for......


Anyways, so after 15 second reflecting session on what I wanted to do with my life, err...my vision, I set an appointment that day for my surgery! Exciting~~ I went for lunch and returned with my friends and bid farewell to my glasses forever. One note I do want to mention, AT B&VIIT, there are two separate buildings, one for examination and one for the surgery itself.

Before surgery, they explained to me the most important thing about LASEK is the care and recovery process. They dumped a bunch of information to me about oral medication, eye drops, medication this, medication that, and post surgery do's and don'ts. After that, I paid for surgery and then...off I went to get ready for surgery. The surgery itself took about 2 minutes basically. They put painkiller drops in my eyes, cleaned my eyes, made me stare at a green light, laser zap zap, cleaned, put on a protective contact lens, and da-tah! all done. I read somewhere online where some patients complained about a burning smell from the laser part, but I didn't smell anything. Hmm. Anyways, it was pretty cool though. I stared at the green light, I could see the red laser doing it's magic as my vision became super blurry, and as soon as the laser finished, they rinsed my eyes and...wow, my vision was crispy clear! After my surgery, since I was a Red class patient, I received Vitamin C injection, oohyay!

While getting my injection, I lay on a lazy boy enjoying this treatment. My eyes didn't hurt and it was calming...for the first 2 minutes. As the painkiller drops were waring away, I began to feel pain sensation in my eyes. At first it was like, if I had an eyelash in my eye but then...it felt like I had scratched my eyeballs. I endured the pain for about 2 minutes before I gave in to tugging my hair because of the pain. Haha. My eyes began to water a lot now. Luckily my injection was about finished and a nurse came in. She was all like, "how are you feeling miss?" and I'm like, "ugh, not good." She had the audacity to chuckle at me and asked, "painful?" and I said, "yes." She was nice enough to give me another dosage of the painkiller and walked me out after taking out my needle. And off I went home, yep. Just like that. On my way coming home really hurt though and my eyes were really sensitive to the light, even though it was getting dark outside. I had on a cap, dark sunglasses, and it honestly looked like I was crying because I broke up with my boyfriend or something. The tears wouldn't stop! Anyways, I ended up having to wrap my head with my cardigan because it was sooooooo bright out, at 8pm. LOL! Seriously, it was really bright! Shades, hat, cardigan. I'm pretty sure I looked stupid, but good thing I had a friend to lead me home!

Anyways, that night I woke up in the middle of the night crying because of the pain. This was probably at 1am. I had already taken a painkiller pill before going to bed. I strained my eyes to see what other thing I could eat or put in my eyes to make this pain stop. Seriously, because it hurt so much, I just plopped down on my floor and cried, wishing I had my mom here to take care of me. TT^TT It really hurt! I managed to read about an ointment I needed to put in my eye before I went to sleep. And so I dug like a mad-man (err, woman) through the little care package they gave me, and I ripped through boxes of medication, straining my eyes against my cell phone death light (which was set to brightness 0%), crying buckets of tears, and when I finally found the right ointment, I put that shit in my eye like a person who hasn't had water in 3 days. Then I went back to sleep, err...well I tried to. I woke up at 5 and put some eye drops in my eyes, and then I realized, I didn't eat my medication! FAIL! I quickly ate it and wanted to slap myself for forgetting. TT^TT So dumb Mina.

Anyways, so my first day (surgery day) was shit. The second day, my friend came over to take care of me, cooking for me and what not. I slept with sunglasses on because it was so bright out. I'm not kidding with this bright out part. Your eyes are soooo sensitive to light. My blinded self ended up putting a blanket over my window to block out the light. Haha. I lived like a vampire for the next day or two. The pain on the second day felt like I had a lemon juice in my eye, just stingy. But my first day felt like hell, a bunch of sand dumped in my eyes. Maybe if I ate my medicine, it wouldn't have hurt so much. And on my third day, I was able to take off my sunglasses and open my eyes for more than 30 seconds. By the end of the third day, I was cooking my own meals and turning on lights in my apartment. The following day, I went to the clinic to get my contacts removed. I passed the critical recovery stages, and now I needed to keep up with medication and eye drops, and I should be good to go.

Today, the day after my lens were removed, was the day I was waiting for most. I FINALLY got to shower. I was so excited to wash my face thoroughly and wash my hair, I woke up at 5am. Yeah. That was how excited I was, even when I went to went at 9pm. I only needed 8 hours of sleep, more or less with all the waking up and falling back asleep during those few hours. I washed my blankets and took a nice long shower. It felt so good!

I shouldn't be straining my eyes by staring at my computer screen for a long time. But, I'm writing for about 20~25 minutes and stopping for 30 minutes before continuing again. So this post actually took a couple of hours to write. Haha. This pretty much concludes my experience with LASEK surgery in Korea.



Why B&VIIT?
Well, if it wasn't for the celebrities that...lol, I mean...what? Okay, maybe I did choose that place in particular because notable Kpop idols such as SNSD's Taeyeon, Sunny, Seohyun, F(x)'s Victoria, 2PM's Junho, TVXQ's Changmin, Superjunior's Eunhyuk, EXO's Chanyeol, and others have gotten their vision corrected at this clinic. I felt so much safer going in knowing that celebrities had surgery here, and plus my friend who recommended me the place.

About the clinic
They are super friendly! I spoke minimal Korean, so I asked another Korean friend to join me in this exciting experience. Most of the staff spoke pretty well English to me, so my need for a Korean friend backup wasn't needed. However, it made me feel safer. I like feeling safe. Hee.

How painful was it?
If you look at my personal profile, listed under hobbies are "enjoys self-inflicting pain, and fighting sedative medication", so I strangely enjoy pain. Okay, maybe it isn't listed there forreal but you get me. But I do want to note that, the first 2 days were quiet painful. If I taken my medication like how I was supposed to, maybe it would be a different story. I'm still calling myself an idiot for forgetting. However, everyone is entitled to their own pain endurance.

Would I recommend getting corrective vision surgery?
I'm not one to recommend anyone to do anything. However, if you're thinking about it, I say just do it. If you think you won't be able to handle the pain, take your baby-crying-ass elsewhere! lol, jokes aside, if you want to do it, do it. If you don't want to do it, don't do it. But think about the outcome =]


Throughout the whole ordeal, I thought: pain is temporary, results are forever.
It definitely helped me get through my struggles. I hope this helps. Btw, I DON'T REGRET THIS DECISION AT ALL!

this was updated on August 6, 2014