I have dreamed of getting lasik eye surgery for over ten years seeing as I had glasses from the early age of 6 years old. Despite the recent years of my eyes being completely over contacts, I sadly couldn’t afford it, therefore it remained a dream for someday…until recently.
The TRSC International Lasik Eye Center made it all happen for me – even though it was hell’a scary. Despite controversity over doing medical procedures in ‘developing countries’, Bangkok, Thailand is surprsingly known for their prestigious elective medical surgeries. Sure we have all heard the scary stories, but in reality the doctors are highly trained, their equipment is super sterile, and not to mention their hospitals look like mansions:
I can honestly say the day of the procedure was pretty smooth despite my anxiety. I went through 4-5 quick tests to determine my eyes and if I was a candidate for this and was directed to get a blood test across the street in their luxurious hospital. Once everything was set up and my results came back, I choose to do the more expensive laser surgery for $4000USD due to the thinness of my cornea flap (for average people it would cost $2000-2500). The actually time spent in surgery was quick…fifteen seconds of green then red flashing lights per eye. Before I knew it the surgery was over and while my vision was blurry, I could at least still see immediately after.
Went straight to bed as directed and woke up the next morning with great vision! My eyes were only scratchy and dry for a day and afterward I continued to put eye drops in until I saw them a week later. It has now been three months since the surgery and that is when my vision is supposed to be it’s strongest. I cannot say I have experienced blurry night vision or dry eyes, but I can tell my vision in my left eye (ironically the one that kept rolling back during surgery and they had to stop the machine twice) is slightly better than the other eye.
Overall I had a great experience and cannot complain with anything because I realize my eyes are far better now than they ever were with contacts. So awesome to know science has progressed to quick 30 second procedures to curing legally blindness. Also due to the more expensive surgery, I can return for one more procedure if my eyes go bad, for only 2000 baht…that is around $200USD…not too shabby.
Thus wraps up my Southeast Asia experience…check out my budget here, and my next stop here!
Hola! I’ve been following your blog for some time now and finally got the courage to
go ahead and give you a shout out from Austin Texas!
Just wanted to tell you keep up the great work!
Thank you for the support! Austin, Texas?! Awesome:)
To answer your question, lasik costs differ per individual. Since my eye had a lower than average cornea thickness, I choose the more expensive, precise laser so that I may have another surgery down the road. This bumped the price from $2,000 USD to $4,000 USD.