Documentation of ICL surgery

It is the second day after the surgery and I'm hermiting at home to avoid physically bumping into anyone on the street (likelihood = high in HK).

For anyone considering ICL surgery or are curious about it, here's the gorily detailed recount of what I went through. Excuse me if I sound less than smart right now or some of my sentences dn't make sense. Mental coherence is down from all the drugs and naps and meals. I've been taking naps every 4 hours or so since the surgery and then wake up for meals or to study out of a small sliver of responsibility left in me (then I'd crawl RIGHT back to bed after eating) So I've been sleeping a lot these days.

The surgery I went through is also known as Phakic IOL. IOL is introccular lens, which are typically implanted into the eye and replacing the natural crystalline lens. However, phakic means the eye's natural lens are not removed, so the lens (called: Toric Visian ICL manufactured in Switzerland) are placed right above the natural lens (sort of like an interior contact). In this case, ICL can be taken to stand for implantable contact lens. The material is collamer, a biocompatible copolymer (HEMA and benzophenone monomers), specifically purified collagen and water. It is foldable, so during the procedure, it is injected into the eye where it unfolds into position.

Why not LASIK or PRK? Because my nearsightedness is too much for those. I didn't have enough eye tissue to pave away at and reduce nearsightedness to 0. And I don't think those fix astigmatism. And they often cause dry eye symptom (I already have dry eyes). IOL is reversible if one day I need them removed.

Two weeks before the actual procedure, I underwent YAG laser iridotomy. A laser gun zapped the back of my eyeball to make holes near the edge of my iris (coloured part of the eye) to serve as outlets for fluid in the eye to circulate around the lens. Sooo painful. I think it was something like 3-5 zaps to make one hole, and 5 holes in each eye? I can't remember.

The next week I was all geared up to have the surgery, but my doctor said I should wait another week to let the occular pressure drop some more. In the meanwhile, I used a lot of eye drops. Disappointed, I went to work listlessly and impatiently that whole week! Then I watched a video of the procedure which I should not have done. There was more prodding and poking than I thought there would be. The brochure made it look so clean and quick!

On Friday, I went to work half day and headed to the doctor after lunch.

After a battery of tests, I was gowned and lay down on the operating table, fully conscious. They covered the rest of my face, dowsed my eye in what I believe to be iodine (yellow. what else?) and local anesthesia. The lights were turned off except for one, which I was told to stare at. I felt something, but nothing was painful. I saw fluids, and at one point, RED fluids, which was really scary.

How do people eat giant lollipops? I have a chupa chups in my mouth right now, it's only been like 3 minutes and my mouth is already tired from having to hold it there.

Anyway, I soon felt something really cold in the back of my eyeball. I think it should be the gel that allows the lens to slip in. Eventually, the light shifted positions, and I couldn't see it entirely. Pitch darkness. A short moment I saw it again.

Then "Surgery done. Successful." And the nurse ripped the cover off my face. Since there were adhesives there, it was painful. That's the most painful part of the surgery. The adhesives ripping off my face. I think the whole process took about 15 minutes. I opened my eyes and saw the crates of the lighting on the ceiling, with a bit of haze.

They left me there to rest for 20 minutes or so (doctor probably went to do another surgery during that time), and they came back for my other eye.

This time, it stung a lot when the iodine came showering down. I felt a bit of pain on the sides of my eyeballs this time. It was less comfortable (hah~ I'm using the word 'comfortable' to describe a surgery) but it took less time. Maybe 15 minutes at most?

Both eyes were covered, and I was led into a resting room where I was bored out of my mind for 30 minutes, and fell asleep for the next hour. I met up with the doctor again and the coverings we removed. Behold, I could see! The world was still hazy and swimming around, but everything was better than my pre-surgery eyesight already. My parents took me home by taxi.

*removes lollipop*

So I'm living a normal life now (two days after the fact) except for the fact that I can't take a shower for the next 4 days (and even then I have to wash my hair off a basin at a hair cutting place), take a normal bath (I need to wipe myself down), taking eye drops every 2 hours, and wearing eye shields to bed in case I claw at myself in my sleep, and taking more naps than a normal human being should.

*chucks half eaten lollipop in the bin*

I'm going to take another nap and listen to FF Distant Worlds II. I think this is some sort of personal record.

Merry Christmas!! Oh, it's still a bit early to say that...

Pride

I went to a free outdoor concert "Swire Symphony under the Stars". We sat on the ground, picnic style. Somebody bought a blanket and took a nap behind me. The theme was Russian music, with works by the likes of Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. The evening ended with the 1912 overture accompanied by synchronized fireworks.

I feel listless and lousy this morning. I am getting irritated soley because my colleagues are talking loudly. It's terrible tuesday (I still cannot fathom why, but tuesday is the worse day of the week for me). I want to just take the day off.

My eye doctor told me that I should wait one more week before doing the surgery to let my eye cells 'stabilize' and 'balance' (I think those were the terms he used? but I have no idea what he means) and take more pressure-reducing eye drops. I was disappointed to hear that! The eye drops sting and I'm convinced that they are making my vision worse these days. Life is so blurry. And I was SUPER READY last week. Now I'm getting scared. The procedure is supposed to be fast, painless and easy, but the fact that I'll be conscious throughout the whole thing is unnerving. I also went an watched a youtube video, which I should not have done. It was a lot more cutting and prodding and poking than I thought. waaaahh I wish for Friday 6:00 pm!

I'm at work, obviously very bored if I'm here blogging, so I'll write another little rail on humanity, which I love to do these days. By the way, I bought a game. It is called 'fate of the world' and it is "a dramatic global strategy game that puts all our futures in your hands. The game features a dramatic set of scenarios based on the latest science covering the next 200 years. You must manage a balancing act of protecting the Earth’s resources and climate versus the needs of an ever-growing world population, who are demanding ever more food, power, and living space." http://www.fateoftheworld.net/

It's related to what I'm studying, so of course I felt compelled to play it.

I realized lately that humans covet what's not readily available. Like the developing masses of rich people emerging from developing countries who want to eat animals on the brink of extinction (it's going extinct?? then we must try it before it's gone!). We want diamonds, which are expensive because they are rare and not many people have it.

People often stop at nothing to satisfy their insatiable pride. Entire countries will go to war with each other (slaughtering many innocent people) because the opponent insulted them or somethng. They will build large machines and bomb each other into submission and display their 'power'.

Strange how that is considered to be 'cool'. The person who is ambitious and selfish is viewed upon favourably, whereas the ones who are desperate and humble are looked upon with disdain. This holds true for all walks of life. The 'average' person sitting at the reception counter, a lonely man looking for a girlfriend, the poor who wants some food. There is nothing glamorous about these people. Desperation is unattractive because it is implies lack of power and strength.

Actually, this one is really hard to write about. Pride is probably more than that. They say pride is said to be the sin of all sins because it is giving into the desires of the self. Satan in fact fell from heaven because of his vanity.

eye surgery and the coolest piano ever

My optometrist told me that I will have a queasy stomach for a few days because of the medication I needed to take after the laser treatment. Conversely, my appetite couldn't have been better, and I downed german sausages, sauerkraut, roast beef, mashed potatoes, wedges of cheese, quasedillas, lasagna, apple pie, banana something smoothie, grilled vegetables, and other rich and lavish things this weekend, in separate celebrations for my birthday.

I also ate a lot of chocolate last week because I was kind of depressed. My pants are kinda tight now.

To explain that bit about the 'laser treatment', I want to announce that I am getting phakic intraoccular lens (aka implantable contact lens / intraoccular collamer lens) since I am not a candidate for LASIK; my myopia is too high. It is a good thing too, because I have dry eyes already and I heard LASIK only aggravates dry eye symptom. This procedure, as you can probably infer from the name, will entail injecting a small, bio-compatible lens into the area above my natural lens. It will fix my astigmatism and severe myopia. The success rate is high (99.4%), and it is reversible. It does predispose someone to cataracts though.

The optometrist happens to be one of my piano student's dad, and was incredibly kind to waive all doctor-related fees, and am charging me the bare minimum (which is still quite expensive because the cost of the lens itself is quite hefty).

I have been fiddling with contacts and glasses for as long as I could remember. I have fears like, what happens if an eyelash gets into my eye while I'm walking down the aisle for my wedding (should I stop and take out the contacts?) or should I wear contacts at a beach? (sand will eventually get in my eye and I'll have to wear glasses, but then I will need to take a picture, and I will look look pretty bad in a bathing suit with extra thick glasses that hides my eyes), or if I were to be stranded on an island, I must take off contacts (that means I'll be near blind and get eaten by a bear, or step on some poisonous plant?)

Jokes aside, it really is an enormous hassle to have to wash contacts every night before you go to sleep, especially when you're at a wild camp. Glasses are fine, but vision isn't as clear with them, and I don't find them comfortable. Plus, I can't do eye make-up.

Anyway, all I'm trying to say is that I'm quite excited about this surgery. I'm a bit nervous too, especially after watching youtube videos of the procedure, in which they really poke and prod at your eye like a lump of meat. I was told it would be painless though (in fact the laser session I had last weekend in preparation for the surgery was more painful).

I'll keep you guys updated on how things go!

happy birthday to myself, and some less happy musings

I was feeling emo when the clock hit 12 am, sad that life can be such an uphill climb. I was thinking to myself... perhaps I'll sacrifice quality of life for an easier time in my career. Who cares about making a lot of money. I never loved money that much in the first place. I don't need name brands or to eat out so much (bad for health). I don't need a huge house (will take forever to clean anyway). I am quite capable of living simply and humbly. In fact, that is more environmentally friendly.

This half a year has chipped at my resilience, motivation, self confidence and ambition. When I was in co-op in Canada, I felt encouraged, and uplifted because I knew what I was doing and everyone else acknowledged that I knew what I was doing. I thought I would be able to accomplish so much in the future. But even back then, I've always had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that some day the top will topple, or the coin will fall off the table, or the ground will break under my feet (or some other lame analogy). Life can't possibly be that smooth. Eventually I will fall into a hole. I mean, everyone falls into a hole at some point in their life. They go into the wrong field, the wrong job, which theoretically should have been perfect for them (or was perfect for them at the time) and later realize that wait a minute...it's totally opposite of what they were meant to do. Yet, switching out is difficult and risky. What if that's already the best option out there? My friends my understand but how can I explain to my parents?

I haven't quite fallen into said hole, but I feel like I'm close to the edge these days. I wonder if something will sweep me in, or if something will plunk me completely out of the situation.

And miraculously, something DID come my way (ie a random job offer without my applying for the same job description) that can potentially plunk me out of the situation due to different surroundings. But it takes a choice, and it may not be the best one either, considering how similar the job descriptions are. I'm at career crossroads. I have options. Yet I don't know what's best, and my intuition isn't telling me much, except that it will probably be a difficult end of the year. I pray that God will give me peace no matter what happens and the wisdom to discern the good path from the bad.

PIMPLE is a store apparently.

"sweet but greesy, fragrant but charred, crisp and tasty"

Greed

I'm doing a series about the 7 sins of humanity. The first part was lust. Next is greed : )

a week ago, I read an article for school regarding sustainable development. it was a recount, going pages and pages of the wretchedness of capitalism. how humans, in their fruitless pursuit to satisfy their greed, have ravaged and raped not just nature, but those less developed than they are. make no mistake about it. it is capitalism, the invisible hand, the free economy...etc. that is to blame for why there are no drugs for poor men diseases, why for something as simple as clean water is not accessible to the poor. and it is frustrating.

Here are excerpts from my essay written about the issue:

According to World Vision, “over the last two years, the number of hungry people has increased by 115 million” and more than 1 billion people experience hunger daily (World Vision). Hunger predisposes people to infectious diseases, including water-related ones. Half the population in developing countries who are suffering from a health problem are related to lack of clean water (Global issues). At the same time, world income has been increasing, with the rich becoming richer, and the wealth gap growing larger (Fernando). 20% of the population receives 85% of the world income, but accounts for 80% of the consumption, producing 2/3 of the world’s greenhouse gases (Fernando). In short, these are resource allocation issues; some members of humanity are consuming more than their fair share. Take Hong Kong, a capitalistic country, as a local microcosm. World Wildlife Federation Hong Kong states that our ecological footprint is twice the global average, and thus we would need an area 25 times greater than the size of our country to produce what we consume and absorb our wastes (WWFHK). This kind of human activity is directly impacting the Earth.

The World Wildlife Federation’s “Living Planet 2010” report stated that biodiversity is down 30% in 40 years due to habitat loss. Human beings are triggering the 6^th mass extinction (Barron, 2009). This not only means that we have lost precious sources of pharmaceuticals, useful natural materials, and antibiotics; it also implies that the planet’s ability to assimilate pollution has been weakened. Natural ecologies are becoming less resilient because decreased biodiversity means reduced ecosystem stability (Barron, 2009). A weak biosphere can be felt in terms of increased incidents of natural disasters due to climate change.

The problem is only aggravated by the fact that world population is increasing (human population is expected to reach 9 billion in 2050). There is a mentality that a developed internationally competitive, economically healthy country should have a strong GDP (or in other words, a lot of output in terms of goods and services, which draw on biological resources and services). When the United States’ economy faltered, the government’s first response is to introduce ‘stimulus’ packages to encourage people to consume and jumpstart production. Developing and newly industrialized countries such as China, are striving for the same kind of affluence of developed nations (and will thus demand more resources and produce more waste). WWF states that natural resources are being consumed faster than they are being replenished.

Finally, sustainable development is not a national or individual priority. People living in an affluent society of wealthy nations are sheltered from the solemn realities of this world. They can choose to avoid seeing poverty, disease, hunger, and war. They are far removed from those who produce their merchandise. Moreover, humans have a short and narrow perspective that does not extend into the future, or beyond family and friends (Sarkar, 1999).

The above story presents a global, pervasive, yet incredibly complex problem that will result in increased mass human suffering if not addressed. Why should we care? From a moral and ethical standpoint, there is no excuse to be complacent. From a basic biological perspective, humanity should take every effort to ensure their survival. Every species is evolutionarily inclined to propagate their genes into future generations. The end of the human race does not bode well for anyone.

The problem of sustainability has long been recognized (for example, Limits to Growth was published in 1972), but it has been pushed to the forefront in recent years, because we are finally forced to reckon with it when we find the fish supply dwindling, and are shocked that polar bears are drowning.

While it is overwhelming, the importance of sustainable development is why scientists and experts in different fields and places have convened in its name. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and generated Agenda 21, which is now an outdated document. The 2002 Johannesburg Summit resulted in a disappointment, and no concrete action plan on any government’s part. This is because national goals will always trump global ones. Since these conferences did not accomplish much (and just generated a lot of paper, killing many trees), someone can point to them and say that we should give up, because sustainable development is unrealistic.

However, we should not be pessimistic or give up. If no attention has been paid to sustainable development, if it was deemed meaningless from the start, the world situation may have been even been worse. For example, conservation efforts from the Endangered Species Act, the World Wildlife Fund, and protected land, have kept biodiversity from declining another 20% (Time.)

At any given moment, humans will not have all the information or knowledge or wisdom at hand. We need to acknowledge that, as well as adopt the paradigm that humans do not have domination and control over nature. Not knowing how to define “sustainable development” is not a reason to state that it is meaningless to make it our goal. Despite the lack of understanding around it, it is fact that people are suffering. It is fact that biodiversity is decreasing. If current trends keep up, humanity will meet its demise in a slow, painful drawn out death.

dreaming of a magical rose garden

I like this quote:
One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon-instead of enjoying the roses blooming outside our windows today.” ~ Dale Carnegie

I'm really guilty of this. There is a lovely rose garden that's already blooming in my life, and I'm always wanting to bypass each day as quickly as possible so that I can be there in the future, enjoying the richness of my hard labour . I need to realize how far I have gone already and be rejoicing in that. If my past-me, fresh off the plane into HK, knew that I am still in HK after a year, I would have been happy.

I'm much refreshed after my lovely vacation (see fb for picture) oct 29 - nov 3, and while I'm still not all gungho about work and all the challenges that it entails, at least I was able to realize that even though not every moment is enjoyable, there are pleasant experiences every week (or dare I say, every day?)

I'm very scared actually and uncertain. In University, after year 2 it is year 3. After University (and now after Master's), there is no set path. I need to choose, assess my own abilities and get there somehow. I'm not so confident in my abilities to do that, especially when I see others around me struggling.

lust, sin of humanity

Disneyland was wonderful, from the hunny jar ride to 'it's a small world'. Even the food. And the silly tea cup ride.

Weeks after that, I went to a sheep farm but said sheep were disappointingly ugly. I was expecting fluffy and soft, like stuff you can roll around in...not goat-like creatures with strange scrotum-like bells hanging off their throat. But it's okay. There was a cow, so I was satisfied. (and cute rabbits, and the cutest dogs, and cute hamsters).

If my boss approves, I am going to Korea soon. I already booked my flight so actually, it doesn't matter if he approves or not.

What else is new? I get sleepy after lunch. Oh wait, that's not new. Oh yes, I am going to get my eye mapped soon in preparation for intraocular contacts lenses!! I will no longer be half blind or be a slave to glasses/contacts if successful.

disneyland

seafood restaurant. no actually. it's part of the lab where i work at.

petri plates stacked sky high

I thought this was cute...

Eco-friendly toilets, specialized to handle an the extra heavy load if need be.

and the next part will be my rail about the prevalence of lust in humanity.

many of the ads in one stretch of hallway in HK at any given time are pictures of grotesque women. they aren't women. they are dolls.

she is quite 'ample', complete with glowing skin. this company promises you this look, and subsequently a perverted male for only couple thousand of HKD. preposterous, isn't it?

maybe all of this is contributing to the skyrocketing numbers of divorces in the world. pre-marrital and adultery are wrecking marriages, and the fabric of society. nothing good will come out of it for anyone.

this was a subject that i was relucant to look up because i know the more i know, the more upset i will be. but i didn't want to shelter myself anymore, so i went and read the details on sex trafficking. i read difficult stories about some decent, well educated women who were tricked, transported, and violently and forcefully beaten/starved/tortured/raped into the trade and out of their dignity. about those messed up lives that came at the expense of men's lust and perversion, which knew no moral or ethical bounds. the phenomenon was so prevailing, widespread and in such staggering numbers that it made me cry. it was perverse.
perhaps another indicator for this trend towards moral depravity can been seen in the explosion of cosmetic surgery in all parts of the world. why must women undergo pain and suffering under the knife to satisfy the superficial biological primitive preferences of males? in korea, husbands never see their wives' true face. the cometics industry somehow turned the natural phenomenon of aging into a disease.