Lasik eye surgery

I researched this subject last year. TRSC is supposed to be "the best". Atleast if Dr. Ekktet Chansue does your surgery. He is the most experience LASIK doctor in Thailand by far. He is involved at the international level with latest techniques and equipment. They are also probably the most expensive place in Thailand for LASIK. I think they will give a discount if you are refered by a former patient.

Bumrungrad Hospital does not have the latest equipment and I heard of some bad experiences from there.

I decided to go with something called Ortho-K. I wear hard contacts while sleeping a few nights a week and now see better than 20/20. No surgery and is reversable.

No one really knows the longterm consequences of LASIK. Only in the last 10 years have large numbers of people had the procedure. Most people I know are happy with the results, but a few who are unhappy are very unhappy. To me was not worth the risk. Once part of your eye has been burned off with a laser, no going back.

Also, LASIK does not correct the natural impairment of vision with age that leads to requiring reading glasses. (Forget what this is called as hasn't happened to me yet.) Probably why Udon farang was not a candidate.

You are right on all counts. Since I am age 58, it is the natural aging of my eyes that causes my problems and that cannot be corrected with Lasik.

TRSC is indeed a very professional clinic. Better than anything I have experienced in all my years in America with regards to health care. I can understand why you say they are the best.

The one hour presentation prior to the eye exam is VERY informative. It addresses the concerns you mentioned with Lasik surgery and is intended to make one completely informed on all aspects of Lasik......good and bad.

My eyes are so bad that at 56, I generally can't read a TV Guide or newspaper without a magnifier of some sort. I've never gotten glasses. That's mostly because of deep-rooted concern that my eyes would then grow dependent upon them. An eye-doctor once said as much, when I was in my early teens. So I have always clung to that concept.

I think my initial vision trouble stems from a fireworks accident I had around my 10th birthday. It was October, the month of Hallowe'en. My father had brought home a number of items of fireworks, including a carton of cubes about the size of sugar cubes that would flare nicely when an ignition source like a lit 'punk' stick was applied to them. A comment from my younger brother put the idea in my mind to see what would happen if I applied that punk to a cube already in the carton. So I decided to give it a try. I remember looking keenly close as I carefully touched a topmost cube, and then noting how the cube suddenly began to spread with an orange glow that almost immediately began spreading madly throughout. Before I could move, the entire contents flared up furiously and my entire face was badly burned. It was the colour of the burnt gunpowder, in fact. My eyebrows and lashes were gone. And I was screaming, "I can't see! I can't see!" Fortunately for me, my father was nearby. But he could do nothing for me, for my condition was too serious. He carried me into the house and tried applying a wet washcloth to my face, but when he saw the tissue lifting off, he realized this was extremely unwise. I've always been surprised that he coped. I know that he was hungover; he admitted years afterwards that his nerves were so bad that he nearly needed medical attention himself!

An odd anecdote is that while he was trying to tend to me, an insurance salesman knocked on our door to try and pedal his policies. When he realized the situation, he lost little time in withdrawing.

Anyway, back then, there was no nearby hospital nor '911' to call, so my father drove me off to the office of our family doctor some five miles distant. Everyone there immediately galvanized into action to do what they could, while means were arranged to get me to the hospital some 15-20 miles away.

My right eye took the hit more directly than my left, and my vision with it has always been similar to trying to see through a frosted glass. Eight or nine years ago, a doctor told me that I was legally blind in the eye. I always just considered that my vision was blurry. I was undergoing this particular physical examination for the purposes of qualifying to purchase some additional non-contributory employment to add to my Pension Plan Service. Thus, the physician was not an eye specialist--he was just a medic I found in a walk-in clinic.

I suppose that I should get a proper assessment, but I've gotten into the practice of shunning the medical profession. I haven't had a family physician since the mid-1970s, so I do not take any regular physical examinations. And although I still have all 32 of my teeth, I have not been to a dentist since 1975. I know that I need a little work, but because I try to take care of them and they don't cause me trouble, I "leave well enough alone."

With my Thai wife Jack here with me in Canada as of May 10th earlier this year, I suppose that I'll have to eventually start taking greater safeguards where my tenure on our good planet is concerned, but it's difficult breaking this long practice of not bothering with the medical profession except when an emergency crops up, such as a bad accident.

But getting back to vision improvement, and dropping this unexpected meander into mainly unrelated personal medical trivia, I recently came upon this curious website advertisement, and offer it in case anyone with the interest and free time wants to check it out for themselves. My work schedule and home scene is such that I know that I personally would not currently invest the required time into following the programme, but I might give it a go if I take on a part-time work schedule in the next few years. For it's starting to look as if I may not be getting to Retire at 60 like I had intended...not unless some financial miracle finally falls upon me!

http://www.mercola.com/products/natural_vision_cd/index.htm

That's an horrific story Garnet. Sorry to read it had long lasting effect.
Any chance of Laser surgery correcting the problem?


My eyes have deteriorated quite a bit over the past few years. I'm convinced that the cause is looking at 2 VDU's for 10 hours a day. Saw my optician last week who is referring me to a specialist, via my doctor.

My short-sightness can be corrected by laser and I will visit TRSC when I am living in Thailand. My optician is not optamistic about curing the double vision I have started to experience.

On the subject of fireworks, I also had an accident as a kid, but not as serious as Garnet's. I put the powder from several fireworks into a metal cylinder an then like an idiot, lit it with a firework fuse held over the top. Result was one big flash and one badly burnt hand. Fortunately I was not looking down over the cylinder.

I have had bad (minus 7) eyesight for years and I often thought about corrective surgery but was put off by the small but regular percentage of failures which we hear about through family, friends and acquaintances. I have been wearing soft contact lenses which are available "off the shelf" in the Complex in Udon.

In Australia and, I presume everywhere else, you can buy lenses which you can wear day and night for weeks but I finally settled on lenses I take out at night, drop a protein remover pill into the cleaning solution, and I have managed to make these one month lenses last 3 months in perfect condition so far. I hate wearing specs in rain or in sun glare situations and these lenses are the perfect and far cheaper and risk-free alternative for me.

i wear glasses and i like it. been wearing for 4 years now. The chicks love it.
as long as you get a fashionable pair of coarse.
My wife thinks it makes me look like a professor or a Doctor, so it can't be bad.

and thats not me in the AV.

I tried wearing the older hard contacts years ago but kept falling asleep with them on and woke up with swollen, puffy eyes the next day (ok, and a hangover. I drank a bit in those days. lol). Have been wearing glasses ever since I saw the light. Like BM says, some cool specs out there nowadays.

Garnet, when I was in Marine boot camp the eye docs told me that I was legally blind in my right eye (I'm right-handed) and I thought, "Cool. A ticket home." My good DI Sergeant said: "Not so fast, private. We just gonna teach you how to shoot left-handed." I found out the meaning of the word ambidextrous and always qualified with my rifle.

I'm not one to give advice but please use your medical benefits and start getting some regular checkups for your beautiful wife and yourself. Too many folks with undiagnosed cancers, heart problems, etc. who could have lived a lot longer if they would have just gotten some basic medical testing done on a regular basis. Don't want to lose you in here. You have too much to offer.

Polehawk, I've long recognized the value of warding off any medical threats that might be developing, but it has never been a priority due to being single. Too, I'm not keen on undergoing the sort of examinations guys must endure--not at the 'hands' of another gent, that is! I wonder if the female practitioners in Udon venture in that direction, or are they too modest?

My wife's medical coverage here in Canada will become effective in August, from what I understand. She has already wanted to seek medical consultation, but didn't have the coverage--she's more user-friendly of the medical profession than I tend to be. Perhaps she'll start pushing me, once she resorts to regular use. Ditto for dental attention. We'll see!

But I still gravitate heavily towards getting a male-specific examination from a woman, though! And if she's Asian and Thai...all the better!

Yeah, the dreaded but necessary annual digital examination for men over the age of 40, Garnet. When the doc snaps on the rubber glove, it doesn't matter too much if it's a he/she although the smaller digit might be preferable, I suppose. It's just, "Doc, get it over with!" and get out of there.

As to the feasibility and cost of LASIK, compared to the cost of eyeglasses...because of the aging issue, I just stuck with spectacles but, of course (well, you'd have to hang around me to really know, or share a credit card with me), the specs had to be high fashion and look good. OK, we're talking severe myopia, astigmatism and aging eyes. And I needed the new, special photography that checks for detached retina, glaucoma, and other problems. So the glasses had to correct the first two and be bifocals. And I had to pay extra for: no-line bifocals (so I wouldn't look like a middle-aged women -- hah!), special ultra-violet ray blocker/coating, no-scratch surface, etc., etc., etc.

Plus, fashionable frames (did I mention I'm vain?).

Bottom line, examination plus actual glasses -- (ta-da!!!!!) -- $800.

I'm serious.

And they f**ked them up. Put the correction for astigmatism in my right eye in my left lens, and vice versa. I was driving on the Perimeter (14-lane superhighway encircling Atlanta) with everything moving back and forth because my eyes were fighting the lense corrections. I went back the next day and had, as we say in my household, a "chat with Shara."

Get the LASIK and pay for a pair of reading glasses, and be done with it.

I was myoptic with astigmatism. I barely qualified for PRK and just over a year ago I had the procedure. Side effects, dry eyes upon waking and reading glasses for fine print. Was it worth it...hell yes

gulfcoastUSA wrote:
Plus, fashionable frames (did I mention I'm vain?).

Bottom line, examination plus actual glasses -- (ta-da!!!!!) -- $800.

I'm serious.

And they f**ked them up. .

$800 !! how much was the test on its own, designer frames in uk range from ฃ100-ฃ200 Boss, calvin's, alberto fettchini's etc...lense's and coatings around ฃ40. And most stores do a buy 1 get 2nd pair free. !!
i take it you purchased a 22 caret gold plated all singing and dancing pair of Versace's.

i have purchased spec's several times in Thailand, all good prices and designer frames. In fact purchased my very first pair in Thailand.

beer monkey wrote:clearer eye sight ...click on.

a link from earlier if anyone did'nt see it.

[quote="beer monkey"][i take it you purchased a 22 caret gold plated all singing and dancing pair of Versace's. [quote]

Don't remember the breakdown between exam and actual glasses, but they are designer, rimless, titanium side and nose pieces, with all the coatings, special lens charges, etc. And a charge for insurance, of course.

I think the rimless titanium frames were $295, but they've been worth it -- they take all sorts of abuse and won't break.

Udon farang wrote:Back in Udon Thani.........."without the Lasik sugery". Sorry to report that I am not a candidate for the surgery, as is the case with most people who having declining eye sight as a result of aging.

However, I can highly recommend the TRSC clinic. They were very proficient and professional in all aspects. I had to watch an hour long video about Lasik surgery before we even proceeded with testing. And they provide you with all the benefits AND risks involved.

You can find TRSC on Google if you are interested in more information.

Did you have any charges for testing?