Intralase is the way to go.

I can still remember distinctly the day when I was a 9 year old kids, brought to the neighbourhood optical store and was told that I need spectacles. My very first thought, other than anasthetic factors, was "This ugly shit is going to be on my nose from now onwards, every single day of my life?"

17 years later, the dislike hasn't mellowed. Perhaps the dislike was mutual, for my spectacles never seem to make things much easier for me. I was never comfortable pursuing physically-intensed sports due to the "thing" that keeps sliding down my nose and the occasional time-out whenever a lunge contacted my upper facial region. Now, I realise, it did affected my self-esteem quite a bit, if not for the saving grace that i'm a pretty smart being and AH.....my contact lenses. Acquired at the age of 19.

Since then, I had the option of going without spectacles. But there were still annoying limitations. I am still very wary of any moving objects that would threaten to hit my eyes. I can still remember the drunken bitch whose hand brushed past my eye during a session in Zouk, taking off one contact len with that move. I can never stay overnight at other places at will if my contact len casing aien't with me.

Throughout all these years, one thing was constantly at the back of my mind. LASIK was my only possible saviour. A few days ago, I had an eye consultation for LASIK at Singapore National Eyecare Centre. To cut the blog short, the conclusion was that I was 80 microns of cornea thickness short for the operation. FYI, how thick is 80 micron. Ok, look at 1mm on your ruler, divide that by 1000 and multiply by 80. That is 80 micron.

My whole world came crushing down, i had finally reached the gateway for the next phase and i'm stuck. I called up Mei, who lent a good listening ear for a good ten minutes before she lent me her even better mouth "Maybe you might want to call Al. He's done quite a lot of research on it." I did, and Al threw me a life-line,"Why did you go to SNEC? Thought you did a lot of research on this before? Anyway, *i rephrased the following line so as to sound more diplomatic* go to Tan Tock Seng hospital, they have the latest LASIK procedure plus INTRALASE which I believe, is not available at SNEC yet."

INTRALASE turns out to be the only word on my mind for the rest of the day. Thanks to Al, I rushed down to TTS and upon confirmation of the presense of Intralase procedure, put my name down for another consultation session. Its my last hope, and i'm trying not to raise my hopes too high before the next session tells if anything is possible.

For those interested in LASIK, you might want to find out more about the INTRALASE procedure here. Basically the difference in the Intralase from the conventional LASIK is only in the cutting of the cornea. Instead of a mechanical device called Microkeratome, Intralase uses Laser which makes it possible for a thinner flap to be cut during the initial stages hence more cornea to be burnt and higher degree of myopia to be corrected. Of course, you pay more. S$500 more for each eye with Intralase to be included, on top of the normal charges for LASIK.

Do I care? I'll sell my blog if I have to!! Yah, as if anyone else would pay...