What’s the idea behind getting corrective eye surgery – for me it was getting rid of my glasses, which i wore since the age of 16 or 17, meaning 23 years. It’s just annoying for sports, when sweating, when watching TV in bed etc. So i decided to wear my glasses for the last time on July 30th, 2021.

Finding the right hospital

First I thought – Eye surgery in China? What am I, crazy? Then i thought, wait a minute. If anyone in the world has the most quantitative experience in surgery of any kind, it has to be China. Also, there are so many top level surgeons, doctors and hospitals in this Country. So my second thought was, ok no problem – but where to go?

Shanghai and Beijing come to mind first, but for some personal reason, i like Shanghai better than Beijing, so I started looking for hospitals in Shanghai.

I found 3, which seemed to be top level and by asking some friends living in Shanghai, I finally went to the „Shanghi Ai‘er EYE hospital“. It is a chain with over 500 hospitals in Asia, and basically every bigger city in China has one.

The pre-examination

Before the actual surgery, I went to the hospital 2 weeks earlier to do the pre-checkup. It takes about 2 hours and involves all kind of devices and test, such as but not limited to:

• Visual test
• Ultrasonic
• some sort of 3D measuring of your eyes
• many others, in total about 10-12 test.
• The craziest was a „tear production rate“ test, where they stuck a small piece of paper into each eye and looked how long it takes until it gets fully wet. Looking back, this was more uncomfortable than the actual surgery.
• Blood Test

The blood test is only good for 30 days, so you have to come back during this time.

Additionally (logically) you need to show a COVID test done max. 7 days before the surgery.

The day of the surgery

I had to come to the hospital in the morning, 8:00am. There have been some pre-checks to verify the values from the pre-checkup and some additional ones to (I suppose) determine the exact parameters for the laser. The examinations took about 30 minutes. Then you get a medical armband with your data written on it, just to make sure the surgeons can double check the data later.

After that, there is a short talk with the surgeon who will do the surgery. She explained the whole procedure so i knew what will be happening and further remarked that there is no need to be tense and I should relax.

After that, I had to wait for a few minutes, the surgery was scheduled 9:00. I had to leave all my belongings at the reception area (you don’t need it in the surgery). The nice nurse led me to the surgery waiting room and as per my request, i got some pill for anxiety relief. After about 5-10 minutes, i got a surgery „coat“ a hair cover and plastic covers for the shoes and could enter the surgery area.

At the first „station“ I got my eyes cleaned with some liquid. They put really a lot of liquid into your eyes to make sure it is clean and mostly sterile. Then you get some anesthetic drops to numb your eyes.

After this step, I was ready to go into the surgery room. I had to lay down. Left and right were some sort of robotic laser machines, which looked futuristic and not scary. The surgeon then covered my eyes with some medical sheets and washed or disinfected them again.

The doctor explains every step of the procedure, so there is no surprise or anything. The first thing is, the surgeon puts some clip into your eyes to prevent you from blinking and to keep your eyes wide open. They do this each eye at a time, the other is covered.

Then, the machine will center over your eyes and you see a set of bright led lights around your eye and some kind of crazy looking tunnel centered over your eye. You need to stare into it (it looked to me like some sort of interdimensional wormhole). Then, the device lowers down until it touches your eyeball and applies some pressure on it. It is slightly uncomfortable but not much. I suppose the device is a cylinder that makes sure your eye is locked in the exact right position. Supposedly this procedure also cuts the flap by a femtolaser, but you can only feel the pressure, nothing else. This step takes about 10 seconds. Then, same thing for the next eye.

After both eyes were finished, there was a small pause, where i could close my eyes. the surgeons double checked the parameters (i suppose, i could only hear them talking about some numbers).

Then, stage 2 starts, and the surgeon inserts the „spreader“ into your eye again to keep it open. Then, the flap is flapped away from the eye, which is a bit weird as you can see your vision distort and bend. Then, you see the green laser but only ver fuzzy. You have to keep staring into the laser. The laser fires for about 3 seconds and you can smell something like burned hair. That’s it. They leftover dead cells are being washed out and the procedure repeated for the next eye.

There is an optional step next, where I could choose to get a „bandage contact lens for about 250 RMB each applied, which is supposed to help the healing process. I opted for it and in hindsight, i think it was the right choice. No point on saving money here.

Recovery – First 24 hours

Immediately after the surgery i was able to see quite well. My eyes felt a bit scratchy, but that was it. I had someone pick me up and drive back to my hotel (you are not allowed to drive in this state and should not attempt to either. Was not sure whether or not i would be able to call a taxi on my phone, remark: I was able to).

I stayed in bed the whole day and kept my eyes closed and the goggles on. There was a feeling of dryness, but my eyes didn’t hurt or weren’t really scratchy. It was a slight discomfort, at most. After the first night, my sight was much better, only the left eye was not very clear.

Recovery – 1 day after the surgery

You get a follow up appointment within 24 hours, in my case, 10am next day. The bandage contact lenses were removed and with it, immediately everything was crystal clear and the scratchy feeling was gone. I got a eye check and was over 100%. Then i was good to go home again.

From now on, there is a strict plan for 4 different kind of eye drops:

• Antibiotic ones – 4x per day for 1 week
• Some hormone stuff, 4x per day the 1st week, then 3x the 2nd week, 2x the 3rd week and 1x the 4th week.
• Some other stuff i don’t know what is is, 4x a day
• Artificial tears for up to 6 months, 8x a day

Since this was WAY to complicated for me to keep in mind, i built a spreadsheet to remember it…

1 week after the surgery

During the first week, i was really careful not to touch my eyes and not to get any water into the eyes either. It sounds more easy than it is, but perhaps i was just being overly cautious. The first day, I did not dare showering at all. The following days, I only showered with my „scuba googles“ (the prescription googles you get from the hospital), which makes quite sure you don’t splash any water into your eyes. (you also need to sleep with those on)

What’s more annoying was, because it is summer, it is natural to sweat, also in the face. So you cannot just splash water into your face. I used some wet tissues to clean / cool my face, it works, but still not very comfortable.

The next thing are you eyes themselves, as you cannot wash them. There is some residue collecting on your eyelashes and the corners of your eyes, especially overnight from the eyedrop medications, so I had to remove it very carefully with a tissue.

Healing Process

The healing process itself is quite good i suppose. I was really light sensitive and kept the window shades down in my office at work and still wore sunglasses. I looked like a mafia boss or some weirdo, but OK, what to do.

Some days (day 4 and 5) i had a really blurry near vision (e.g. computer) so i had to scale everything up to 150%, but it still was not comfortable. It got better in the afternoon and while wearing sunglasses.

Looking at screens or books is sometimes still not 100% clear, but this is supposed to be normal and clear up after about 4 weeks.

Driving is OK, also at night, but the head- and taillights of other cars or traffic lights are really bright. I use to drive with sunglasses, especially at night.

Sports and other ativities

The doctor told me not to do any sports for at least a week. This was hard for me, because normally, i workout every day. I started on day 3 with light walks on the treadmill and it was totally OK. Just have to look out that no sweat is getting into the eyes.

Yoga was a bit more difficult, especially Asanas where you have your head down, there i felt some pressure behind the eyes and quit. Also, I use to sweat a lot during Yoga, so that’s perhaps also not the right sport during recovery.

I usually do strength training, but was told not to do that for a long time. I tried training with only half of the weights, but it still didn’t feel right, so i did not continue.

On day 7, I had a long hike about 10km, which was also totally fine. I guess I will start running again next week.

2 weeks after the surgery

Looking at screens or reading is now back to normal. I have a dry eyes to a small extent, especially when looking at a screen for a longer time.

I started a good habit to teak a 20 second break every 20 minutes to relax the eyes and also to focus on something far away. There is a really good APP for it.

I will keep you updated about the healing progress!