80-90% perfect vision, 95-99% normal vision

Took a day’s leave and went down to Tan Tock Seng hospital today, for the eye examination to see if I am a suitable candidate for LASIK surgery. As you probably know, I’ve put on spectacles since I was just primary 1, and now, my right eye is about 1000+ degrees, and my left 700+ degrees (including astigmatism). The reception at the LASIK centre at TTSH was really nice and went through a brief outline of the procedure. LASIK is generally painless and the procedure involves slicing the tip of the cornea creating a flap, a beam of laser will be shot in to correct the patient’s vision, the flap will then be closed without any stiches, and eyedrops will be prescribed. MC will be issued up to 5 days. Actual recovery can be as fast as the next day. Its become more advanced now with the Intralase Wavefront procedure, where it enables the surgeon to specify exact dimensions and slice the cornea without using a blade but using a laser instead, which further improves the precision of the surgery.

Basically they checked my eye degree, followed by a scan for the shape of my cornea, checked my eye pressure, and eyedrops to sort of numb my eyes, after which they used a little pen shaped tool to slightly touch my eye to measure the thickness of my cornea (no pain at all). After that was done, they put another drop to numb the eye muscles that control the pupil, felt my eyes become a little sluggish and found it rather funny. I could still see with my glasses on, just that my vision was slightly blurred. Then they showed me a video of patients who’ve done LASIK and how they’re lives have changed after the surgery, and also explained risks of infection and what the post op will be like.

After all that, went to another clinic to see the doctor that was going to diagnose my eyes and recommend the best procedure for my condition. Waited over an hour just to get to see him, and he basically checked my eyes again by shining light into my opened pupils (the pupils will remain open after 30 mins of the drops), and said that I was fit to go for the surgery, and recommended the Intralase wavefront procedure, which was the more advanced type. My odds for regaining normal vision is 95-99% and odds for perfect eyesight is 80-90%. Then I asked about the risks… and the associate professor explained about the risks and complications that may arise during surgery. My mum was around and asked a funny question “Is there any insurance in case anything happens?” and the doctor replied nonchalantly that we don’t buy insurance to cross the road, and the risk of getting hurt doing that is actually higher than LASIK surgery… I was impressed by the way he handled that.

So I agreed to go ahead with the procedure, and met up with the coordinator (she was really hot… probably an ex stewardess) to schedule the dates for surgery. Because my eyesight was so bad, we had to do it on seperate days (you can actually do both eyes in a day), so she went through a list of things (spoke a machine gun) and I confirmed the day of surgery to be on 24th and 25th July. Asked if I could go back to work on the 26th (they can issue MC for up till a week) and was quite relieved that I could return to the office the day after surgery. Nice thing was UOB debit/credit card holders get 50% off the consultation and a $50 health screening voucher along with it.

Also, found out you can actually use Medisave to subsidize $800 per eye for LASIK. How? The different of degrees between your eyes has to be 300 degrees and above… eg. one eye is 600 degrees and the other 300 degrees (including astigmatism) which has a difference of 300 degrees, which entitles you to use $800 from your own/parents Medisave account. For mine, the difference between both my eyes is just 295 degrees! Just 5 degrees from subsidizing $1600!!!! But on the day of surgery they will check again….. I wonder… how can I get that extra diff of 5 degrees within the next 3 weeks….

Britain’s got talent… (seriously)

I was watching this on my iPod the other day… and I was just in plain awe… you HAVE to watch this guy… and turn up the volume for max effect.

please let me know if your heart sort of trembled after you saw that… cos if it didn’t you may have a heart of stone…

More food…

Crystal Jade Kitchen – Holland Village

I finally had my Crispy Seafood Noodles (or was it Seafood crispy noodles), anyway… the pic speaks for itself. Kailan (vegetable) is really nice and perfectly cooked, the seafood rather fresh, and the crunchy noodles are flavorful together with the sauce, and I learnt a new way to describe prawns from someone else’s blog… BURSTY prawns… heh… anyway this has become one of my fav main courses in Crystal Jade. I’m rating it 8 out of 10 for this one.

Just that the first time I tried this dish, it tasted better than my 2nd try… is it just me or when it comes to food, the first time you try something it’s always nicer than the 2nd try?

CALLING ALL LUNA SEA FANS!!

LUNA SEA MTVS!!!!

omg omg omg omg…… not only my fav jrock band, but I felt they were THE BEST on the planet. They were the only band whom I remembered the names of all the members muahaha… Singer: RYUICHI (very unique voice), Lead guitar: SUGIZO!!! (his lead guitar parts are just insane!), Rhythm guitar: Inoran (the coolest looking dude, founder of the band), Bass guitar: J (damn stylo), Drums: Shinya (goosebumps when i see him play). Another nice thing about them is that all the songs were written by “Luna Sea”, means their songs were not written by other songwriters, neither were the songs written by just 1 member of the band, but all of them contributed to the songwriting. To me that’s really original and a symbol of teamwork and chemistry.

Below are the MTVs of my favourite Luna Sea songs.

1) IN SILENCE – my number one song. the guitar parts are incredible… there’s nothing like listening to a Sugizo solo…

2) GRAVITY – fell in love with the song when I heard the intro… you know some songs have very good intros but end up sounding crappy… this not only has a great intro, but retains the entire theme throughout… brilliant song…

3) I FOR YOU – have you watched this Jap serial about a young girl who contracted HIV and fell in love with a male celebrity? Its one of those very sad Jap shows that used to be popular in the late 90’s-00… can’t remember the name of the drama… but this is another great song… the lyrics are one of the best I’ve heard… can find the translation below and you’ll know what I mean…

 

4) LOVE SONG - This was Luna Sea’s last MTV before they decided to disband. Not because of internal conflicts or money etc… but because they had kinda reached the pinnacle of what they could do as a band, and figured if they couldn’t do more/better songs, it was time to move separate ways. I was devastated when I heard that they disbanded, nevertheless, this last MTV is in my list of best songs ever. I think this song really displayed all the members in great fashion… yes, I am a fan of abstraction as you can see in this MTV.

They performed their last concert at the Tokyo Dome in the year 2000… and when their DVD (The Last Live) was released, I really wanted to buy it but it was 99 bucks and I was an NS man drawing just over 400 bucks a month… now I believe the DVD can’t be found anymore after such a long period of time. But nevertheless, they still remain in my heart as the best rock band.

Wonder if there are any remaining ”Slaves” (that’s what Luna Sea fans are called) out there? And if you have their DVD or know where I can get it, please tell me!!  \^_^/

Goodbye Thierry… Hello Barcelona…

I heard from my service manager that it was a free transfer… only 16 million transfer fee for perhaps the best technically gifted striker on the planet… Arsenal should have asked for more… I wonder whether Arsene Wenger is planning to leave after the next season… boy… Arsenal’s not gonna be the same again…

 In spite of Arsenal’s loss… it will be extremely interesting to see which position Henry will play in Barca. They’re probably going to be a real force to be reckoned with next year with such strong talent… starting to look like a 2nd Real Madrid.