As a Patient

21st July (Monday) - It was a dreaded, long-awaited day. I was diagnosed with Entropion, a condition which what people would usually called "Aging Eyes". It was getting worse by the minute. Certain times I couldn't look at bright lights and I couldn't focus on Powerpoint presentations because of staring at the screen for too long. What's more irritable is that I have to keep rubbing my eyes due to constant tearing. So here I am now, proceeding to admisssion in Daycare with all consents and documents ready to go. I was the second case after a kindly gentleman. I was taken to OT to undergo Bilateral Lower Eyelids Correction Surgery under LA (Local Anaesthesia). It was my first time undergoing a surgery and I've seen people undergoing LA, but to be honest, it was a very different experience when you undergo it yourself. Being under LA, I didn't need to undergo a full sedation, just numbing the part where I was about to get operate on. The surgeon gave me Lignocaine jabs to my face and let me tell you: The sensation is agony. I nearly cried and scream when the drug was given because I felt my whole face is burning, like it's on fire. Outside I wasn't saying anything, but inside I was screaming, begging for the burning to stop. When the surgeon began the first cut, I can literally FEEL the scalpel, sized 11, cutting into my skin. Under LA, I was not drunk, or numb as I supposedly believed, but I can HEAR everything. The scalpel cutting wasn't so bad, but when it comes to the suturing, I nearly shriek in pain when the surgeon poked the needle to sew my eyelids back. I kept clenching my hands shut and bite my lips hard just to avoid screaming. All the time I was begging for the pain to stop, and the burning effect of the Lignocaine was no help either. (1.5cc wasn't enough) After an hour of agony, my eyes were covered with eye pads and firmly taped and I was instructed to rest in bed til I was stable. All the while I kept thinking how would the after effects be, and I was traumatized by undergoing LA, because I can remember and hear every single words what the whole OT team were saying. I think after this experience I might run for General. Another hour later, a nurse came to open the eye pads and I was shocked to find one of my eyes still bleeding, but the nurse assured me that's its a temporary and normal thing. After cleaning my eyes with Normal Saline and gauze, she handed me a small mirror to see the after event and this is the result.

Cross-stitches. The following day I went back for a follow up and the surgeon said the wound is clean. All I have to do now is rest and the sutures can be removed. I can't wait. It's terrorizing everyone to take inquisitive peeks at my eyes and lurch back in fear. Thank goodness for the invention of sunglasses.