Xmas Greetings!

iLASIK

Year-End Dinner

December and January are probably the busiest period for most people as lots of people are preparing presents for Christmas or settling the company’s year-end finance accounts or planning where to go for the holidays. When I was in Japan, December was the time to have year-end dinners to celebrate the ending of one year and to put the past away and January was the month to have New Year parties and to celebrate the New Year. Korea is pretty similar too with many people having year-end dinners with friends and company workers to celebrate the ending of one year and also to patch up any bad relationship between people so that they could look forward to a new start in the next year.

Of course, we also had our year-end dinner last Wednesday to celebrate the achievements of our clinic for 2010. The menu was Korean beef as Korean beef is actually the most expensive beef in Korea and on such occasion, it is important to provide the best for the employees to show thanks and gratitude for their hard work in 2010. During dinner, presents were also presented to many co-workers for their hard work including The Early Bird Prize for 2 workers who arrive to work early every morning, The Best Idea Prize for 3 workers who contributed successful ideas to provide better service for our patients, The best Worker in December and another team leader was elected for our surgery room. Congratulations to all of you and keep up your good work!

One of our directors, Dr. Lee, also made a speech that in the New Year we would all stay healthy and work hard to ensure the clinic would continue to prosper under our hard work. As for Dr. Kim, he moved around the tables, making sure that he gave a toast to all of us and presented a short speech hoping that we would continue to cooperate and work as a team in the clinic, mentioning that without team spirit, the clinic would not be able to prosper and flourish. He also emphasized the importance of team spirit so that our personal knowledge would improve and help each other as a team, not just for ourselves. Finally he thanked everyone for the hard work and hope that we would all have a good year ahead.

Personally I would also like to thank Dr. Kim and all workers for their patience since I am not Korean, they need to spend more time to explain things to me and try to understand my broken Korean^^. Thank you all very much!! 

Kimchi~Kimchi~Kimchi~

Going to a foreign country means exploring the local traditions, trying to adapt to the environment and answering similar questions. Every country has its special touch and being able to enjoy or try to explore the local dishes/culture show respect to the locals and the locals will usually be extremely happy of our presence. In Korea, there are many traditional things that a foreigner could learn including taking ceramic classes, doing craftwork, making kimchi and even wearing traditional Korean dress, Hanbok.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to make Kimchi at Our Lady of Mercy Rehabilitation Center (성모자애 복지관)in Seoul. Basically there are about 180 types of Kimchi (fermented vegetables – check out the Kimchi Museum in COEX) and they vary from non-spicy to very spicy Kimchi with various types of vegetables. Koreans always make kimchi during this period and depending on the size of the family or organization, they will make enough to last for the whole winter or for the whole year. Making kimchi is not an easy job as the recipe varies according to the family recipe and the taste will never be the same. As for the younger generation, their mothers will usually make kimchi and send to them if they are not staying at home. Kimchi is their staple dish and Koreans usually eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner along with rice.  

When we reached the center, there were 2 teams at work, one was washing the cabbages and the other was drying the cabbages and mixing it with the kimchi paste. Kimchi process usually starts with sprinkling sea salt on cabbages to remove its water content for about 2 hours and then washing the salt off the cabbages. And then, the second part will be making the paste by slicing green onions, garlic, onions, ginger and radish, blending hot pepper flakes, salted shrimp, fish sauce and rice water together and then, mixing the paste and vegetables together.

Since the paste was already made when we arrived, we were assigned outside to squeeze the water out of cabbage in the morning and we had the chance to spread the kimchi paste on the cabbage after lunch. Working side by side with the older ladies meant getting the chance to learn how to make real kimchi. Making Kimchi was just not about getting the right ingredients and portion, it was also about applying the right amount of paste on all part of cabbage. Started from the outer leaf of the cabbage, slowly rubbed the kimchi paste inwards making sure all leaves were covered with certain amount of the paste. Not too little but not too much, just enough as the amount of paste would also affect the taste.

The older ladies worked really fast and that is Korean culture. While some of us were doing the spreading, others were making sure that we had enough paste, cabbages and plastic bags to contain the Kimchi. It was like in the wet market. Thank goodness the kitchen was big enough to contain us and we didn’t have to do it outdoor. Finally we finished after two hours, and then we started to clean up. By 2:30 pm, we were sitting down and eating some snacks. ^^ It was fun and for foreigners who have been in Korea for awhile but yet, haven’t tried making kimchi, I would recommend checking online for the opportunities to make kimchi.  Have fun and immerse yourself in Korea~           

Vision Recovery~~

My vision recovery period has not been easy as it takes about 1 month to recovery and during this period, I experience long-sightedness and have difficulty working on the computer for a long period as the images seem blurred and hazy and I get occasional headaches from looking at the screen for a long period. Especially at night, due to astigmatism, I get lots of glares and halos from cars and street lights. 

Well, I have been very patient and I constantly use my prescribed eye drops so apart from dryness, Dr. Kim mentioned that my recovery progress was about 70% which was higher than expectations. Before surgery, my both eyes had myopia of about -3.5 and astigmatism of about -0.75 on my left eye and about -0.5 on my right.  Today, 2 weeks after my surgery, my right eye has myopia of -0.25 with astigmatism of -0.5 and my left eye has hyperopia of +0.25 with astigmatism of -1.25.  The astigmatism will slowly go away and I am really excited as I could feel that my vision is recovering too~ 

Two more weeks to go before my vision stabilized and I am really looking forward to that moment~^^

My LASEK Experience

Watching patients going through LASEK or LASIK is one thing but having me lying on the operation bed is another thing.  Yes ~ Yes~ I had my eyes corrected using LASEK method on Nov 11th. The decision was made in the morning and together with my 2 other colleagues, we had our vision examined, Orb Scan and Wasca done by 3pm. At around 5pm, Dr. Kim examined all our eyes and we were sent to the operation room to get ready for our surgeries. I was the first one and of course I was a little nervous but with all my good colleagues supporting us, I felt assured.

After lying on the bed, they aligned my eyes with MEL-80 machine, my eyes were rinsed with saline and local anesthesia drops were provided. By then I felt my throat drying and I felt like coughing.  However, my colleague kept telling me not to move my head too much as alignment was done.  After Dr. Kim entered the operation room, the surgery was ready to start. Dr. Kim started off assuring me that as local anesthesia was put in my eyes, there wouldn’t be any pain. Afterward he used the speculum to keep my right eye open and more eye drops were provided. Subsequently, Amoils Brush was used to scrape off my top corneal layer and the procedure took only a few seconds with my right eye feeling a bit itchy due to the brushing. After scraping off my top corneal layer, my right eye was ready to receive Wavefront laser treatment. My right eye fixed at the green light and the laser started emitting a loud sound and a little burning smell. That was normal and it didn’t take more than 1 minute. After the laser finished, my cornea turned opaque and I could only see white light. Dr. Kim then used cold saline water and mitomycin to prevent the opacity, rinsed my eye with lots of saline and finally covered my eye with a contact lens to prevent inflammation. Whew~ I survived part of the surgery and I started to relax as there was really no pain involved and I hardly felt anything. 

With my right eye finished, Dr. Kim prepared my left eye for the laser treatment. The procedure was the same as the right side and the whole surgery finished within 10 minutes. For LASEK, the surgery was not difficult but the recovery period was not easy. After the surgery, I stayed at home for 3 days with constant tearing and sleeping since I could hardly open my eyes on the first two days especially on the 2^nd day with a little pain on the 1^st night.  I slept so much (as I couldn’t keep my eyes open for a long period) that I felt I lost track of time. However by the 3^rd day, I felt more at ease as I was able to watch some TV and keep my eyes open for a longer period with lesser tearing. To prevent any inflammation, I used my prescribed eye drops regularly and I actually finished the eye drops within 3 days. I ended up sleeping at 3 a.m that night due to the amount of sleeping I did for the last 3 days. 

I went back to work on the 4^th day and up till now, about a week later, I couldn’t read things well and everything seems blurred at times.  Well it will take about a month or two depending on the health of your cornea and regular use of eye drops so don’t get depressed because of it.  Just think about the future when I will not have to wear glasses or contact lenses again, I am letting the nature takes its flow and looking forward to the moment when I can see everything clearly again, and this time without glasses.      

GS Eye Center - English and Mandarin versions

Dear friends,

After all these months of hard work, the English and Mandarin versions for GS Eye Center homepage are finally ready.  Please feel free to check out the information on http://www.gseyecenter.com/ and we look forward to receiving your feedback.

Sincerely,
GS Eye Center

Contribution back to the society

Nowadays we always ask what the society could do for them but have we stopped for a moment and thought about what we have done for this society? Of course giving and taking is an etiquette most people know but have we thought about giving more and taking less? Our ecosystem is a cycle that would be adequate for humans, plants, animals and the earth to sustain for a long, long time if we give as much as we take from the ecosystem. It is easily said than done but sometimes a little might mean nothing to us, yet meant a lot to others. We are now living on a land that our ancestors worked hard to provide and we also must not forget about them and their hardship. So what should we do to contribute back especially when everyone is busy earning money to sustain their own lifestyle?  Actually I think the best way is through volunteering as firstly, we learn not to think that every action we do will mean we will get something back, secondly, we actually learn to give completely and thirdly, we understand that if we manage our time efficiently, we could still spare time for others who need our aid.

Our clinic provides voluntary services like free eye check-up for the elderly in the elderly homes or local community centers and going to Vietnam to provide free cataract surgeries & eye check-up for the people living in the rural area every year.  This month we went to Yangjae Senior Welfare Center to provide free eye examination for the elderly living around the area.  The queue started way before we reached there and everything started as soon as we set up all the equipment.  At first our optometrist provided regular eye check-up to check their vision and lens condition. Most elderly had some vision problems like not being able to see anything within a feet distance, not wearing glasses even though they couldn’t see well and presbyopia. One of the grannies was very adorable as her left eye condition was better than her right eye and she was trying to use her left eye to read even though we covered her left eye.  I felt sad for some grandpas as they couldn’t even see how many fingers the optometrist had placed in front of them. 

After the regular eye examination, Dr. Kim examined their eye condition for any possible diseases or problems and he advised the patients how to take care of their eyes, especially for those with slight cloudy lens condition by providing eye drops so that the lens condition would not get worse.  For some with healthy lens, eye drops were also provided to make sure that the elderly could maintain their eye condition. For some with serious cataract conditions, Dr. Kim advised them to get an operation to replace the lens as soon as possible so that the condition did not get worse. 

Finally, we managed to see all the patients within 3 mad-hours rush and the center in-charge was really grateful that we made the visit. She told us that most elderly had difficulty going to places and by bringing our equipment to the center, the patients didn’t have to go far for treatment. However it did not apply to certain examinations, as some require the patients to visit the hospital for detailed examination. It is a pity and I hope as the technology advances, more and more equipment will be made smaller and more compact to accommodate the elderly needs.  Well, a little means so much to these elderly and let’s try to make this place a more beautiful place to live in!