Yo Adrian, Eye Did It!!!

On Friday, June 11, 1999, at approximately 4:30 p.m., Gabriel Yee underwent the LASIK procedure—laser in-situ keratomileusis—at the Caster Eye Center in Beverly Hills, California. Below are excerpts from his account of his experience (last updated Sunday, June 20, 1999).

Q. Who's Adrian?

A.  Adrian is a character portrayed by Talia Shire in "Rocky", "Rocky II", "Rocky III", "Rocky IV", "Rocky V", etc. At the end of "Rocky II", just after barely knocking out Apollo Creed, Rocky gasps, "I just want to say one thing to my wife at home,...Yo, Adrian, I did it!" Since I don't have a wife, I have to limit myself to saying, "Yo Adrian, Eye did it!"

Q. Why did you consider LASIK?

A.  I had considered refractive surgery for a long time, but it took some time and technological advancements before I gave it serious consideration. The idea first caught my attention back in the 1980s when I first heard about Radial Keratotomy (RK). But the idea of someone making incisions in my eyeballs just didn't appeal to me. I didn't care how much practice a surgeon had; the procedure just didn't seem reliable to me, plus I wondered whether it violated the integrity of one's precious eyeballs.

  More recently, I came across a book called "Beyond Glasses!", by Franette Armstrong. I only read part of the book, but the prospect of refractive surgery using a laser seemed to offer some real promise. Procedure-wise, the book mainly seemed to discuss photorefractive keratectomy (PRK). My hope that there was a safe, reliable procedure to correct nearsightedness and astigmatism grew, but I still didn't personally know anyone who had gone through any of these procedures (or so I thought).

  On April 28, 1998, I received a mass e-mail from Neil Shouse, in which he recounted his 1997 experience with laser in-situ keratomileusis (LASIK) with Dr. Maloney (I think Dr. Maloney has something to do with UCLA). Neil was an acquaintance from a class that both of us were sitting in on, I think, at Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles. I'm not sure if we had formally met. I think he was in transition at the time, so our paths hardly crossed. I didn't really follow up with his experience at all until February 1999, when we corresponded by e-mail and played a bit of phone tag. In the latter half of 1998, I spoke at some length with Frances Chow, who has served as one of the Quest facilitators at Evergreen and whom I had met during the production of the landmark Gabe-directed multimedia video "Learning To Spell Sedaqah". Frances had recently undergone the LASIK procedure with Dr. Steele. The main thing that stuck in my head was that the LASIK procedure had evidently passed up PRK as the overall procedure of choice.

Plus, many of my friends and fellow churchgoers oftentimes look up to me for leadership. So I figured, might as well make Gabe a guinea pig, and let's see how many people pay attention.

Q. What was your eyesight like before LASIK?

A.  My vision was 20/400, which was enough to cause two of my female friends to clasp their hands and exclaim, "Wow, you're really bad!"

My prescription was -3 diopters (nearsighted), or close to that, with some astigmatism. I pretty much wore glasses almost all the time while I was awake. I did have a pair of contact lenses, but due to the heavy concentration required by my lifestyle--hey, I'm an ambitious guy who probably thinks too much for his own good--my eyes tended to get extra tired if I wore contacts. I had required corrective lenses since high school, when after I had trouble reading the chalkboard, I was diagnosed with 20/40 vision. Gosh, I guess things had gotten worse since. Much worse.

Q. What determined the timing of your surgery?

A.  After hearing so many radio ads and talking with various people, plus the experiences mentioned above, I pretty much determined that laser vision correction had reached a stage in which if it was performed competently, the procedure was relatively and sufficiently safe and reliable. The question became with whom.

  Since I had also just started a new job, I planned to schedule the procedure at least 90 days after my first day on the new job. Plus I wanted to do my due diligence or homework. It's not like I had to have all the answers, but I wanted the confidence of knowing that I wouldn't need to second-guess myself after the fact. I wanted to contemplate and enjoy the whole experience.

  Also, I wanted to get the surgery done before the Year 2000, before my church's first church camp (weekend of June 25), and before I got married.

Q. You're getting married?

A.  Not that I'm aware. Believe me, meeting that last deadline has not been a problem.

Q. What other research did you do before scheduling the procedure?

A.  I watched the videotapes and read ALL of the materials that I had received in the mail from three different laser centers; a fourth center's materials either didn't get sent or never arrived. During what I considered normal business hours, I called another center that seemed to offer an alternative procedure, but no one answered the phone. I watched a videotape from one of the centers and watched an infomercial from another. I started to ask around to find out who else had undergone any kind of refractive surgery.

  One of the things that really bothered me during this process was that it seemed that a fair number of people had had refractive surgery. Yet if it was so good, then why hadn't I already heard about it? I guess a lot of people (their friends) are still fearful of it, so they don't talk about it. Plus I think this whole experience was another case of "People don't realize that they know more than they think." (And some people think they know more than they do, but that's another story in and of itself. I'm probably guilty of that at times). Also, in fairness, the prospect of laser vision correction is attractive to some, but not all; and some people do not have vision problems to begin with, so it's not something of great interest that they would mention to others.

  I performed a web search for laser surgeons at the VISX website and was surprised to find that a good number of doctors in my local area also performed laser eye surgery. (Until recently, VISX manufactured the only FDA-approved laser; in the meantime, I have been informed that the Summit laser has also been FDA-approved). But I wasn't going to choose just anybody.

  I also made a number of phone calls, read some other materials, and did some other things which I don't immediately recall. After I scheduled the procedure with the Caster Eye Center, I read Dr. Andrew Caster's book "THE EYE LASER MIRACLE".

  During this whole research process, I applied a success strategy that moved me closer toward my goal. I regularly asked myself, "You may not have all the answers that you want, but do you have enough information to move on to the next step?"

LAST UPDATED SUNDAY, JUNE 20, 1999

PHOTO CREDITS: DOUGLAS IRVINE, WELDON WU. ALL PHOTO IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT 1999, GABRIEL YEE.

NO, GABE DID NOT RECEIVE ANY COMPENSATION FOR INCLUDING THE ABOVE INFORMATION ON THIS WEB PAGE. NEITHER DID DOUG OR WELDON. NOR WILL WE.

SPECIAL THANKS TO GABE'S EVERGREEN AND E-MAIL FRIENDS FOR THEIR PRAYERS AND SUPPORT. ALSO, SPECIAL, SPECIAL THANKS TO THE CASTER EYE CENTER FOR KIND PERMISSION TO VIDEOTAPE THE LASIK PROCEDURE.

AWFUL LEGALESE: THE PRECEDING INFORMATION IS FURNISHED WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, EITHER IMPLIED OR EXPRESS, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL, LEGAL, FINANCIAL, OR ANY OTHER ADVICE. INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE OR ITS ASSOCIATED OR LINKED PAGES DOES NOT SERVE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR SUCH ADVICE. YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO SEEK THE ADVICE OF QUALIFIED PROFESSIONALS. TO NOT DO SO WOULD BE, WELL, NOT VERY GOOD.

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