Brian C.'s LASIK Story

Glasses are a pain in the ass. I've been wearing them for most of my adult life and after a while every little annoyance adds up. Shoveling snow in Philadelphia with foggy lenses. Washing the car and having to swap to contacts that dry out or fall out halfway through. Dealing with an astigmatism and being told I'd eventually need bifocals, which meant carrying around multiple pairs of glasses.

I'd been thinking about LASIK for over 10 years, and every now and then I'd Google the prices, see $4,000 to $5,000 for both eyes, and decide that glasses were annoying but not $5,000 annoying. Insurance didn't cover it, and honestly I wasn't even sure if those quotes were for the newer laser method or the older one.

Then my wife decided she wanted to get it done.

My wife is Thai, and we've been to Thailand more times than I can count to visit family. So when she started looking into getting LASIK in Bangkok through a friend who'd had it done at the same hospital, there was no mental barrier to get over. We already knew the country, already trusted the healthcare, and her friend had a great experience with a doctor who came highly recommended. We booked the flights and hotel first and then added LASIK to the trip almost like an afterthought.

The plan was to stagger our procedures by two days so we could take care of each other during recovery instead of both being useless at the same time. My wife went first, two days later it was my turn. We joked about it being the blind leading the blind, which is a lot funnier before someone is about to shoot a laser into your eyes.

Bangkok

We landed in January, which is dry season, so the weather was hot but beautiful by Thailand standards. We took the official airport limousine service from the airport, one flat price, no hassle, and headed to our hotel. I'm a bit of a points and miles guy, so between credit card perks and Hyatt status we stayed at the Grand Hyatt, the Standard Hotel with the highest observatory bar in the city, and the Park Hyatt, none of them more than $100 a night out of pocket. But even without the points game, most nice hotels in Bangkok don't run more than $125 a night, which is wild compared to what you'd pay in any major US city.

The hospital was a sizable private facility, and the quality was the same or better than anything I've seen in the States. The team spoke English, the signage was in both Thai and English, and there was a real effort to make international patients feel comfortable.

What surprised me most was how busy it was. The day my wife went, there were about 5 other people getting LASIK. On my day there were 12. When we went back for our follow-up on the weekend, there were 35 to 40 people in the waiting area. It felt like a popular restaurant, and I took that as a good sign. You don't get that kind of volume by doing mediocre work.

The panic attack

I'll be honest, I had a full-on panic attack right before the procedure. I'd done all the research, I wasn't nervous about being in Thailand for it, I would have had the exact same fears in the US. But lying there about to have a laser pointed at your eyes is just a different experience than reading about it on your phone. The doctor was incredible though. She talked me through everything, calmed me down, and the clinic gave me something to take the edge off, which is apparently standard protocol there. After that I was fine and the whole thing was over quickly.

Recovery was pretty straightforward. The biggest thing they stressed was not touching my eyes for seven days because the lens can shift while it's healing. I was back on my feet the same night, though we didn't do much of the usual tourist stuff on this trip since I couldn't go in the ocean after the procedure. It turned into more of a family visit than a vacation, but Thailand is basically a second home for us at this point, so we didn't need to cram in sightseeing. It was nice to just relax and let our eyes heal.

The numbers

Remember the $4,000 to $5,000 I kept seeing when I Googled LASIK at home? In Bangkok it was $1,732 each, and they gave us a small discount on top of that for posting about the experience on social media. From the East Coast, round-trip flights to Bangkok run about $700 to $1,000 per person. Between points and miles my wife and I paid almost nothing for flights and hotels, but even paying full price for everything, the math is overwhelmingly in favor of doing it abroad. Two LASIK procedures, luxury hotels, dinners out, and a trip to see family, all for less than what one procedure would have cost at home.

Now

I feel great. There's some minor dryness which is a normal side effect, but it's barely noticeable and not painful. Dryness was actually one of my bigger concerns going in because my eyes were always on the dry side, but it hasn't been an issue at all.

When I got back to the office, coworkers asked if I was wearing contacts. I told them I'd gotten LASIK in Bangkok and every single one of them wanted to hear about it. I told them it was fantastic, the facility was top tier, and that I wished I'd done it years ago. And I meant that. If I could change one thing, I would have done this much sooner. And maybe booked a hotel closer to the hospital.

Brian C, 46, Philadelphia, PA. Financial services and credit card points enthusiast.