Home » Blog » Blane Marable Gets LASIK

Posted by: Georgia Center for Sight

Blane Marable, the famous Athens, GA photographer, recently enjoyed the experience of LASIK with Dr. Jing Dong and Georgia Center for Sight.

Hi. I’m Blane Marable, and I’ve been in glasses all my life. I’m a wedding photographer. And as a photographer, I’ve had some problems a little bit with my glasses as far as when I’m putting it up to my eyes and it bumping my face, or sometimes the glasses maybe get foggy. And so it’s been a slight problem.

I’ve been thinking about LASIK for a number of years of having the procedure done. I’m in my 50s now. And kind of looked into it, and had an opportunity to go over and visit with Dr. Dong, and talk with him a little bit more about the procedure. And he was just such a nice fella and his staff. They answered all the questions. I think I probably had 100 different questions to ask them on that day, and he answered all my questions and gave me some literature to look over. And I took it home. And a few days later, decided that I’d go ahead with the procedure. I guess, to be honest, a little nervous about it going into the procedure. I’ve talked to some friends that have had the procedure, and they said it goes by real quickly, real fast. And with the medication, then there’s no problem at all.

So a little nervous, but looking forward to it at the same time. On the day of the procedure itself, when I arrived it was late afternoon. And went in and his staff met with me. They went over the procedure again, confirming everything that they were going to do that day, the adjustments to both eyes. The procedure itself is really easy to go through. It only lasts a few minutes. And they laid me down on the table. And you’re not able to see much, because the machine kind of comes down over your face. And then you’re, of course, awake the whole time. And during the procedure itself, you see different bright lights, different colored lights. And then it’s over with. And there was no pain at all, a little discomfort as far as the pressure that they put over the eyes. But surprisingly, no pain at all.

It was immediately after the procedure was over with, then they raise you up. And almost immediately after the procedure’s over with, it’s strange without your glasses how far that you can see and how well you can see immediately after the procedure.

Dr. Jing Dong and the Georgia Center for Sight utilize the WaveLight LASIK Suite, the most technically advanced LASIK technology on the market. It’s the only one of its kind in Georgia, and it’s here at the Georgia Center for Sight. It offers patients like Blane the most accurate and customizable LASIK procedure possible.

OK. It’s a week since I’ve had the surgery with Dr. Dong, and doing great. I don’t need the glasses anymore, I can see fine. I can wake up in the morning and see the alarm clock. I can see the TV off in the distance. As a wedding photographer, I’m able to use the camera, see off in the distance, see up close. I can check my cell phone immediately by looking down at it without having to use glasses anymore. Going into the procedure, I was a little nervous as far as the fact that it was on a Thursday afternoon and that Saturday, two days later, I had a wedding to shoot as a photographer. So I wanted to make sure that I was in good shape and wouldn’t have any side effects. And so I talked to Dr. Dong and his staff about that, and they assured me that by the day after or for sure two days after that I would be seeing great and shouldn’t have any problems. And that was the case.

During the wedding, it was an all-day wedding. So I started in the morning, went to late in the evening, and had no problems at all. The Georgia Center for Sight and Dr. Dong was a wonderful experience that I had. His staff was so knowledgeable, so friendly. Dr. Dong himself, so precise, spent a lot of time with me answering my questions, answering my concerns that I had about my eyesight. I highly recommend the Georgia Center for Sight and Dr. Dong. For you to go in and have your LASIK procedure completed there, it was great. Again, I wish I had it 10 years ago. No more glasses for this photographer.