I'm 26 & my prescription was -1.75 in both eyes. I had been wearing what I thought were amazing contact lenses for over 2 years - Air Optix Night & Day. Apparently it was fine to wear them & sleep in them for a MONTH continuously and then just change them with a new pair.. I thought they were great until about 2 years in, when i suddenly woke up in the middle of the night with terribly bad eye pain. From that moment on my eyes totally rejected any contact lenses and always felt very dry and irritated. My useless NHS opthamologist told me i had Blepharitis and could not wear lenses anymore. bleph usually stops u having eye surgery but when I went to eye surgery clinics they all said there was no sign of it and that it was probably just my epithelium had worn down & had no chance to recover. I was quite nervous to have laser surgery because my eyes did not feel healthy at all.

I orginally booked in to have wavefront intralase at optimax for £1850, this was the price I got only after about 12 months of letters when the deals kept getting better and better. At the last minute I discovered no-touch & found that accuvision were the only ones that do it. When they quoted me £50 more I was instantly sold. People that take LASIK because it doesn't hurt are really selling themselves short. I play rugby and optimax never told me that there was a distict possibility a blow to the eye could have dislodged the flap which stays weak for up to 7 years post-op. Accuvision said any ppl with active lifestyles should never get a flap, but they recommend trans-epi to everyone that is eligible.

My surgeon was Chad Rostron, nice guy and he did a great job. Only ever met him for 15 mins as I primarily dealt with optometrists. Fair enough if this makes my surgery cheaper!

So about the pain - surgery was completely painless, don't be nervous about it because it is a breeze. 30 mins afterwards you will not be very comfortable at all, if at all possible I would advise getting home to a dark room within an hour. As i mentioned before, waking up with my contact lens problem was painful, this i'd describe as a discomfort.. a discomfort that takes a very long time to subside. I slept for 4 hours on the first night and the second day was much more managable. I got a good 10 hours on the second night. By the 4th day I was comfortable doing anything and even drove to my follow up appt, although was still very light sensitive. You will be unable to look at computer or tv screens for 3-4 days even with the brightness turned down. So to sum up, the pain isn't a big deal, it's the boredom. Get an ipod with a few audiobooks on it to keep yourself occupied.

The results;
at my 4 day appointment my vision was 20:40, (driving standard)
at my 2 week appt I hit 20:20, and was able to read 2 letters from 20:15.

I am now at 4 1/2 weeks and I guess I'm at least 20:15 now, I am hoping, although unlikely, that I will get to 20:10 at some stage and really impress people.

They warned me that having to use reading glasses in my old age was almost certain after any laser eye surgery. Seeing as both my parents had perfect eye sight all their lives, and now require reading glasses I thought chances are I will too. Who knows what will be out there in 20 years anyway and at least I know I took the procedure that causes the very least damage to my eyes.