I felt the need to tell you about my epi-lasik experience at Moorfields as when I was looking for information, there wasn't much about! I had the surgery 5 weeks ago at Moorfields with Dr Alex Ionides. At consultation I was told I had thin corneas so had to have Epi-lasik over the popular Lasik surgery. I was pretty worried because they didn't even have any literature on it but then I did my own research. It's less popular because it takes longer to recover. I had a prescription of -4.5 and -5.25. I chose Moorfields because of their excellent reputation. I would highly recommend Dr Ionides; he's so calm and down to earth, you feel you are in good hands. I'd emailed him prior to the procedure with questions and he called me and emailed me back so a very personal service. On D-day, had my prescription measured before hand, you go to the main hospital, one eye is patched up, the other they put drops in, you lie in a dentist's chair, the laser machine is swung up close and you are asked to look at a red flashing light (your eye is kept open by a rubber ring which is fine and secure). The epithilium is scraped to one side; you feel nothing, the laser starts, quite loud and the Dr counts down..all in all, about a minute per eye so nothing really and it doesn't hurt. Then more drops, and the contact lense is put in. I got up from the chair, I was a bit dizzy from the nerves, but could see. Dr checks the lense is in ok, you get all the drops (and there are lots for the first 6 days)up until you have the lenses taken out. Pain-wise, first day they felt v tired/swollen, little bit of a burning sensation but ok. Day 2 was my 'worst' day in that my eyes watered a lot and sensitive to the light, by day 3 I was in no discomfort at all. It certainly wasn't painful at any time. I took it easy and slept a lot up until day 6. The contacts came out, again no additional pain, one eye was a touch blurry. I went back to work day 9 after surgery but found it hard with the pc (this got better by day 12). One eye took longer in terms of blurriness and when they talk about regression and having 'good days and bad days' I would say 'yes' but it's not THAT noticeable and I was 1 line from 20:20 a week after surgery with both eyes. On top of all this and why I would 100% recommend Moorfield is that 3 weeks after surgery (at 20:20 by this stage) I had an accident with my left eye; I managed to get the corner of a tough carrier bag in it and was in incredible pain. Went to Moorfields; my Surgeon wasn't there; got seen by Dr Steven Tuft (his interpersonal style wasn't quite the same Dr Ionides; he's very serious in his approach but nonetheless I am grateful he saw me!) apparently I managed to knock a 3rd of my epithilium away (very rare!) got more drops, it regenerates within 24 hours and got checked by Dr Ionides the next day. I was back to 'normal' in terms of my 20:20 eyesight in that eye within 4 days. It was very unfortunate but made me thank my lucky stars I went to Moorfields. I started a new job 5 weeks after my surgery and even with this incident I have now forgotten I had the surgery. I'm fully functional, I am 20:20. The only side effect is a bit of dry eye in the morning but just use a comfort drop or another trick; in the morning, keep your eyes closed and more your eyeballs from side to side to lubricate them then slowly open them and you'll be fine. The reason for my posting is that a lot of people don't want epi-lasik because of the 'time it takes to heal' all in all, I was ok after 1 week but took an extra few days over this so don't be put off and I haven't looked back!! Go to Moorfields and see Dr Ionides!