I had Wavefront Lasik performed on 10th December 2004 by Mr Julian Stevens. This was after a long few months of questions and should I, shouldn't I's!! Any of your who've seen my first posting will know I went for my inital consultation on 1st June 2004!! My prescription was -3.5 in my left eye and -4.75 in my right with some astigmatism. Mr Stevens had assured me this was a fairly small prescription and wouldn't be a problem to fix. My appointment was 11.30 am and I had my surgery at 3.00pm. You do have to see the optician for a full sight test, then the nurse to explain all the drops, after care etc, and then Mr Stevens for him to perform a wavefront scan and talk you through the procedure, so it is a long time to be up there, but at least they are testing every single thing and you know the info in the laser machine will be correct.
I was a really nervous that morning, kept saying to my parents I didn't think I could go through with it and 'what if it goes wrong?', I was even worried that the laser machine wouldn't be working! But once in the car, calmed down slightly, only to become even more of a nervous wreck when we got hit by a lorry on the M25 - not what I needed at all. But strangley enough, actually stopped me thinking about the surgery and when me and my dad finally rushed through the door at exactly 11.30, I was quite calm and kind of looking forward to it - think I just wanted to get it over and done with.
Anyway, back to the surgery. All I can really say is that is isn't at all as bad as you think it will be, but it is a VERY strange experience. Not in any way horrible though, I'm not waking up in the middle of the night having nightmares, so it can't have been that bad! Mr Stevens talks you through everything as he's doing at and the nurses are there to reassure you. The nurse I had told me she'd had Lasik done recently and was fine, so that reassured me even more. You really can't feel a thing, but can see the instruments moving in front of your eyes, but luckily the room is in complete darkness so you can't see that much. The anaesthetic drops work very quickly and it is really all over in a few minutes. Making the flap is the worse part of the surgery as you can hear the machine working, but I didn't feel a thing. The lasering itself takes literally a few seconds and then the flap is smoothed back into place, drops put in, and the second eye is done. Which, by the way, I found worse as you know what's happening, but it's all over soon. After my sugery my eyes were cloudy and watery, but not painful, just a little sore. It was like I was looking through a net curtain. On the way home, I could see the road ahead, car number plates and road signs. My eyes were stinging a little on the way home, but the drops soon fixed that. I have had slight haloing at night for the first week or so, but that has settled down now, and occasionally my right eye is blurry in the morning and takes the rest of the day to sort itself out. That seems to be happening less and less now. I have had absolutely no other problems and can see just fine. The saturday after my surgery I could read the bottom line of the chart which is above driving standard, and I never quite managed it with my contacts, let alone my glasses.
I have a check up in 3months after the surgery and that will tell exactly how good my vision is.
Mr Stevens is a brilliant surgeon and I have come out with exactly what he promised me - almost perfect vision. He is very confident nothing will go wrong with the surgery, but if it does, who better to sort it out?
I still can't quite believe I've had the surgery, nor can my family or friends who had to put up with me worrying about it for so long, but there really is nothing to worry about with the procedure. I work on computers all day without a problem and am driving without problems.
I just can't wait to go swimming again and actually be able to see other people in the pool before I swim into them! But for now, it's lovely just to be able to wake up and see. And, no, I don't miss my glasses at all!
Feel free to get in contact if you have any questions and I might be able to help.