Really impressed!!! I had LASIK 2 days ago at Shaftesbury Ave with Clive Mortimer. I give him & the Eye Clinic 5 stars!! Not only is he a professor at the forefront of this field but as a surgeon he had a very lovely, calming character which instils in you a lot of confidence in him, and in yourself as a LASIK candidate. He really puts you at ease!!! I remember him saying pre-surgery that with my low precription (-2.75, -3.00) he expects to get it right the first time...and he did. And by getting it right it means getting the best cut (the flap), the speed and ease of manually moving the flap away, irrigation, carefully replacing the flap, as well as the actual lasering. From beginning to end Clive did this with absolute precision.
The actual process was amazingly quick. Not at all what I expected. Believe me, I am one of the most squeamish people you could come across. I was really nervous, but with the help of the sedative tablet (Valium) they gave me beforehand & the confidence boosting assistant who held my hand & patted my shoulder through the most difficult parts, it really was not that bad! Honestly you don't feel a thing (well, I didn't) I didn't even feel the clamp (he must have put a lot of local anaesthetic in - good thing really). The sedative working, I was pretty chilled during the whole procedure. For those who are worried about the flap forming bit, don't worry because by the time they put the ring on your eye (non-painless), thereafter everything goes milky and you are not aware of when they form the flap at all, or even what they are doing to your eye. 2 counts of ten, a few more eye drops, then an bandage goes on & onto the next eye.
Immediately after surgery you can actually see around you, albeit a bit hazy. I had no teary eyes, or redness. I put that down to the surgeon's expertise. Clive then checked my eyesight & immediately confirmed I had 20/15 vision (better than 20/20), infact almost verging on 20/10 although it will probably settle at 20/15 because immediately after surgery your corneas swell up, magnifying your sight giving you super vision (so to speak) but eventually will settle to be slightly less.
They send you home armed with plenty of eye lubricant drops (generous 6 pack) plus anti-inflammatory & steroid drops to heal and sleeping tabs.
I went in for a checkup today because I was a bit concerned about the haze in my left eye and the fact that I had a scratchy eye all yesterday and whilst I slept. It turned out that I had a stray eye-lash in my eye all this time! This may seem superficial, but it left my left eye really sore & hazy. I called up Eye Clinic help line & they suggested that I come in to see the optician to check up. Dye was put in my eye to check if I had any scratches. No scratches. The flap was not disturbed and healing nicely. The soreness was from dryness than anything else, which they might issue me with a gel type eye drop which offers more lubrication than the normal refresh drops. Oh, and my eyesight is still 20/10 in right eye & 20/15 in left!!
The aftercare here is firstclass. And before I forget Amy, the consultant at Cheapside (where I had inital consultation 2 weeks before) was very helpful and non-pushy, already putting me at ease for the surgery.
I totally recommend the Eye Clinic & most definitely Prof. Clive Mortimer! It's been the second day and I now see things in the distance from my window that I never knew existed! Artificial light halo's do exist but no worse than halo's I experienced with astigmatism (for those of you who have astig, you know what I mean). I can now read words from a distant poster, or on moving cars which I never noticed before. Laser has given me better vision than I had with contact lenses or glasses. These I've thrown away now! Sure I might need the frames again when I'm 45 (for reading) but hell, that's a good 2 decades away. So my advice to anyone considering this is to have laser done as soon as you can so that you can enjoy the freedom for longer!