I had wavefront LASEK treatment at Reading Optical Express on Saturday 18 February 2006. My prescription was minus 4.50 approx in both eyes with astigmatism in one of them.

THE TREATMENT itself was very quick - about 5 minutes in total. The eye clamps were very unpleasant and quite uncomfortable, bordering on painful. The actual procedure itself was painless and you really can't see anything that's going on - just some bright lights. I did find it traumatic but this is only because in my head I was thinking: the surgeon is scraping my eye now, etc., which freaked me out quite a lot. They did talk through the procedure but I couldn't hear what they were saying at the time so this didn't really help. The laser itself is the least nasty part of the whole thing - the most alarming bit of the laser is the singed hair smell and the clacking sound: both are perfectly normal.

IMMEDIATELY AFTER TREATMENT I could see much better - about 75% perfect vision. My eyes were not sore at all and although they were a bit light sensitive I had no problems getting home.

AFTER 90 MINUTES the numbing drops wore off and my eyes started to weep profusely. My eyes were stinging hugely and I was so sensitive to light and air that I basically had to close my eyes for about 5 hours. Unfortunately my boyfriend had stuck my "only take these drops if your eyes are really bad" drops in the fridge and gone food shopping (I thought I was ok) so I was stuck in bed unable to relieve the pain or do anything. It was awful! Make sure you have someone there for the following few hours as you'll really appreciate it. Also take all the drops they give you as I suffered needlessly, wanting to keep the drops in case my eyes worsened. The 6 hours after treatment will always be the worst so don't hesitate to use them if you need to at this stage.

AFTER 6 HOURS the stinging and weeping suddenly decreased and the pain reduced to levels of high discomfort rather than pain. I was still very light sensitive and did most things by candlelight that day. I was exhausted from the pain (its surprising how tiring it makes you) and I had no problems sleeping all night in my goggles.

THE NEXT DAY (Sunday) I felt much better although my eyes were still a bit blurry - about 80% vision with my right eye worse than the other. I spent most of the day with my eyes closed in the dark listening to the radio which was the most comfortable thing to do. By the evening the bandage contact lenses started drying out and causing a bit of discomfort but I did manage to open my eyes. I did not experience any grittiness although I had the sensation that I had some dust in my right eye. This was not too bad though. The contact lenses also seemed to make my vision milky as they were drying out.

THE SECOND DAY after treatment (Monday) all stinging and weeping had more-or-less gone to be replaced by dry eyes and the contact lenses causing a high degree of discomfort meaning I was having to close my eyes again as blinking was causing the lids to rub against the lenses making my lids very sore, plus the milky vision got worse and the feeling of having something in my right eye remained.

THE THIRD DAY after treatment (Tuesday) I phoned the optician and begged them to take out the contact lenses a day early (they were due out on Wednesday). They agreed and I had them out which was a HUGE RELIEF. In the end they were causing me more discomfort than I could bear: worse than the eyes themselves. I expected my eyes to be quite sore but they weren't too bad and with frequent drops felt almost normal. My vision was still about 80% at this point. I could see well both short and long distance although my short distance vision was much worse than long and at both distances nothing was yet crisp. By the end of the week though I felt safe enough to drive, although had real trouble reading.

TWO WEEKS after treatment my eyes felt pretty much back to normal. I was quite concerned about my vision though because, although it was improving very slightly, one eye was worse than the other and I was finding being in an air-conditioned office at work very uncomfortable. I couldn't really read my computer screen and had to increase the resolution quite a lot and was still squinting at the screen. Luckily I had another holiday booked for a week. The optician wasn't unduly concerned at this point and did allay my fears that this was as good as it was going to get.

FOUR WEEKS after treatment my eyes feel completely normal. I still get dry eyes some days at work but drops a few times a day keep me fine. My eyes have even sight now and at my checkup I was told I can read one line below 20/20 vision. Everything is perfectly crisp and the computer screen is back to its normal resolution. Stopping the anti-inflammatory drops really seemed to help my eyesight improve and I would advise anyone concerned at their slow progress to be patient.

Overall this experience has been first traumatic, then painful, uncomfortable, and worrying but the end result is everything I could have hoped for. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone and still delight in being able to read signs at a distance, recognise friends from across the street and wear eye makeup for the first time! However, don't underestimate the amount having sore or painful eyes can really tire you out - even weeks after treatment.

Optical Express were very professional and reassuring, especially the surgeon Mr Kheterpal who was very relaxed and calm and I felt very confident in his abilities. There is a lot of waiting around but I understand in order for them to be as efficient as possible with their time they need to make sure people are ready and waiting as soon as the surgeon is. It's a small price to pay for such a huge difference to my life. GO FOR IT.