Company: Optical Express
Consultation: Watford Branch
Surgery: Milton Keynes
Surgeon: Mr Waseem Aziz

It’s been 3 weeks since my surgery and I’ll try to give you an honest account of my experiences. I had the initial consultation back in June at the Watford branch, and not knowing what to expect, or what should have happened I undertook the tests and was informed that I was suitable for LASIK Wavefront. £200 deposit was paid and I was scheduled to have the surgery in September.

This is where it all goes wrong. Some may think it’s trivial, but a whole series of administrative errors from the Watford Branch made the pre-op build up a nightmare. Things like letters about surgery date changes (to the same date and time), cancellation of surgery on two occasions etc made me question how the company was being run.

Finally on the day of surgery at Milton Keynes, I re-took the check up. I had more detailed tests, tests which were not undertaken at Watford, literature given to me that I never received at Watford (about what the eye drops were and what they would do). It was all together a much more professional experience than at Watford, and I subsequently learned that Watford should have done all this, but never did.

The result was that, when the surgeon crossed checked the Watford results against the Milton Keynes results, there was a huge discrepancy, so much so that he cancelled the surgery. I was told to phone Watford to re-book the initial consultation, hugely disappointing, but grateful the surgeon was taking the cautious side.

I called Watford, and asked whether I could use the next day post op slot I had pre-booked there to have the tests re done. Imagine my horror when I was told there would be no trained staff or surgeon available – what if my procedure had taken place and I had turned up for the post op check up and there was no one there !

Watford then clamed that my surgery could take place, as they had simply not bothered to put all my test results onto the computer system, so it was skewing the results. They said they would put them on the system, and I should return to Milton Keynes and proceed with the surgery. However, returning to Milton Keynes, the surgeon was still not satisfied with Watford’s data. I lost all confidence in Watford so asked for the consultation to be redone at Milton Keynes.

So, administrative errors – trivial? Maybe, but when you are having someone operate on your eyes and paying £2200 for the surgery, you want everything right first time.

As for the surgery, I have to admit Milton Keynes were ultra professional. I got accurate results, far more thorough consultation and pre-op check up’s and the whole team were thorough and knew what they were doing.

The Lasik procedure was uncomfortable (the pressure to create the flap), but not painful. However, the anaesthetic wore off very quickly and I experienced quite severe pain and hyper light sensitivity for about 2 hours after the op, but the pain subsided as quickly as it came. By the time I was home and slept for 3 hours (I really recommend this), I opened my eyes for the first time and was amazed.

My recovery was excellent, no bloodiness or bruising of the eye, but I have experienced very dry eyes first thing in the morning for about 2 weeks post op. That is already much better, and regular use of moisturising drops really helps. I literally had one day where my vision went distorted as the eye healed, and have had better than 20:20 vision since then.

The summary – go for it ! Follow the aftercare rigorously, and use moisturising drops all the time, even if you don’t think your eyes are dry. Mr Waseem Aziz is an excellent surgeon, and so are the staff at Milton Ketynes, but my advice is avoid Watford branch at all costs !