For anyone considering laser treatment, these are my experiences.
I had Wavefront LASEK on 21st March 06 at the Birmingham clinic, the procedure being carried out by Dr George. My consultation took place in Nottingham. I had wanted the LASIK procedure because it was supposed to be a less painful operation with a quicker healing time. I was restricted to LASEK because my cornea was a little too thin and I practice contact sports. My prescription was -5.50 in both eyes with astigmatism. My experience has been quite good so far.
I must admit that I had been very nervous about the procedure. My eyes had always been an area of concern to me, having worn glasses since the age of 11 and me now being 40.
It was only in the last few months since wearing monthly disposable contact lenses and discovering the freedom I felt it gave me that I seriously gave consideration to having laser treatment.
My appointment was for 1130 AM and I finally left the clinic at 1440. There seemed to be so much waiting around which did nothing to settle my nerves. Although I had been forewarned that I might be there for a couple of hours the waiting seemed unnecessarily long. I finally went into the treatment room at 1405 and settled into the chair. The worst part of the procedure was when the anaesthetic drops were put in my eyes. I was warned it would sting and it did but the discomfort only lasted for a few seconds until the anaesthetic took effect. The staff were very efficient in the way they managed the whole procedure and explained each stage as it took place. I noticed a smell of burning, again I had been forewarned about it and it wasn’t very pleasant as I knew exactly what was causing it but it was too late to worry.
I left the treatment room at 1420, the whole procedure taking 15 minutes. Afterwards I received a briefing on what to expect during the healing period and had the use of the eye drops explained to me. I left the clinic wearing my sunglasses and fortunately it was an overcast day so my eyes were not sensitive except when the strong wind blew into them. Once out of the wind they were fine. I returned home and took the eye drops as prescribed but I did not experience any pain or any other side effects that I had been warned to expect apart from a bit of watering. My eyes were blurred but nowhere near as bad as my sight had been pre-op.
The following morning my eyes were a little bit sensitive but this soon wore off after I had taken the drops. I wore my sunglasses indoors just to rest my eyes.
My eyes were settling quickly with just a little blurring but I was able to watch TV and read fairly comfortably. Again I was pain free so no need to take any painkillers. There was no grittiness but they did ache very slightly but I suppose that was due to light sensitivity.
Day two saw another improvement. My eyes were less blurred and still pain free. I only had a slight ache, just like you’d get if your eyes were over tired.
Day four and the bandage lenses were removed. Overall assessment was better than expected at this stage, especially for the LAZEK procedure. Could see 20/20 though this was still just a little blurred, but still a massive improvement since the op.
Day five, the first morning after the bandage lenses were removed. I woke up and as I opened my eyes experienced a severe pain in my right eye which was totally blurred. I tried to rationalise what had happened and considered that my eye might have dried and then the epithelium tore as I opened the eye. The pain eased during the day as I used the anaesthetic drops and pain killers. I phoned my local store in Nottingham and they told me what they thought had happened, which was as I thought. The following morning I went into the store where the optometrist, Susan confirmed that a large piece of the epithelium directly in front of the pupil had indeed been torn. She put in a new bandage lens and as the day wore on the blurring started to ease and the pain totally went away.
As the weeks go by my vision keeps improving. I was worried that it hadn’t turned out as well as it should have done as I have been suffering with a slight double image in both eyes but this is reducing and I have been reassured that this is caused by a haze which will clear. I also get a little bit of glare at night. It is seven weeks since my op and I probably expected everything to be perfect by now. I have been reminded that it is a slow healing process so I expect things will continue to improve over the coming weeks. I do suffer a little bit from dry eye but I think this is because I work in an air conditioned office and had this problem with contact lenses. The Blink solution is helpful and I am finding that I don’t need it so often now.
Overall, I am delighted with the results. There is one word that is used here very often and for very good reason, and that word is FANTASTIC. The freedom from glasses and contact lenses is well worth the pre-nerves and expense of the operation.
Finally, am I one of those who wished I’d had it done years ago? To be honest, no. But only because I hadn’t been convinced by the technology before now. Would I recommend it? Absolutely. If you are considering having it done and are nervous about it that’s only natural. Virtually everybody that’s posted their experiences here was nervous beforehand. Go for it.