I had Lasik surgery at the Shaftesbury Avenue branch on December 14 and the whole experience has been smooth and painless. My eyes took a while to stabilise after I stopped wearing my gas permeable contact lenses and it was reassuring that I was made to wait more than two months until staff were completely happy that I was ready for the treatment.
The surgery itself was fine - the idea was far more traumatic than the reality - and it didn't hurt at all. Mr Giledi and the theatre staff were professional, kind, patient and informative and I was given plenty of opportunity to ask questions.
After the procedure I had a bit of grittiness for a few hours and my left eye is still slightly dry so I'm continuing with the artificial tears, but I don't have any discomfort.
The aftercare has been good, although my 1 week and 1 month appointments have both run very late - my only criticism.
Although Mr Giledi and the Optical Express team were excellent, I would still say that if you're thinking of having laser surgery, do your research and consider getting a second opinion, just to be sure this is the right decision for your eyes. In retrospect (after reading about lasik obsessively following my treatment!) I don't think I understood enough about the potential problems with lasik, despite having read the literature, and I certainly don't think I knew enough about the significance of pupil size and corneal thickness.
Having said that, my eyes are healing well, and although I had intermittent blurriness in my left eye in the first few weeks my vision is now very clear, at night as well as in the daytime - 20/15 in both eyes. Fantastic!