I had Lasik surgery at Bluewater on 13/12/2006. My surgeon was Wayne Crewe-Brown, a truly excellent surgeon.

I debated for a huge period of time before having the surgery, but decided it was right for me and went for it.

Had the consultation at Chelmsford, that was all fine.

Having previously spoken to my regular optician, I had decided that there was no benefit to me having Wavefront and decided to go for the standard treatment, which was accepted immediately without any hard sell from my laser counsellor. I also decided to have a microkeratome make the flap, rather than intralase, purely based on cost, and had no problems there either.

The procedure itself is a little like a conveyer belt, but quick and fairly painless.

Mr Crewe Brown came and introduced himself, then took me through for a quick eye check and to answer any questions (had about 2 minutes in the room, but didn't have any questions).

Then had to wait for about 10 minutes with some other people waiting for surgery, i was VERY worried at this point!

My name was called and I was asked to lay in the chair and relax. I could hear the laser nurses preparing and the surgeon was talking to me explaining what was going to happen.

Some drops were put in my right eye first, and a shield put over my left eye (which I had to keep open underneath the shield, found that quite hard to do).

The clip was then put in place, probably the most uncomfortable bit about the whole thing, but with barely any pain.

The microkeratome is then put on your eye, which then creates a vacuum so that you are unable to move your eye while the flap is created.

Everything goes completely black and you hear a noise like a dentist drill.

The flap is done!

Surgeon then moves the flap out of the way, starts the laser (which makes a loud clicking noise and smells like burning hair) and then puts the flap back.

Laser only took about 10 seconds and you can't feel it at all.

As soon as the flap was back in place I could see much better than before, but was still fairly blurred.

When I was finished one of the laser nurses talked me through which drops to use and how often, then I could go.

Due to traffic I got home 4 hours later, and the journey was horrendous, but I just kept my eyes closed and it wasn't too outrageous, just felt gritty.

When I got home I went straight to bed and the next day my vision was near perfect.

Its fluctuated a bit over the past few days, but now seems to have settled to what I judge to be 20/20 (certainly as good as when wearing my glasses before surgery).

If you thinking about doing this but are worried, my only advice is - DO IT!