I read practically all the reviews on this website before making my decision to go with optical express. Futhermore I was familiar with them having used them in the past for my contacts and glasses. So I had my lasik/wavefront surgery on the 27th september 2006 and will give my honest account of the procedure and my progress since then.

Background:
My left eye was -1.50 and my right eye was -2.00. One of my colleagues commented that I was going to do laser surgery for "only that" and I thought why should i wait until it was -18! So if you are thinking you will wait until it's worse - forget it! Do it now!

The day:
Staff were very friendly despite the centre being very busy that morning (i had a 10 am appointment and probably 5 people had done their eyes before me and more pouring in!) I felt really good especially seeing that other people had the faith to do it at the same place that i chose.

The procedure:
They wiped around my eyes with alcohol to clean the area and dropped a few anaesthetic solutions in both my eyes, then covered my left eye and laid me down on the flat chair. The surgeon "wheeled" me under the machine, taped my eye lids and asked me to look up at the red light. He the put a clamp around my eye which was very uncomfortable but bearable and NOT painful. He then cut the flap on my cornea which definitely did not hurt because my eye was numb and asked me to look at the red dot. He kept saying it over and over so I got a bit scared that i wasnt loking at the right spot but he calmed me down and eventually (after a few seconds) I got it right. I spelt something burning like singed hair but only for a few seconds. He then pasted down the flap and covered my eye (i had asked previously what are the chances of something going wrong with the incision and the surgeon said 1 in 400 - good enough for me!). Although I felt a bit anxious over getting things right for the left eye, we successfully repeated the same procedure and all was over in about 10 minutes. I opened my eyes a bit and through the solutions in my eyes i was able to see (which confirmed that i was at least not blind!)

The aftermath:
Funnily enough none of the reviews I read mentioned the burning pain I would feel for an hour after the procedure. I was placed in a room with a couple others and we all felt the burning (like plenty onions in your eyes). So I kept my eyes closed and endured my pain. I was scared to open it when I was called by the surgeon for a check up but i managed to open it and the pain actually subsided a bit. He said that the flap had a little wrinkle which he straightened out after numbing the eye again and then i was given some solutions and instructions and told to sleep for 5 hours and come back the next day.

The after aftermath:
I went home (and yes you need someone to take you home - i thought i could do it on my own but i couldn't), slept for 5 hours et voila no more burning. My eyes felt gritty though which is normal. The next day i couldnt feel anymore grittiness but my eyes were a tiny bit sensitive to too much light. Off to the opticians the next day and all was declared perfect - 20/20. During the following week my eyesite kept getting blurry off and on - sometimes in the right, sometimes in the left. Also sometimes I would get a white film over the eye. I was worried I tell you. I thought - "oh GOD something's gone wrong! and kept keeping myself calm by saying dont panic they said this would happen. But you can't help all the thoughts that go through your mind - would my eyesite deteriorate?, would i be able to do the surgery again? Also I was getting headaches! My eyes would hurt, then my head! Worrying I tell you! But when i went for my 1 week checkup and told the optician she said everything i experienced was in fact very normal nd regarding the headaches, they were being caused by the dryness of the tear duct (who would have thought!). So I had to double up on the eye drops or just take it as often as i can. I have done this for the past 2 weeks and i am feeling great! Absolutely wonderful! I am looking at everyone and everything. My confidence has risen- i can look people in the eyes and not see blurry faces. I get up on mornings and i can see the time on the Breakfast program! No more scrambling for glasses! By the way my vision is now 15/20!

My advice:
Do the eye surgery. Do not be afraid. Millions are doing it and feeling so much better about themselves.