Surgery in Leeds, Dr. Khan, 1st October 2007. Lasik/intralase/wavefront, both eyes, fairly light prescription.

My experience so far.
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Is now 9 days since surgery.

First, I have to point out that very little scares me, normally.
I was fine with the whole laser thing up until the moment I actually arrived for surgery. At which point, I started bricking it.

In surgery:
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Going into the surgery room - this I found hard - I have no complaints whatsoever about the staff or their reassurances, but I'm one of those people who doesn't believe much of what I'm told, so I was now exploring unknown territory and was hoping I hadn't made a spectacularly bad decision. I guess it's natural to feel that way, considering how precious your eyes are. I'd rather have bad eyesight than none at all. Anyway..

The scariest bit in surgery, I would say, is where the cornea is moved and you see two images seperate. That freaked me out a bit inside, but I managed to stay calm on the outside. The most uncomfortable bit is where the machine presses down on your eyeball while the laser does it's job - but it doesn't hurt.
The surgery itself took (I'm not joking) about 5 minutes!


After surgery, same day:
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At first you can see ok with just a little noticable light sensitivity, but I found this progressively gets worse over the next hour or two.
Apparently I looked pretty dodgy coming home on the train from Leeds, sat there with my sunglasses on trying really hard NOT to look like I'd just been poked in both eyes with a chopstick. I was fully expecting the Metropolitan Police to turn up and pump me full of holes..
I was glad my partner was with me to hold my hand - when we got off the train I could only open my eyes for a fleeting glimpse of where I was walking, and then had to shut them again for 10-20 seconds. On reflection, we should have come in the car.
After getting home I just wanted darkness and strangely, quiet. (Yes, noise irritated me at this point..) So I went upstairs and found some - even managed to get a 2 hour kip in despite feeling like I had grit in my eyes.

After about 8 hours, I found I could mooch around the house with shades on. It was still helpful to keep the lights dimmed and take prolonged blinks, but the uncomfortableness was subsiding at this point. It was now more of an irritation, a bit like having smoke in your eyes.

Day 1
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After a good night's sleep, the next day was much better. The irritation was now very minor, just occasional dryness, soothed by a 2 second blink. Along with a little light-sensitiveness. At this point I could tell my sight was much sharper than it had been before the op. I still found it more comfortable to wear shades in bright daylight, but this wasn't really a big deal. So only one day after surgery, I was busy fixing new skirting boards in our living room. With safety goggles on, of course.


After that..
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For the next week or so, there isn't much to tell. My eyes became progressively better, light sensitivety subsided. The thing that was most noticable, was night driving - glare from headlights of oncoming traffic caused me to wear my shades for the first few days, but that has now dropped to levels that don't bother me.

I was told that the glare would subside after the first few weeks, and my vision would also improve further once I stopped taking the eyedrops. After only 2 days of not taking the eyedrops, it does feel like it's improved; but I guess an eye test will verify that, so I'm just going to wait for the next one before making any bold announcements.


In summary:
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- The worst bit: In all honesty, the first 8 hours were the worst - not painful, but very uncomfortable.
- Should I have been scared before surgery? No, but then I'm not a robot. These are my eyes we're talking about!
- Would I do it again? Yes.

Tips:
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- Avoid using public transport to return home from surgery.
- Take someone with you, to get you home in one piece.
- Take a few (maybe 3?) days off work so you can bum around whilst the sensitivety subsides.
- Enjoy the new view!


In finishing, I'd like to say thanks to Dr. Khan for fixing my eyes.
Also, I must thank Akbar and Nareece at Shipley Optical Express, who did their level best to explain the whole procedure fully and assure me it would all work out ok if I went ahead with it.