I had LASEK treatment at the Leeds Optimax 5 weeks ago, Dr. Salmuel performed the operation. I opted to have each eye done separately, with a 3 week gap between the operations.

I was nervous as hell and arrived at the surgery quite early. After I filled in a consent form I was told to take a seat where I waited for about 30 mins. I spoke to Dr. Salmuel before the operation and asked some questions about the procedure itself. Questions I should have asked during the consultation to be fair. After which I continued to wait…

My name was called out and I was asked to put some plastic things over my feet and a hair net on. I proceeded to the operating theatre where I laid on a bed and was placed under the laser.

Loads of drops went in my eyes and then a clamp applied to keep my eye open. The alcohol was applied and the top of my eye scraped to one side. After which my vision was blurry and could not really see much. The laser was switched on and it frightened the life out of me! I must have jumped a foot in the air. I then remained still and the laser fired in 4 segments, each of about 20 seconds. Once the laser had done the top of my eye was placed back and the bandage lens dropped in. More drops followed and an eye protector thing was tapped to my face.

I then returned to the waiting room where I was told to wait for 5 mins after which I was free to leave. I sat down for 5 mins, just about to leave and suddenly realised they had not given me my medication!! This was very quickly sorted out by the Optimax staff, but shouldn’t have happened in the first place. But hey everyone makes mistakes I then left the building and went home.

On the way home I was very sensitive to bright lights. I found placing a baseball cap over my face while in the car and just resting my eyes worked well. Once home I popped the pills they had given me and went to bed. This is where the pain starts as the anaesthetic wears off. I not going to lie to anybody considering LASEK, it bloody hurts! You will not want to do anything for the rest of the day. No TV, PC, DVD’s or X-Box, all you can do is lay down in a dark room. You will not want to open your eyes at all. I found having a radio on helped take my mind off the pain.

After 4-5 hours I put some of the antibiotic drops in by pulling my lower eye lid down. I continued to lay and then later popped some of the sleeping pills. I was then completely knocked out for about 10 hours…Sweet.

I woke in the morning and 90% of the pain had gone. It took me around 5 mins to open my eye. I put some more antibiotic drops in and then went down stairs. I found I could only open my eyes for around 30 mins at a time in the morning stretching to 2 hours by the end of the day. Still lots of music listening and laying around but in MUCH less pain.

And the rest they say is history! My vision became clear after about 10 days. My vision is better than 20/20 in my right eye now. The left eye was done three weeks later and was a similar experience to the above, but they remembered the drugs this time.

Overall my experience with Optimax was a good one. I would recommend them to a friend.