After years of contemplation and a fortune spent on contact lenses I finally bit the bullet and opted for laser eye surgery. After much research including a look at this website I decided to go with Optimax. They seemed like a good balance of cost, reputation and convenience.

On my initial consultation I was advised on my options for treatment and was never pushed into anything. It was recommended that the LASEK method may be more suitable for me. It's not often that companies recommend the cheaper of their services and it reinforced my initial positive impression and that Optimax were putting the customer before profit. I also opted for the Wavefront treatment - "in for a penny, in for a pound" sort of mentality.

Around a week later I got a friend to drive me to the clinic for my surgery. The procedure itself seemed very straightforward and painless although the more squeamish might find the smell of burning eyeball a little offensive. I was worried that I might look away from the laser during surgery but there is no temptation to do so and from what I understand the laser will compensate or shut off with eye movement so it won't lase the bits it shouldn't.

Immediately following treatment I could already see that there was something definitely clearer about my vision despite the blurring of watery eyes. It was around half an hour after surgery when the discomfort started to kick in. Initially there was mild burning sensation with the feeling that someone was pressing slightly on the eyeballs. The clinic had given me a whole bunch of medication and a prescription for some more. The has also given me some anaesthetic eye drops but said that I should try not to use them as it can affect the healing process and slow it down. By the time I got home there was no way I wasn't going to squirt the first vial straight into my eyes. The relief from the discomfort was most welcome and I quickly necked the sedatives before the discomfort returned. I slept pretty much solid for the first 24 hours by which time most of the discomfort had gone replaced by a sensitivity to light. Watching TV was difficult and it was mid World Cup... talk about bad planning.

A week after the surgery I started HGV driver training and despite my eyes still not being perfect I passed the eye test easily. Within a month my eyesight was near perfect apart from a star-burst effect in my left eye at night. I had also experienced mild dryness of the eyes particularly when waking up in the morning.

I had my final check around a month by which time my vision was perfect, even at night. My vision is now better than 20/20 in both eyes and it's much better than it ever was with contacts or glasses despite quite a mild pre-op prescription of only 1.5 (short sighted). Apparently I am now long-sighted by 0.25 in both eyes but it's really not perceptible and no correction is necessary. The occassional dry eye problem is mild but still crops up from time to time especially the morning after a long night out.

Overall, I'm very happy with the treatment and the results. My only regret is not having it done years ago when I would have saved a fortune on contacts and glasses.