This maybe particularly relevant for Jayne Emsley.

I had epi-lasek treatment at Optimax in Leeds a week last Friday (6th Feb). The doctor was Dr Samuels. My prescription was about -4.50 short sighted. The treatment went fine, although the pain kicked in on the journey home as the anaesthetic eye drops wore off. I would recommend taking some pain killers while you are in the clinic, after the operation has taken place. I also found that I was really snotty for the first hour or so with a runny nose which appears to be an initial side effect straight after the op.

Once I got home I took the painkillers and sleeping tablets and fell asleep about 20 minutes later.The pain is like a strong discomfort like having chilli powder in your eye. I slept most of the day and by the next day I was much better. Vision was surprisingly good, but I was particularly light-sensitive, so wore shades a lot and rested.

By the Sunday I was even better, and apart from wearing sunglasses occasionally, I went to the pub for dinner(sat in the non-smoking section!) and made up a flat-pack wardrobe!!

I took the Monday off work as it was already booked, rested, took it easy, but was able to drive fine as my eyesight was good. I had the bandage lenses in throughout but I have wore contact lenses for about 12 years, including gas perms for the last 7 so they didn't cause much trouble, although by the Monday, the only discomfort felt like I'd had contact lenses in too much. I had them removed on Tuesday (despite being back at work!), and by Wednesday I was superb.

A mate of mine had his op last Friday (13th!) on the 2-for-1 offer and as he wasn't used to wearing contact did feel quite a bit of discomfort, he was also sick on the day of the op but thinks this might be food poisoning. The effect of this was that the sleeping tablets and painkillers didn't work as he'd sicked them up, so he was in quite a bad way. He rang optimax and had the bandage lenses removed early -on the Monday, although Dr Samuels apparently wasn't too happy about doing this. However he did feel much better as soon as they were out.

I would definitely recommend the treatment, mine was a relatively painfree experience apart from the first day, and particularly as my prescription was quite bad I can really notice the difference. Can't wait to go swimming.

Feel free to let me know if you have any more questions.