After years of if’ing and butting whether to have laser eye surgery, I decided to research the various laser treatments but more importantly, find a surgeon that I could trust. I‘ve heard a few horror stories in the papers and wanted to ensure I wouldn’t be one of them.

I wear soft contact lenses and have an annoying problem in my right eye with the lens moving out of place (revolving). This is due to my large astigmatism (eye shaped like a rugby ball, i.e. not round). The Toric lenses I wear, although designed and weighted do however move out of place a little, subsequently affecting my vision. Hopefully refractive eye surgery would fix my problem and eliminate the need for aided vision.

Initial consultation with Mr O'Brart outlined the risks and advantages and he did say that due to my large astigmatism I might need additional surgery.

I liked the idea of LASEK due to there being no flap involved unlike (LASIC) and a better recovery period and less risk of hazing than (PRK). I decided to proceed with LASEK on my right eye on the 10/10/2003.

My prescription was –2.75 diopter sphere with a –2.25 diopter cylinder at 180 degrees, corrected to 6/5.

Surgery went ok on the day, which was a Friday. Zonked out over the weekend and on pain killers. The only problem I did have was on the Sunday when my eye was sort of developing an intolerance to the contact lens due to wearing it constantly for 3 days, I think my eye couldn’t produce enough tears to keep it wet. Returned to Mr O’Brart on the Monday to have the contact lens bandage removed, what a relief to have it taken out! I then returned again on the following Friday for another check-up and was told it was healing nicely. Stopped the antibiotic drops and carried on with the suspension drops for a month. During the first month it should be noted that the surface skin healing did give fluctuating vision from one week to the next.

Another check-up 5 weeks post op my prescription is 6/6 unaided and corrects to 6/6 with a +0.5 diopter sphere with a –0.5 diopter cylinder at 50 degrees with nice clear cornea. The slight over correction takes a bit of effort focusing, but hopefully will stabilise closer to 0.0 as time goes on.

Overall I am very happy with the results, I can now read my projection clock on the ceiling even if it is only with one eye! I am also glad I had one eye done at a time, as Mr O’Brart said there are very rare complications that can happen which is why he prefers doing one eye at a time. It also enables you to get on with your normal day to day life pretty easily, alternatively I would have needed more time off work if I’d had both done at once. The down side of course is having to go through it again, although that’s a small price to pay when you consider it’s your eyes we are talking about here.

I am having my other eye done in January and would strongly recommend Mr O’Brart to anybody considering Refractive Eye Surgery.

Watch out for future posts.