Optical Express

I am due to go to the Bluewater clinic with Wayne Crewe Brown could anyone send me an e-mail who has had surgery with him please?

LASEK Further to my comments of 9th May. I went to the Optician on the 9th. I could see more of the letters on the board with my right eye then I could previously with my glasses 20/20. However left eye bordering driving standard.Is a bit blurry. Not clear like my right. Not really noticable walking about the street daytime but in dim light and close up's at work does deteriate. My left eye has not improved in a week and I'm not confident it's going too but still time. Bit worried but at the same time I got rid of the specs so not complaining too much. Will update next month.

The surgery was short, and all the staff were reassuring. Although i was sore for a few hours, I felt well recovered by the next day, well to carry on with my everyday activities.

I had Lasik wavefront surgery at the Milton Keynes branch. Overall very impressed and would recommend the surgery and the clinic.If you are considering this a couple of things to note,firstly the price is misleading it states from £395 an eye, this only applies if you have a very weak prescription and if you have you may question the logic for having the surgery.My precription was -3.00 in both eyes and was quoted £695 each eye,however due to the size of my pupils they recommended wavefront at £995 per eye.After my consultation i decided not to commit but to do some more research on the treatment and other clinics and about 3 weeks later Optical express contacted me asking if i was going to have surgery with them as they had some slots in about 2 weeks time, so with this i enquired about what discount they would give (obviously they had slots to fill) to which they offered 10%, so surgey was fixed for 3rd May. The surgery itself was painless, previous comments on this site are quite accurate in terms of the sensations.Even directly after surgery a noticeable eyesight improvement is evident.For me the worst part was post op, your eyes are constantly watering it is if you are pealing onions for 2 hours.The best advice is go home asap and go to bed and try to get some sleep. The next day was amazing, it was if i was wearing my lenses ! i went for my check up and 24 hours after surgery i had 20/20 vision. Overall very satisfied with Optical express and the outcome...just need to sort out the rest of my body now !

For anyone considering laser treatment, these are my experiences. I had Wavefront LASEK on 21st March 06 at the Birmingham clinic, the procedure being carried out by Dr George. My consultation took place in Nottingham. I had wanted the LASIK procedure because it was supposed to be a less painful operation with a quicker healing time. I was restricted to LASEK because my cornea was a little too thin and I practice contact sports. My prescription was -5.50 in both eyes with astigmatism. My experience has been quite good so far. I must admit that I had been very nervous about the procedure. My eyes had always been an area of concern to me, having worn glasses since the age of 11 and me now being 40. It was only in the last few months since wearing monthly disposable contact lenses and discovering the freedom I felt it gave me that I seriously gave consideration to having laser treatment. My appointment was for 1130 AM and I finally left the clinic at 1440. There seemed to be so much waiting around which did nothing to settle my nerves. Although I had been forewarned that I might be there for a couple of hours the waiting seemed unnecessarily long. I finally went into the treatment room at 1405 and settled into the chair. The worst part of the procedure was when the anaesthetic drops were put in my eyes. I was warned it would sting and it did but the discomfort only lasted for a few seconds until the anaesthetic took effect. The staff were very efficient in the way they managed the whole procedure and explained each stage as it took place. I noticed a smell of burning, again I had been forewarned about it and it wasn’t very pleasant as I knew exactly what was causing it but it was too late to worry. I left the treatment room at 1420, the whole procedure taking 15 minutes. Afterwards I received a briefing on what to expect during the healing period and had the use of the eye drops explained to me. I left the clinic wearing my sunglasses and fortunately it was an overcast day so my eyes were not sensitive except when the strong wind blew into them. Once out of the wind they were fine. I returned home and took the eye drops as prescribed but I did not experience any pain or any other side effects that I had been warned to expect apart from a bit of watering. My eyes were blurred but nowhere near as bad as my sight had been pre-op. The following morning my eyes were a little bit sensitive but this soon wore off after I had taken the drops. I wore my sunglasses indoors just to rest my eyes. My eyes were settling quickly with just a little blurring but I was able to watch TV and read fairly comfortably. Again I was pain free so no need to take any painkillers. There was no grittiness but they did ache very slightly but I suppose that was due to light sensitivity. Day two saw another improvement. My eyes were less blurred and still pain free. I only had a slight ache, just like you’d get if your eyes were over tired. Day four and the bandage lenses were removed. Overall assessment was better than expected at this stage, especially for the LAZEK procedure. Could see 20/20 though this was still just a little blurred, but still a massive improvement since the op. Day five, the first morning after the bandage lenses were removed. I woke up and as I opened my eyes experienced a severe pain in my right eye which was totally blurred. I tried to rationalise what had happened and considered that my eye might have dried and then the epithelium tore as I opened the eye. The pain eased during the day as I used the anaesthetic drops and pain killers. I phoned my local store in Nottingham and they told me what they thought had happened, which was as I thought. The following morning I went into the store where the optometrist, Susan confirmed that a large piece of the epithelium directly in front of the pupil had indeed been torn. She put in a new bandage lens and as the day wore on the blurring started to ease and the pain totally went away. As the weeks go by my vision keeps improving. I was worried that it hadn’t turned out as well as it should have done as I have been suffering with a slight double image in both eyes but this is reducing and I have been reassured that this is caused by a haze which will clear. I also get a little bit of glare at night. It is seven weeks since my op and I probably expected everything to be perfect by now. I have been reminded that it is a slow healing process so I expect things will continue to improve over the coming weeks. I do suffer a little bit from dry eye but I think this is because I work in an air conditioned office and had this problem with contact lenses. The Blink solution is helpful and I am finding that I don’t need it so often now. Overall, I am delighted with the results. There is one word that is used here very often and for very good reason, and that word is FANTASTIC. The freedom from glasses and contact lenses is well worth the pre-nerves and expense of the operation. Finally, am I one of those who wished I’d had it done years ago? To be honest, no. But only because I hadn’t been convinced by the technology before now. Would I recommend it? Absolutely. If you are considering having it done and are nervous about it that’s only natural. Virtually everybody that’s posted their experiences here was nervous beforehand. Go for it.

I had Lasek treatment on 8th May in Leeds. I was supposed to have the Lasik treatment, so only booked off a couple of days from work. I then found out from the surgeon on the day that as my eyes were too small for the sucksion ring and the eye clamp I had to have Lasek instead. I was a bit annoyed in having to change all my plans when I could have been informed in my consultation that this would be the case. Anyway after a week of pain and blurred vision I got my contacts taken out on friday, the vision was the same but by the end of the day my vision was back. It was still slightly blurry but I could see again, it was amazing. The surgery itself was not half as bad as I expected. I could see everything the surgeon was doing but could not feel a thing. The issue that most concerened me was that my date of birth on my notes were wrong, this made me worry slightly as i was letting strangers operate on me! eeek!! all went well tho. The aftercare I receive was brilliant, cant fault them. Well worth the money in the end. Dont let a little pain put you off.

I had lasik wavefront on 11/05/06 at Leeds my prescription was +4.0 at the initial consultation but at Leeds yesterday it was nearly +5 and i thought they wouldnt let me have the treatment but after speaking to Dr Aziz he said I my be left with a slight prescription of maybe +0.50.So treatment went ahead the worst part for me was when they did the second eye (my left) and they put the suction on but i think that was because i new what was coming,apart from that the treatment was painless and afterwards my journey home was made with my eyes closed but i had no pain or gritiness,when i got home i went to bed for a couple of hoursand slept as the most comfortable position was with my eyes closed.When i woke up i put some of my drops in and sat and watched a bit of tv nad there was still no pain.The next morning (today12/05/06)i woke up and could see my alarm clock there is still a slight blur every now and again but absolutley no pain at all.I would like to thank all the staff who dealt with me and would recommend Optical Express to anyone considering Laser eye treatment,if you are thinking about it and are not sure i would say go for it it really is money well spent.Hope this helps anyone who has any concerns.

Lasek. Milton Keynes May 2nd Had Lasek with Dr Kain. Told due to the prescription in my left eye -6. Had 5% risk of haze. Just before the op. told they didnt have the medicine need for the haze did I still want to go through with the Op. or come back Had taken a 3 hour journey to get there so just said get on with it. Thought was quite poor that they didn't have the medicine. Hey I paid £1,690. Expect them to all the correct medication 1st day back in Norwich branch, told had 20/20 in my right eye already. Unusual. Left eye was clearly not very good though. 5 days gone. Drove today for first time. Right eye is quite good and left eye is reasonable but deteriates during the day. Really hope it will get better and soon and I won't have the haze in my left eye. Any ideas please anyone how long before I can expect to see the best results.

I has Lasik on 8th April. My main concern was that as I had a high presciption (-8.25 in both eyes) the surgery would improve my sight but i may still need glasses. The surgery itself was painless- the only uncomfortable bit was when they put some kind of suction on which puts pressure on the eye but it's only approx 5-10 seconds and is not painful- after that you just need to relax and let the surgeon do his stuff. In all I was in the surgery room for around 20 minutes and afterwards you sit in a dark room for around 15 mins and your eyes water a lot. I then had a quick test and was told I was already at driving standard !! For the rest of the day I just went to bed as your eyes do smart a bit but again it is not painful-just like when you've left your contact lenses in for too long. I was watching TV that night and had better vision than when I wore my glasses. Hope this is useful- especially if you have a high prescription, best thing I ever did !

Had LASEK on Thursday 28th April at Birmingham. Team were fantastic and it all went without a hitch. Eyes were very sore and at times extremely painful for a couple of days after, but I found out that if I'd used my painkilling drops it wouldn't have been so bad, but I didn't want to inhibit the healing (a side-effect). In the end had to use one, but after a couple of hours everything had cleared, pain free, just uncomfortable. Went back yesterday to have lenses removed and was given a good appraisal that everything was healing really well. Can see better than 20/20. Still a bit foggy today, but it is clearing, hopefully by Thursday. Would recommend anyone to this clinic, they are a really nice bunch. Many thanks to them all.