Optical Express

11 days after surgery still struggling to focus reading is ok but distance is out of focus getting a bit worried hope it comes clear soon. lasik wavefront surgery cant drive yet had to get temporary glasses.

I had intralase wavefront 4 weeks ago. I was -7.0 and -6.75 with slight astigmatism. I am delighted with results. 20/16 in one eye, less in the other but together better than 20/20. The intralase was uncomfortable but not painful as such; wavefront laser painless. I had no post operative pain at all, just some watering for a few hours afterwards. I wore the goggles for a week at night in bed, did all the drops religiously, didn't rub and basically followed alll the instructions. So far so good - fingers crossed that it continues. I go back in 2 months and will post again.

Had wavefront lasik surgery 4weeks ago. Staff made me feel comfortable. When going to see surgeon on operation day they advised me that they had a new machine (intralase) where the laser cut the flap instead of the scalpel all for only £300 per eye instead of £600. Said I was under no pressure to have it but they would recommend it less that 0.5% chance of flap not being created properly etc. Felt that this was wrong, you are already nervous before surgery as it is. The surgery itself was very uncomfortable. After placing the suction cap on my right eye and then the machine pushing down the suction cap popped off. The sugeon was full of apologies and again placed the suction cap back on my eye. Again the suction cap came off when pressure was placed on it. The sugeon wasn't happy and asked for new suction cap. By this time I was getting quite upset and wondered if i was doing the right thing. Thankfully the third time of trying everything went fine and surgery proceeded. I must admit i thought my eye was going to explode with the pressure of the machine but it is over very quickly. Afterwards my eyes watered profusely (as expected) and I found it very hard to keep them open. Unfortunately for me on the day of surgery it was a very sunny day and even though i left with dark glasses on, the sensitivity to light was quite unbearable. I came home and took some painkillers and tried to sleep but found i couldn't but laying in a dark room did help. I went back the following day to be told that i had better than 20/20 vision and everything looked good. It took several weeks for the discomfort to stop. Four weeks on though i am still waiting for that WOW feeling! My eyes are still very dry (can happen) and yes i can see in the distance but not a sharp picture which is the point of having sugery. And the last few days i feel that my eyesight has regressed slightly, have become slightly bloodshot, my distance vision has suffered and the soreness is back but not to the same level. Am due to go back in two days time so will see what they have got to say.

I had wavefront lasek done nearly a week ago at Harley Street by Rodney Blumenfeld, who was excellent. My prescription before was -3.25 and -3.00 with astigmatism in both eyes. All went (so far!) very well and smoothly and my vision is pretty much as expected at this stage (anything between excellent and a bit blurred as my cornea is still healing). Whilst there was no pain on the day itself, the next couple of days were uncomfortable, particularly first thing in the morning and during the night. Overall, this was excellent. My only criticism of the intital consultation stage at Optical Express (but it is also true of Ultralase as I had a consultation there too) is that, being suitable for Lasik, they automatically assumed that this was the treatment I was going to choose. My conversation subsequently with the surgeon was much more balanced. I read a lot about the risks of both treatments and Lasek was my (clear) choice.

Consultation & After Care: Southampton Surgery: Harley Street Date: 22-2-2007 Surgeon: Michael Jeffrey Procedure: Wavefront Lasik with Intralase Previous Prescription: -2.00, -2.25 with very mild astigmatism I had my consultation at Southampton and found the staff very helpful and friendly. I was told I was a good candidate. I experienced no hard sell, whatsoever. I was told I was suitable for Lasik and that I could choose to have wavefront or not. Naturally, they recommended it as it is the newest technology and reduces some of the complications but they said it was up to me. They were very patient answering my many questions. The one negative is they are a bit slow at returning phone calls. I wanted to have Intralase but the Southampton branch phoned to say there was a problem with the installation of the machine so I could either have intralase at Reading or surgery at Southampton using the keratome. I researched the Reading clinic and was very unhappy with their Healthcare Commission report so I set about researching the various OE clinic and settled on the Harley Street branch. Changing the booking was no problem at all. The Harley Street clinic is a lot more spacious than the Southampton one and also it is purely a laser clinic, not an opticians. The reception staff were extremely attentive, taking my coat and offering us tea or coffee (in cups and saucers - no paper cups!!!). I was in the clinic a total of 1hr 45mins so waiting wasn't as bad as I expected. My one complaint and it is quite serious is that no-one told me what was happening during the procedure and I had to ask for reassurance on a couple of occasions. I found the pressure during the intralase was actually painful but the excimer laser was totally painless. I had no watering eyes, no stinging and only slight scratchiness and only needed to close my eyes for an hour or so. I've had my 24hour check up and I can read the bottom line of the chart without my glasses - better than 20/20 vision. The healing process has only just started so I'm not getting over excited but it's a good place to start from. One word of caution - I would seriously recommend against anyone booking in advance to have surgery on the same day as the consultation. You need time to research the clinic, the surgeon and the complications. You can't make an informed decision about signing the consent form when you've only just seen it for the first time.

BRISTOL LASEK WAVEFRONT Surgeon: MR ANDRE OBERHOULSTER Consultant: Ahmed Hilmi at TORQUAY Had surgery 4 days ago. Andre was really good and is work is excellent. Pain free procedure. After 10 mins I could see ! Very sentsitive to light, Disconfort for 3 days so use the pain killer which allowed me to sleep by 3 hours. Contact lenses removed last Saturday and felt gritty all day so spent all day on the bed with my eyes closed and have used lot of Blink as per Ahmed advised and it works very well. He also suggested to drink lot of orange juice (or take vitamin C) which has been proved to help the cornea to heal. Sunday : vision still blurred but eyes are OK, first time since the procedure. So far I have been very happy with Andre the Surgeon (I could not find any feedback about him, so yes he is very competent and honest). So far so good !

I had my eyes done 4 days ago on Tuesday 27th February at the Optical Express in Leeds. I only thought about laser eye surgery 4 weeks ago, and quickly went for a consulation, and booked in for the treatment there and then. I had done lots of reading up and searching about for prices etc so knew I was getting the cheapest price. The staff were really friendly and helpful and never pressured me into any of the higher cost treatments. I opted for Lasik Wavefront, and had a medium prescription which my surgeon told me on the day of surgery would be perfect for this treatment. My surgeon was Mr Klopper who is a very experienced eye surgeon, and was quite a friendly guy. The surgery itself was not what I was expecting. I wasn't worried at all about the surgery until I got into the seat. I want to stress here that my experience is not the norm, and is a very unusual thing to happen. While the surgeon was trying to cut the flap in my eye, he had a lot of trouble trying to fit the cutter into my eye. After several attempts to do this, he had to resort to using this awful clamp which isn't normally used. It felt like my eyes were been held open by wire. It was very traumatic and I knew how bad it was going to be as the nurses and surgeon kept warning me and willing me on. One of the nurses even gave me a stress ball to squeeze which I couldn'tunderstand why, until the eye was stretched open. It wasn't so much as pain I felt, but more af just been a traumatic experience. Not nice at all and I did come out of the surgery shaking from head to toe. The reason I had to go through this was that my eyes were very small, so to still have Lasik he had to hold my eyes open for the entire procedure. 10 minuteson each eye with these very uncomfortable clamps. All the staff were congratulating me after, including the surgeon as they knew it wasn't nice. The laser itself was no problem at all. In fact it was a weclomed relief as you couldn't feel anything! The pressure on the eye when cutting the flap was also not a nice experience, but lasts seconds. Afterwards I had to walk through Leeds City Center wearing black sunglasses looking like either a blind man or a celebrity, and got lots of people staring as it was pouring down with rain!!!! I could barely keep my eyes open and my eyes were streaming. I went home and laid down for an hour. I couldn't sleep as my eyes then began to sting a little. The goggles are not the most comfortable things to wear, but make sure you do. After an hours rest I woke up for the stinging to be replaced by the grittyness. I took some eye drops and that helped a little. I didn't notice a massive improvement in my eyes on the same day, and was a little worried. By the evening my eyes had settled down with no stinging or grittyness, but one of my eyes had a very bad, large red bruise. I still have this today, it appears to be going down my eye, but doesn't affect my vision at all. The next day I woke up with sticky eyes, butafter the eye drops all was fine and I could see very well. It wasn't crystal clear, but a massive imrovement when looking inthe distance. I went for the 24 hour check up and was told I had a line better than 20/20 vision which was great. The eye sight should have another boost once I have finished taking my eye drops in a weeks time. One eye appears better than the other, but only slightly. It was all worth it though, and would gladly tell people to go with Optical Express as they were brilliant. Like I said it is still early days (4 days since surgery) and will wait and see (pardon the punn) whether the sight gets better or worse! One bit of advise I will say is for people to remember what they are letting themselves in for. It is still surgery, and you have to be motivated to deal with any problems, and allow your eyes to settle down. You must do your drops, and wear your goggles, and follow all the advise you are given. Then at the end of it all it will have all been worth while! I will keep you informed if anythign changes with my eyes.

WAVEFRONT LASEK BLUEWATER OPTICAL EXPRESS SURGEON MR RODNEY BLUMENFIELD -3.50 in both eyes Originally I was booked in for lasik wavefront and intralase after being told this was the best treatment for me. As you can imagine I was pretty annoyed when I turned up and was told that I was unsuitable for lasik, having booked a week off work. The surgeon explained because of the career I'm going to start soon(police) and my age(20) lasik was not a good choice. Why didn't the optometrist tell me this? He told me he was happy to do lasek and told me to go and research it. After looking into it I have to say I was pleased I didn't have lasik because of the whole flap issue. Two weeks later I arrived for surgery at 3 and started the waiting game. At 5 the ball finally started rolling and I saw the surgeon for a quick check over. Half an hour later i went in for surgery. The worst part of surgery was the clamp put to hold your eyes open, but even that wasn't too bad. MR Blumenfield was an excellent surgeon who I cannot recommend highly enough. I got out of the operating chair and could see better straight away! I felt fine and thought to myself this is a piece of cake. I had no problems with light walking through Bluewater and no pain. HAHAHAHAHA an hour later my eyes felt like they were on fire. In went the pain killer drops and things got better. Next day I went back for a check up this was horrible because I was in alot of pain, Bluewater shopping center is full of people and the thing you want to be doing is dodging kids! However I was seen to pretty quickly and everything was fine. Day 3 I had lenses out and told I was driving standard already which was nice. But was alot of waiting again and the optometrist didn't know I was waiting even though I'd checked in! A week later and my vision is improving each day, my eyes are dry but also improving each day. I cant speak highly enough of the procedure or my surgeon. It is painful but not unbearable. Make sure you have a radio and some audio books because you get very bored. Also sunglasses are a must. I'm currently trying to get £600 back from optical express because I originally paid for intralase. The manager was definitely going to phone me yesterday to sort it out, but didn't! Also through out the whole process I have had a bit of attitude from the desk staff but most were helpful. I think if they improved there customer service they would get a much better reputation. Saying that I've got my sight back so thank you optical express.

IT IS 48 HOURS SINCE I HAD THE SURGERY AND I HAVE BETTER THAN 20/20 VISION. I WAS VERY NERVOUS, BUT IT DOESN'T HURT JUST A COUPLE OF HOURS OF DISCOMFORT AFTERWARDS. ALL THE STAFF AT THE MANCHESTER CLINIC WERE FANTASTIC.THE RESULTS TOOK ABOUT 8 HOURS TO SHOW. JUST REST AND SLEEP OFF THE FIRST COUPLE OF HOURS! VERY PLEASED WITH THE RESULTS. IT IS LIKE A MIRACLE,I HAD -4 IN BOTH EYES. IT COST £1600 WITH BASIC LASIK TREATMENT. IT IS OVER SO QUICKLY, I FOUND THE THOUGHT OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING WAS THE WORST BIT!!!! GOOD LUCK.

I had a -3 in one eye and -4 in the other - now 6 days post op I am 'better than 20/20' and absolutley delighted. The staff at manchester and salford quays have been very good and I have no hesitation in recommending them. The only problem was the huge jump in price ( I had £1500 in mind ) and reading the other posts now, I think I should have tried to get that reduced. But for the 1st time in 25 years, I can see the time as soon as I open my eyes, priceless.