Optimax

Right eye -2.25, Left eye -1.50 with astigmatism.

Received Lasik treatment from Dr Hynes on 21.03.07 at Manchester clinic. Found the treatment to be uncomfortable but not painful and I did come out of the treatment room feeling slightly shakey. Slept for three hours when I got home and did everything I was told to do, no tv etc.

Nextday I could see everything and I mean “everything”, no pain just amazement. Dr Hynes is a good doctor and I chose this clinic for his and Dr Doyles skills. I certainly have no regrets.

My vision 3 days after op is better than 20.20. I am now looking fwd to getting married in August and swimming in the crystal clear waters of the Maldives without lenses or specs.

I have been wearing contact lenses/glasses for 20 years, and was short sighted -3.75 and -4.50, so I couldn't see without one or the other. After looking into lazer eye surgery, and after doing lots of research, I decided to have Lasik with wavefront and Femtosecond.I booked the surgery for the 1st December 2006 at the finchley Rd Clinic – London, with Dr Patel. Yes, I was very nervous about the whole thing, but was re-assured by a lady in the toilets who said you will never regret it.

The only downside of day was the waiting time, that perticular day the clinic had experienced software problems, which caused all the appointments to run late, 1.5hrs to be precise. When I was finally called, the whole procedure was over within the hour. Be aware Femtosecond takes longer, as you are waiting in a cold room for the flap to form (wear something warm). The rest of the operation went very quickly, I did feel a little rushed as appointments were running late. I recommend The Quality Hotel Hamspted if you are staying over night, its only 5 minutes up the road and its comfortable and reasonably priced.

One Week later I had 20/20 vision, but did experience “halos” whilst driving at night, which was a bit daunting for the first month, its now three months later and the halos have virtually gone, they say it can take upto to year to disappear completely. I occassionly get dry eyes which I treat with eye drops and overall I would recommended this procedure to anyone.

I had my treatment on 2nd March 2007 – Femtosecond Lasik

My glasses prescription was
L +3.75 cyl -0.75 Ax 165 Reading +0.75
R +3.50 cyl -0.75 Ax 170 Reading +0.75

I was treated by Dr Ayoubi at the Reading clinic.

There were a few delays on the day, I was booked in for 14:30
but my surgery didn't start until 15:45.

I was called into the treatment room and lay in the dentist style
chair between the two laser machines (the Femtosecond and the lasik
laser… the gap between the two isn't very wide so mind your head).
The numbing drops were put in my eyes and the eye-lid clip (which
stop you blinking) was fitted, then the suction ring was applied
to my left eye – Out of the whole procedure that was the
most uncomfortable part. Although you can't really feel anything
I could sense the suction on my eyeball – sort of felt like it was
pinching and everything went dark. The chair is slid over into position
under the Femto laser.

I could see some blue lights at this point, and the machine
was lowered down until it was resting on the suction ring. The Doctor
tried to reposition my head a fraction – I didn't feel I could move
it as the headrest on the chair seemed to be hugging my head.
Dr Ayoubi was really very good and explained everything that was happening.
He told me when the Femto laser was starting and he counted down as it
was working. There was no noise, no sensation at all – I couldn't tell it
was doing anything. Took about 60 seconds.

After it was finished the laser was moved away and I was slid back to the
central position (between the two machiens) and the suction ring was removed.
The flap was lifted and my eye was wiped and I was positioned under the Lasik
laser. Took a minute or so for the machine to be setup and then I was told to
look at the red light (which I could only make out as a red smudge). This part
of the treatment isn't painful but the noise of the laser (sort of clicking and
an electrical noise like something shorting out) is a bit concerning and the
smell isn't nice (reminded me of the smell when a piece of coal used to pop out
of the fire and burn the carpet) – I tried to breathe through my mouth so I wouldn't
smell it as much. It went on for about 60 seconds.

After that my eyeball was wiped and rinsed and the flap was repositioned.
I could see but it was a bit blurry.

The same happened with my right eye. I felt better with this one as I knew
what to expect. I would say the suction ring is really the worst part of it
all. The Femto and the lasik laser were used as before and my eye was wiped
off. I had two eye-guards fitted and was escorted to the recovery room for
about 10 minutes and was given my Optimax pack (antibiotic drops, anti-inflammatory
drops and Refresh drops, and instruction leaflets) before going in to see
someone (I would imagine she is a qualified optician) who checked my eyes.
She had to get Dr Ayoubi to double check as it looked like there was some
'debris' under the flaps. So, I had to go back into theatre (after about
a half hour wait) and have the treatment area rinsed out on each eye (again,
no pain at all, I didn't like the water running down the side of my head).
Then back into the waiting room to wait to be checked again. This time I
was given the all clear and let go home.

When I got home I had something to eat and took the first of the 800mg
slow-release Ibuprofen tablets and used the drops for the first time in
each eye (which did sting a bit to start with) and went to bed about 7.30pm.
I can't say I really slept as it felt like someone had put sand in my eyes
but it wasn't as painful with my eyes closed. I got up around 11.30pm and
had a cup of tea and used the drops again. The FML (anti-inflammatory) drops
really helped ease the pain. Went back to bed and slept through until about
6am. My eyes still felt gritty but not nearly as bad. I wasn't sensitive
to light, particularly.

I used the drops every two hours (as directed) and went back in the afternoon
for my check-up. I was given an eye test and was told that I may have been
over-corrected (making me short sighted). I can't say that I was particularly
upset by this as it meant I could read without glasses (infact I could see
really tiny print like 'swiss made' on the front of my watch).

I returned yesterday (Thursday) for my fortnight check up (it's just under
a fortnight) and I've been told I'm still short-sighted but it's early days
as your eyes can change a lot in the first couple of months. To be honest
on Wednesday my eyesight seemed almost perfect as I could see things in the
distance really clearly, too, so I'm hoping it will regress a bit (from
short sighted towards long-sight) and maybe even end up 20/20.

I would recommend Dr Ayoubi and the staff at Optimax in Reading and
would also recommend having the Femtosecond (Intralase) as I think it's
much better to rely on a laser-made flap than one cut with a blade.

had my eyes done at optimax liverpool and gotta admit its the best thing i ever done staff were really pleasent and the surgeon was a1 when i came out was very fuzzy and thought bloody hell whats going on ere but the next day was alot better 15 days later and getting better each day would recommend this clinic everyday of the week*****

The truth about laser eye surgery.

Day 1, weds 7th march.
I arrived at optimax in ipswich at just gone 10am, a little early for my appointment, but better to be early than late. I was seen pretty quickly which I was really pleased about, i was rather nervous so I wanted to get this over and done with. After the lady took a few pictures of the inside of my eye I was ushered back into to waiting room where I would “shortly have some more tests done” 1 and half hours later I was called for the next tests where I was told I would be suitable for epi-lasek and advised to have wavefront too.
“great”, I thought, and couldn't wait till 4pm to get them done.

So, 4 pm came and went and I finally got called through at about 5.15pm. By this time I was getting bored of staring at the walls!

The surgery was pretty pain free, it was probably worse because I had read up on it and new exactly what the surgeon was doing. When I came out, my vision was ok, but things looked kind of milky.

Before I even had a chance to sit down the nurse came over and started to give me orders on when to take my drugs. There were 6 in total and I was a little too dizzy to take any of it in. Luckily my mum was there listening intently. I didn't realise then how lucky I was to have her there.

We left about 10 mins after the surgery and they seemed keen to say goodbye, (i guess they just wanted me gone before the pain kicked in), and boy did it kick in!

I got home and put the telly on, I could almost see it, and within about 20 mins the pain became so bad that I wouldn't keep my eyes open. I was expecting the pain, but no one told me I would need a white stick for 2 days!

My mum managed to give me a couple of sleeping tablets and I went to bed in agony. It felt like someone had pored acid into my eyes, and at this point i was regretting having the op.

Day 2, thurs 8th march

I woke up very early, as soon as the light started to come into my room. I managed to fumble my way down the stairs and into the kitchen. I stil lcouldn't open my eyes, mainly because they were so swollen. My mum said that it looked like someone had replaced my eyes with a couple of golf balls.

The light hurt so much that even though I couldn't open my eyes, I still had to wear sun glasses and my mum had to lead me round the house when I wanted to go anywhere. She was rather concerned so phoned the clinic and they advised her that “this was perfectly normal”. I remeber thinking that if this was normal then why didn't they warn you about it?!!

I spent most of the day drifting in and out of sleep but each time I woke up I had to force my eyes open just to drain the fluid out of them.

Day 3, frid 9th march

This was the first day I could see! I was so relieved that I could go to the toilet on my own. My eyes were incredibly red and still swollen but at least I could open them. I had to go back to the clinic to have my bandage lens removed which was very quick and pain free, but going out in daylight was agony.

I managed to watch some telly that night and realised that my vision was pretty good.

Day 4, sat 10th march

I was supposed to go back to work on saturday, but although my long distance was pretty good, I still couldn't see things close up, which is a nuisance becuase I spend all day on a computer. It says in the aftercare leaflet that most people can be long sighted for 1-3 weeks after surgery. That's yet another thing they don't tell you before you have the surgery.

Day 7, tues 13th march (today)

Well here I am, almost a week later and still not back at work. It's taken me ages to write this diary, I keep having to take breaks because it hurts my eyes to concentrate on things too long. I'm losing 50 quid a day at work for not turning up, and I guess I'm a little annoyed becuase if I was warned about the long sightedness before surgery I could have booked more time off work.

I don't want to put anyone off having surgery, but I wanted people to know all the facts before going ahead with this.

If your having epi-lasek surgery then PLEASE make sure that you have someone to look after you 24/7 for the next few days. And if your job involves looking at anything close up then you're going to need at least a week off after the surgery.

Well, I'm almost pain free now and my vision is clearing, but if I had known the agony this surgery causes then I never would have had it done.

Just something for you all to think about.