St Thomas’ Hospital

It’s been 7 weeks since my surgery on my left eye. My vision is very good although I am still very slightly long-sighted but this should regress within next few months as surgeon confirmed on my last check up on 10th of January. Take into account that the more short-sighted the longer it takes. I was -6 with some astigmatism. My astigmatism is now almost non existent and so far so good: I have no problems at night vision (although my pupils are very wide!) no dry eye, nothing…all is fine! Only thing I find my treated eye is very sensitive when cutting onions :-) I went back to swim the other day and had no problem at all with the water, and being able to see clearly (albeit with my left eye only) was quite fantastic! I have now booked for my right eye for 28th of February. I will keep you all posted on this!

I had LASEK in my left eye on Friday 6th December. I Selected Dr D. O’Brart for his expertise. When I keyed his name in Google I found several pages of references to his publications etc…He IS a top Surgeon.
As I had deep concerns regarding LASIK and the cut of the flap (with its never ending list of complications) I selected LASEK which seems a much safer method as there is no cut of the cornea, therefore not much that can go wrong. I was told during the preliminary consultation that the chances of a nasty complication was 1 in 5000: I was confident with that level of risk. the results are as good as LASIK, and for me better as my pupils are every wide, less risk of halo with LASEK as the surgeon will treat a wider area in such case….
The surgery was dreadful! Not painful but the cut of the Epithelium layer took much longer than I expected and you can see everything! Very impressive! The laser bit was over very quickly. I spent the rest of the day and Saturday laying in bed in the dark. My eye was very sore and I couldn’t keep it open more than few seconds. It improved a bit on Sunday and I managed by the afternoon to watch a bit TV. My advice is : Stock on those recorded books, as it gets boring! I was in quite a lot of pain, but the surgeon warned me of this as I was very nervous during the surgery, and apparently the more nervous the more pain after! On Monday I went to the Hospital to get the bandage contact lens removed and my eye checked. The surgeon was very pleased with the result so far. My vision went very blurry once the lens was out. By end of the day my upper eye lid started to feel sore, as if I had some grid in my eye all the time.
I went back to work on Tuesday for half day. My vision improved a lot by then but still blurry. On Wednesday I started to worry about the pain in my eye lid and I phoned Liz (Dr O’Brart wife) who called him. I went to see him at lunch time in his Harley street consultation where he checked that all was fine. Apparently the pain is due to the surface of the eye which is still healing and not smooth, causing pain every time I blink! Not much to do….it could last up to 2 weeks! :-(
I’m seeing him again tomorrow evening for a check up.

Several months on and my eyesight is excellent. I still have very minor night vision disturbances, but remain absolutely delighted with the outcome of my operations. I would recommend Mr. O’Brart to anyone who is thinking of having laser eye surgery.

I decided to have corrective surgery this year as I was no longer able to wear contact lens, due to a new job and terrible air conditioning. My sight at that point was –2.00 in both eyes so fairly mild.

My initial research pushed me towards the LASIK procedure which seemed very quick and convenient. However, I then found this excellent site, and some others, which raised some doubts. The more I read about peoples’ experiences the more doubt I had. Eventually I discarded LASIK as an option and decided on LASEK which seemed to have the best of both worlds.

The next decision was where to have it done. As I figured eyesight was pretty important I decided to forget the issue of price completely and think only of who would do the best job. Along with this I wanted someone who had wide experience and knowledge and not just able to perform a procedure. After looking at all the options I had no doubt that David O’Brart at St Thomas’s would be the best person.

I had my first consultation and was more than pleased with my decision. David’s knowledge on all matters to do with eyes was very reassuring. He also seemed to have genuine enthusiasm for his chosen field as well which always inspires confidence, in me at least. Now if only I could find a Plumber like that….

My first eye was booked in for May 2002. I was not particularly nervous on the day of the procedure. It was fairly quick and there was no real discomfort. It was actually a very weird experience and although I wouldn’t say enjoyable, certainly interesting. It was completed late afternoon and by the time I was home the pain had set in. Not really that bad and in fact nowhere near previous experiences of waking up with a hangover and a, forgotten, lens still in. The following day I had one painkiller dose in the morning which turned out to be my last. The next few days before my return to the hospital were OK except for the discomfort of the bandage lens.

The hospital return went well and my eye had already improved. Over the next few weeks it improved dramatically to near what it is now. As I had a low’ish prescription I found that there was no real need for glasses/lens after the first week. It was now just a case of when I could fit the next one in which turned out to be August 2002.

A month before my second eye was due, I began to experience a few problems with it (this is my uncorrected eye!). I was waking up in the middle of the night with bad pain and lots of water streaming out of it. This happened a couple of times before I was due back at St Thomas’s. In view of this I was somewhat unsure of having the procedure done. Once again, choosing someone with in depth knowledge paid off as David recognised the condition I had immediately. Luckily for me, one of the cures for my ailment was based on laser surgery and hence the procedure would in fact solve both problems. A bargain!

The second eye procedure was a slightly different experience. It seemed like I could feel a lot more of what was going on and the procedure seemed to take a bit longer. There was still no pain though and I suspect that a certain amount of it was psychological as it didn’t feel like the anaesthetic drops were as strong . I did feel a bit sick and had to have an extended lay on the table. When I returned home that day the pain was worse but still controllable through the tablets. It did take about 8 doses over the next few days but at no time did I feel the need to use the aesthetic drops.

It has now been a couple of months since my second eye and I have just had a check up. Everything is great and I am now 0 in one and +0.25 in the other. Eyesight is excellent and the ghosting I experienced for a few weeks after each one has gone. I am not aware of any problems with night vision.

Having perfect eyesight after 17 years (I am now 37) is truly amazing. It’s certainly money well spent and if you are going to go for this I highly recommend David O’Brart at St Thomas’s.

Continuing on from my earlier dramas…. Friday 13th September came … but we decided to leave the correction of the aborted left eye for another couple of months as the scan showed that “filling in” of the erroneous ablations was still taking place. Concerning my left eye, it is now back to it´s original -9.00 state (Yippee!!). So … rather than waste the appointment, we went for LASEK on the -9.00 right eye instead. We used the same laser as before even though David had just taken delivery of a new wave front machine (which is almost portable would you believe).

The weekend following the op was quite painful even though the epithelial flap was undamaged and successfully replaced I had to force myself to go easy on the anaesthetic drops so as not to interfere with the steroid action.It was like having a piece of grit in your eye … but you couldn´t touch it.I have to say though that after 25 years of wearing contact lens, my eye was more rebelling against the surgical lens rather than anything else.Notwithstanding that, vision even at the earlier stages looked promising.

The check-up a week later showed an over-correction to +2.00 ish. This was within David´s calculations. The eye looked physically good, which is perhaps more important. I went back last week and the eye had moved to +1.25 ish. David reckons it needs another month or two to settle to it´s final resting point. But hey …. I can do general day to day stuff (except drive and read PC screens) with this new eye without having to put a corrective lens in the left. And those of you coming from -9,00 or thereabouts will know that this is truly magical.

Plan now is to get the right to a stage where I can see a car numberplate from 25 yards before attacking the left again.

It´s all looking good at the moment. I´ll keep you posted.