Ultralase

Have now had my initial consultation at the Bristol branch, and so far so good!
Everyone was very helpful, and I didn't feel under any pressure to make an appointment.
Each of the eyetests was explained to me, and all my questions were answered.
I intend to ask the surgeon some more questions on the day as it may be that they don't operate on my left eye -as there isn't much wrong with it. I'd rather they didn't if it won't make much difference, as I can always have it done at a later date if my vision isn't good enough and I don't want to waste that much money!
I'm going for the actual surgery in a couple of weeks..so I'll let you know how it goes!

Well, I was treated on 12/2/02 in Hammersmith. My eyesight was (L)-4.0. 0.75cyl 010ax (r)-2.75 2.25cyl 180ax. The surgeon was Vinod Gupta.I had my initial assesment at Bristol and was impressed enough to go ahead with the surgeon of my choice.I chose Mr Gupta because he was the most experienced and performed surgery on another surgeon so must be trustworthy! So I went to Hammersmith for the treatment. There was a guy looking in on the procedure.Mr Gupta was very confident, and we agreed to go for a slight over correction as I wanted to make sure!Whether he did or not I dont know because after the day of surgery you dont get to see the surgeon again...just the optometrists! Anyway the surgery went well and the clamp and flap cutter presented no problems. However when the time came to look at the centre of the light I could not do it and tried to have the procedure stopped.This was ignored as apparently my eye was not moving enough to stop it! I could keep the eye still for the 2nd procedure.Both flaps were cut well according to the surgeon.All in all not a difficult procedure to have done.30 mins later I was in a lot of discomfort however but still able to make out 6/12.
The rest of the day was spent in bed in a darkened hotel room 2mins walk from the clinic.A big thank you to my good friend Jerry G who lives in H'smith and came round to cheer me up,see how I was getting on and help me put.His lovely daughter Laurien used to work at Ultralase which was a coincidence I found out after the booking.6 hrs after the op I felt well enough to go for a short walk outside but still had blurred vision.MY EYES WERE AND REMAINED VERY LIGHT SENSITIVE FOR A FEW DAYS and even now on very bright days I do get some mild discomfort akin to snowblindness.Please note that the first drops that go in to your eyes is like putting lemon juice in your eyes - not pleasant at all.Next day for the check up- flaps in place and read the chart....left eye 6/4. Right eye definitely worse than left however according to eye chart can also read 6/4, but blurred and heavily ghosted.After one week settled down a little but essentially the same.I feel personally that the right does not see as clearly as well as the left because I did not have the eye fully centred under the laser and the surgeon continued anyway. However one has to put it in perpective...it is a reasonably good result after all!
Will keep you informed of the rest of my experiences.

I am 30 years old, and at -9.5 in the left eye and -6 in the right, with terrible astigmatisms, I have worn glasses for 25 years. (contact lenses are a pain in the arse). I thought I would be waisting my time, but Ultralase who have some of the best results statistics, and operate upto -14 assured me I was curable. (Boots said No, but only because it keeps their statistics high, operating up to -8 AND optimax. Well they just scared me!
Once I met the nurse and the optician, I felt very comfortable at my consultation. I booked for the soonest available appointment. Paid for it with a new Barclaycard and will worry about that later.
What they do tell you, and what they don't --
-You have to wear Space Monkey Goggles in bed at at night for a month.
-You don't see the clamp on your eye - It just appears painlessly in less than a second.
-The room doesn't go dark or scarey - you just get very blurry vision and someone holds your hand and talks to you gently.
-There are no loud noises and nothing to make you think about "the Gory bit"
- Its over in minutes.
-You will not be the one person that it goes wrong for. (thats usually me and it didnt happen beacuse they don't operate if they are not sure)
-MR Gupta should get an OBE
-The opposite sex will be more attracted to you! Even if your face looks like a smacked arse - it will look better without spectacles!
Its been a month now and I feel so brave. All that fear beforehand, stopped me and when I finally did it, it was no worse than an eye examination! I was so scared before the operation that I nearly cried (the nurse then gave me some Valium and I became Mr cool (which hasn't lasted). Email me now if you are unsure or check out the ultralase website for an instant check and within a month you will loose all that scaffolding round you face too. God Bless you Mr Gupta.

Had my consultation a few days ago, which was all very reassuring, and so far I'm very impressed. So much so, I've booked an appointment in May to be treated by Farokh Irani at the Bristol branch. I'd be very grateful for any information/reassurance from patients he has treated. Thanks.

I've had my consultation - so nervous I was early, but I was seen early without any hassle. I am very rare in that I'm very LONG SIGHTED +6.5 & +7, have astigmasisms in both eyes and my left eye is lazy. After much research accuvision is the only place in the uk who will do me :-) The staff answered all my questions, and rephrased things when i didn't understand. They were paitent when I couln't make a desicion there and then, have customers you can call for references etc. The technology was great - I work with computers so i know what I'm looking at. Yes I am going ahead - very nervous, but they say there is nothing i can do which will hinder the surgery. So in 9 days - 2 1/2 weeks after my consoltation I'll be done - yes I'll let you know how it goes, but as I've worn glasses all day every day since I was 4 (now 26) and have a tendancy to bump into things and can't catch, anything will be an improvement. If u have questions u can mail me....Wish me luck!

I had treatment last Thursday (18th April 2002)by Neil Marshall- Cardiff Branch.. Both eyes suffered abrasions which have been troublesome ever since.. Left eye is getting better but Right eye is very cloudy.. I was assured that this will get better over 48 - 72 hours... I am now 120 Hours in and no better... Apart from this the whole team at the new clinic were great and have continued to be available in order to hopefully sort this problem out. I will keep you informed !!!!

Update: I had the surgery about 48 hours ago. Everyone was very helpful, and everything went smoothly. My eyes were light sensitive and my vision was blurry for about 4 hours afterwards. By the morning after my eyes felt normal, and my vision was similar to when I'm wearing glasses. I've been told it should improve further over the next few weeks.
I am very impressed with my treatment and will report back at the end of the month as to how good my eyesite is. My only complaint is that I've seen a total of 6 different people over the consultation/surgery/first checkup. I know it's probably easier to fit more people in this way, and that each of the jobs can be performed by a different person, but it would have been nice to have a least one of the people consistently around during the whole thing.

Further to my last posting I have just attended my 6th vist to the clinic in less than two weeks.. I certainly can't complain about the attention and aftercare I am receiveing....Left eye is doing fine but the abrasion on the right is proving a little stubborn in healing... Things are getting better and I have yet another appointment on Saturday to see how things are going... I have decided to publish a diary on the web so that others may benefit from my experience... www.bdprice.alphaphe.com/LASIK.htm

It is now over 7 months since I had my laser treatment at Ultralase in Chester. It is the best money I have ever spent. I should have had it done years ago.

Treatment 29/4/02 by Paul Cherry,Bristol. prescription prior to treatment R -5, L -4.75.

After watching this web-site for 8 months, I became extremely optimistic about the results LASIK surgery could offer. Due to my panicky, pessimistic nature I had tried to read and find out about everything that could possibly go wrong and there is no denying it there are quite a few things. Why Ultralase -I chose Ultralase because they had good feedback and years of experience, and ultimately because having informed my brother of my findings he had been to Bristol, found he was suitable and had the surgery the following week - I was gob smacked, he was amazed - with his results.
So off we sped to Bristol, 1 hour and 5 or 6 tests later it was established that I too was a suitable candidate for treatment. I would not say I was excited, rather even more nervous, I had now to decide if I wanted to go ahead. One question I did ask was whether I was border line on any of the tests as this would have been an important factor to me. I booked myself for surgery on 29th April which was approx. 3 weeks away - enough time to mull it over, plus, the fact I wanted Paul Cherry who was not available until then.
The day of surgery - yep, I felt like backing out. I studied my children trying to imprint their faces into my hysterical mind. I prayed all the way to Bristol (2-3hours)I'll be a better person etc etc but please don't let anything major go wrong. I had definitely read too much.
Having had Mr Cherry retest certain aspects of my sight, nice bloke but by this time I was so panicky and felt so ill that I really could not concentrate on what he wanted and felt he was a little exasperated but said his conclusions were indicating the same way as the optometrist and was happy to go ahead. I think if I had been given the consent form prior to any of this I would probably have backed out, that form is scary reading, you just have to tell yourself they need to cover themselves and try not to read too in-depth. I was not asked if I would like a sedative I think on reflection I should have had one. Blindly led (as I had no glasses on) to the surgery table, I was spoken to
step by step as to what was happening to me. I think the worse part was the smell of the laser on the eye, perhaps you should be offered something to rub under your nose I'll suggest it on my next check up. Also don't swallow whilst the laser is working. 15 mins later all done, blurry milky vision - normal. No pain. Another 15 mins on our way to our hotel. By 10.00pm sitting in a restaurant. Vision was still a bit blurry. Dreadful nightmares that night. Vision next day pretty good could read third line up from bottom of chart. Eyes felt like they had grit in them for about 3/4 days. I couldn't fault them for aftercare, having made a phone call about one eye being quite red and irritable they were brilliant could not do enough and did not brush the issue off, were happy for me to go in there and then to have it checked. Note eye drops seem to go in easy blue box then pink also they forget to tell you to leave 2/3mins between drops.
2 weeks on and my eyes are better than 20/20 they feel gritty towards the end of the day and I still wonder what the hell have I done, but I am amazed with the results. There are so many things I have wanted to do but felt restricted with glasses.
I would sincerely recommend Ultralase for their professionalism, and genuine interest in you as an individual and of course their results.