LASIK Eye Surgery

Not quite the simple risk free procedure the liteature tells you it is

About 3 years ago I decided I had had enough of wearing glasses and contact lenses and looked into getting laser eye surgery. I did a bit of research and in the end I decided to go with optical express in their Newcastle branch as it was the closest clinic to me.
I originally had to go for a consultation and have an eye test and of course my eyes weren't suitable for the cheapest version of laser eye surgery which they were advertising for £395 per eye. I have since found out that almost no one gets this price as it is for those people who have perfect shaped eye which is only a small percentage of the population.
I was told it would cost me £795 per eye because I had a slight stigmatism which made the operation more difficult for them apparently. £795 an eye was almost double what I had originally wanted to pay but I decided to go ahead with it as I reasoned a lifetime of glasses and contact lenses would cost me much more than this.

On the day of the surgery itself I had to arrive at the clinic and have another eye test and then I was taken upstairs. The laser clinic is situated upstairs from their opticians so it was all very convenient. The waiting room was very comfortable and my mum and sister who had accompanied me were able to wait in there and there were free refreshments and magazines available for them. I was taken for some more tests and had to fill in a few consent forms and then it was time for the surgery itself.

I hadn't really been nervous at all up to this point but as soon as I was lying down in the reclining chair and the nurse put numbing eye drops in my eye and I seen the machine that would be performing the operation I started to get a little panicky. This wasn't helped when they placed some suction cups on my eyes to stop me from moving them or being able to close them when they laser was doing its job. These were absolutely horrible and it actually felt like my eyes were being sucked out of my head! Being a man obviously I didn’t show my rising panic but the nurse must have sensed it probably through my whole body shaking and tried to reassure me it was normal to feel nervous when you got to the stage of actually having the operation.

They explained what they were going to do which was that the laser was going to cut a flap in my eye and then they were going to lift this flap so the laser could access my eye properly and then it would do its job and correct my vision back to what it was like before I had to wear glasses. I’m not sure what the science behind all this is but it sounded incredibly complicated when I made the mistake of asking them how the machine worked.
When it was time for the laser it only lasted a few seconds but it was a horrible experience. They hadn't applied enough numbing drops to one eye so I could actually feel the laser cut my eye. They were very apologetic and immediately applied some more but it's not something I'd like to have to experience again. I could smell the flesh of my eye where the laser was cutting through it and this was also a horrible experience knowing it was my eye that the smell was coming from. The machine made a clicking noise which was it apparently doing the job of correcting my vision.

As I said it only lasted a few seconds before they told me it was done and they released my eyes from the suction cups.
This was the moment I had been waiting or being able to look round the room with perfect clear vision. Unfortunately what they had forgot to mention to me was that this wasn't television and in the real world after laser eye surgery you can't even open your eyes let alone see the room. I had seen it being done on television make over shows and they always showed them having it done and then being able to see perfectly straight away but my eyes were streaming with tears and being physically unable to open them came as a little bit of a shock.

They told me that everything had gone well and gave me a pair of black goggles that they told me I had to wear when I left the clinic. I was told it would take a few days before I would be able to see properly and that I had to be extremely careful not to rub my eye in case I lifted the flap of skin they had cut.
We had parked quite a distance from the clinic so it was a little embarrassing walking through town having to be guided by my mum while wearing space age black goggles. I'm sure I must have received a few funny looks.

When I got home my eyes were extremely uncomfortable and while I wouldn't say they were painful the streaming eyes and being unable to open them wasn't a pleasant experience. I took some pain killers and made sure that my pillows were arranged to I slept on my back and expected it to be much better the next morning. Unfortunately they weren't any better the next day and it took nearly a week for the streaming tears and uncomfortable feeling to lessen. I had to go back for a few follow up appointments and the clinic were really good with these always scheduling them in a time frame that would suit me and the staff were always available to answer any questions I had.

So was it worth it? I would definitely say yes. Unlike cosmetic surgery there is no noticeable difference to your appearance so sometimes you forget the difference it has made to your life and even though I had had to wear glasses for about 15 years previous to getting the operation it's amazing how quickly you forget what it was like to not have good vision. For the first few weeks whenever I woke up in the middle of the night I would search for my glasses before I remembered I didn't need them anymore but now I have to really think to remember how frustrating I used to find not being able to see without glasses.

I do have a few problems that were not present before. My eyes are now extremely sensitive to bright light and I have to wear sunglasses when it's sunny or the light actually hurts my eyes and my night vision has deteriorated considerably and when driving at night street lights are distracting to me as they seem to blur into one. The night vision is especially annoying but it doesn't stop me from driving and the convenience of now being able to wake up and see without the need for glasses or contact lenses makes up for it.
The worst thing is that I now suffer from dry eyes pretty much constantly which I was told could happen but they said it was very rare so I didn’t really consider it. Luckily this can be controlled through the use of eye drops.

For me laser eye surgery wasn't the hassle free experience I anticipated but I would definitely recommend it as it did work and I'm happy with my vision but just make sure you go into it with your eyes open. Do your research as at the end of the day it is an operation on your eyes and things can go wrong. Read up on the actual operation and don’t just believe the literature and at least you will have an idea of what to expect.