Laser Eye Surgery

... Do you smell it? Do you have to be conscious? What happens if you blink? ...

he he. yes. and I can inform you that burnt cornea smells like a mix of burnt hair and chicken skin. did freak me out at the time though.

you must be concious. you can't blink, as you get clockwork orange style clamps in your eyesockets. not comfy, but doesn't hurt either.

a guy i work with who used to be a fireman said you can't join the fire brigade if you've had it done because the cornea is weakened and heat can melt it. don't stand too close to the bonfire!

an extremely cheesy chat up line is forming in my head

A friend of my sister's had it done, and was pretty happy with it. One thing to remember though, is they give you a blindfold to wear at first when you sleep. So if you wake up the next morning and everything is black, don't worry, you are not blind.

I reckon fire would hurt my eyes, and I haven't had any laser eye surgery

Had mine done 3 years ago in Canada. cost was $2000 Cdn (then around £890) Both eyes.

Slightly better than 20-20 for 1st year. I have regressed slightly, guess I am around -0.25 now.

Original was -3.75 each eye and slight astigmastism.

Best thing I have ever done. Literally life changing. Not a day goes by, where I do not think abut my eyes. (and most days I use my eyes)

Make 100% sure you follow the after-care procedure exactly, and don't fuck about.

My right eye gets slightly dry, and I use boots type cheap eye drops a couple of days a week. Slight scar tissue, as I did not follow the after-care plan to the letter, as I was working in Africa 2 weeks after op, and missed the check ups.)

I am 47, and still don't need reading glasses. or any glasses. No halos. No night vision issues.

Good old fashioned dredge.

The ladywife is interested in getting laser eyes soon, any recommendations for decent companies to consider?

London / Essex, anywhere reputable.

Thanks

X

Dredging again...

I had mine done a few weeks ago by Accuvision in London. I had consultations with optical express and optimax beforehand, but they were very pushy and tried to scaremonger you into thinking any laser other than theirs would lead to blindness.

Whole process was a lot less scary than i thought it would be, and the recovery is pretty quick (i was a fairly easy case -2.75 on both eyes). I would be happy to recommend Accuvision, but more importantly i recommend visiting as many clinics as possible until you find one you like. and do your research before the consultations.

Great - thanks. I'm -3.00 and -3.50, so slightly more blinder than what you was. Was it £££? Did you end up having to take much time off work?

Cost was £2000 total, had surgery on Saturday morning, was back at work on Tuesday. (bank holiday weekend)

Everyone's recovery is different but below is my experience.

The day of the surgery (after its complete) you wear protective contact lenses and have eye drops every hour, you can see but its like everything is underwater. you wear sunglasses all day and try and stay in the dark with eyes closed if possible.

Next day you go back in for a check up in the morning, they take the lenses out and you can see pretty good, but there is still some blurriness. you can start to look at phone screens etc. at night the glare from lights is pretty bad. Eyedrops every 2 hours or so.

3rd day vision is really picking up and any blur is small. felt i could go to work if i had too. eyedrops still recomended every 2 hours (prevent infection etc)

After one week i had my second check up, vision was already better than 2020, still some glare at night but assured it will diminish over time.

Now one month in vision is great, i don't suffer dryness or any discomfort, in fact the whole process was painless and without dryness. glare at night is still there but not bad, just noticeable.

Downsides are, after the surgery for a week you cant touch/rub eyes, its pretty sore if you do. this isnt really a problem but years of going to bed and taking glasses of means i kept punching my sore eyes when i went to bed trying to take of glasses that didnt exist.

I also keep pushing glasses that dont exist up my nose and looking like a weirdo in the process.

But life without glasses is awesome.

Haha!

Thanks for all that. I usually wear contacts, which makes riding and driving (due to glare) a lot better, but when I'm tired they tend to get sticky/blurry/annoying.

Every time I run out of contacts and have another £100 bill (every 3 months), I tell myself to just get it done. Will take your advice and shop around.