Laser Eye Surgery Experience - Before, During, And After Surgery

Recently I received an email from Optical Express asking me to share my surgery experience with them, and I thought while doing that I would also make a blog post on it. 

In June 2011 I had my laser eye surgery at Optical Express, I had been toying with the idea of surgery for about 3 years. I am short sighted and have needed to wear glass for quite a few years now. And the reason why I didn’t do it sooner was because I was scared, I requested a free information booklet from Optical Express and within 30 minutes or so they were phoning me, and I set up a free consultation with them.

At the consultation they checked if my eyes were suitable for surgery (your cornea needs to be of a certain thickness) I was told mine were very thick. I also spoke to another member of staff about why I wanted the surgery, and she answered any questions that I had. 

I was told about the different types of laser eye surgery, and I was informed about some of the risks, if I recall I was told failure was around 5 percent. But every surgery you may undergo comes with risks. I chose to have LASIK eye surgery.

At my free consultation I booked my surgery date, I was very lucky because they had two appointment times within the following week. So this meant I didn’t have too long to worry about it and chicken out. 

I was given an information booklet, and a consent form to sign. When I got home I read the booklet from cover to cover. While writing this post I did a Google search and an article from the dailymail came up, you can view it here. 

The part that shocked me the most was:

“Last year, a Which? report claimed six out of ten ­opticians offering laser eye surgery — including branches of big chains such as ­Optical Express, Optimax and Ultralase — gave unsatisfactory advice and failed to point out the risks.

These include not only dry eyes, floaters and poor night vision, but also growths where the eye is cut, double vision, foggy vision, chronic eyelid inflammation and even loss of sight.”

The reason this shocked me was because all of the above risks were in the booklet I was given. So I can only say they either didn’t get any informational material (which is highly unlikely, and also if you were undergoing surgery would you not ask of the risks?!), or they did get informational material and did not read it.

I remember reading the booklet and I was scared to hear about all the risks, and my mum actually told me not to read it because I was just scaring myself. But I did read it all, and I was well informed of the risks, and even though a member of staff didn’t point out all the risks, I could have phoned them up.

At the consultation I was told to bring someone with me, I was also told that I wasn’t allowed to drive home myself, and to bring sunglasses as my eyes would be sensitive to the sunlight. The advice they gave me for post surgery was to go home take some painkillers and go to sleep, because the more you have your eyes closed the faster they heal.

On the day of my surgery I woke up feeling scared but excited. My mum came with me, while I was waiting for my surgery I was taken into another room for an eye examination and general talk about what to expect. The woman could see I was scared and told me that getting your legs wax is more painful than the eye surgery.

After an anxious wait I was called in, and laid on the bed / trolley, a cap was put on my head to keep all my hair away from my face. And aesthetic drops were put in my eyes, and I waited there for about 5 minutes and then the surgeon came in and placed a suction cap over my eye. This was uncomfortable, and I am even scared of putting contacts in! So I kept flinching. 

One eye was covered up and they worked on the other, and all you can see is the lights above you. You can’t really see around the room. I think the thing that most scared me was the noise of the machine, it almost sounded like a machine gun. The surgery didn’t take long it was about 5 - 10 minutes, and there was about 2 nurses in the room as well and one of which would count down from 10 when each eye was almost done, I found this soothing as I kept thinking it would be over in a few more seconds.

Straight after the surgery I could see, but it was misty / cloudy, I was led to a dark room where I sat for a while and another nurse gave me a goody bag with three different types of eye drops, more information leaflets, and a fetching pair of goggles to wear while sleeping. Now, it was this stage where I found out that I could not touch my eyes for a week and I also couldn’t get water in my eyes. This was annoying and I will explain why later on in the post.

When I got home I did not take any painkillers, instead I just went straight to bed, but after an hour my eyes were quite painful; they hurt when I opened my eyes and they hurt when I closed them. But I got my mum to get me a snack to eat, and even though my eyes were still hurting I went to sleep. I slept for no more than an hour and when I woke up my eyes felt fine, just felt tired and heavy. So I would say to anyone having surgery to make sure you take painkillers!

I could see properly! Over the next few days my vision become clearer. The day after surgery I had a check up and all was fine, and then I had another check up a week later, and now it will be every two years.

The things I found annoying were:

-  The blood shot eyes; and they didn’t heal for about 2 weeks

-  Wearing the goggles while sleeping: they were a bit uncomfortable and I kept taking them off while I was sleeping!

-  Not being able to get water in my eyes for a week; this made cleansing my face difficult, and I was also scared to wash my hair in case I got water in my eyes

Overall I am really glad I had my surgery, and I have no problems with dryness et cetera. I just wish I had had it done sooner! How did you find your surgery? And if any of you are thinking about getting it done and have any questions (that you think I can answer !) then leave a comment below.