LASER EYE SURGERY AND LIFE WITHOUT MY GLASSES!
Laser eye surgery has definitely been the best purchase I have made in my 27 fruitful years of existence.
I’m not going to lie - it was quite a daunting prospect. It’s also broken my bank account (hopefully only temporarily). But it has been totally worth it; it’s made a huge difference to my everyday life .
My interest in laser eye surgery gathered pace last summer. I got chatting to two anonymous companions who had surgery and they both said something along the lines of ‘it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.’ Fast forward 12 months and I can safely back-up their bold statement - it’s amazing what the surgeons can do. I feel like a new person!
I wore glasses for about 10 years. I quite liked wearing glasses to be fair (I couldn’t get on with contact lenses), but I was fed up of not being able to see without them. I pretty much needed to wear glasses all of the time; I was so blind that, during the first stages of the eye test, I couldn’t identify the HUGE single letter they show!
Playing football, my favourite hobby, was also increasingly horrible. I just couldn’t see. When it was light and sunny outside, it wasn’t too bad. I’d say it was just about manageable. However, when it was dark and miserable, which it often is in the UK, I couldn’t see a bloody thing! Playing and training under the floodlights was an absolute nightmare; there was absolutely no point in me being there! I distinctively remember that, on one situation, when we were warming up in a circle, I couldn’t see who I was passing too! I couldn’t identify people’s faces and couldn’t make-out their body shape. I spent evening games and training sessions squinting and guessing where the ball was going to go. A terrible state of affairs.
I said that I quite liked wearing glasses, but they were also pretty annoying at times - not to mention expensive! I’d say that I spent well over a grand on the four pairs that I had - three of which that I broke, with the other pair probably still enjoying a free journey on a National Express train! Glasses fall down your face. They get dirty easily. They scratch. They’re sweaty! Breaking my glasses at a wedding in February was one of the final straws! To be fair, this pair were already on the way out before an all-day wedding session got the better of the poor buggers. I don’t really remember the ins and outs of their departure to be honest, but I digress...I then went onto break my old, scratched, and spare pair less than a month later. This really p*ssed me off, so I said ‘bollocks to this, I’m booking myself a consultation’.
More conversations with my anonymous companions continued, before I decided to go for it! I booked a free consultation with Optical Express in April. I was nervous before travelling to the Norwich store. I did a lot of research on laser eye surgery, and I liked everything I had read and heard, but, naturally, there are lots of doubts. What if it goes horribly wrong? What if it doesn’t work? Will I even be eligible for treatment? Fortunately, I aced a set of procedural tests during the consultation. The clinic make absolutely sure that potential clients will be suitable for laser eye surgery - checking the shape, size and healthiness of the eyes, as well as the clients’ prescription. You have to have a certain level of blindness to be eligible as well - something I didn’t have a problem with!
Without going on Google, I’m not completely sure of the difference between LASIK or LASEK treatment, but I was recommended ‘ILASIK’ (the ‘top’ treatment) and went for the whole hog - you have to look after your eyes after all!
So with everything set, I had the option of being operated on within 10 days! However, as my then football team were in a relegation scrap, and I had a busy schedule during my Teacher Training (which is obviously more important) year, I managed to pencil in a date for the end of May!
Time soon passed and I was so nervous on the morning of May 24! I was wrong to be as the staff were very friendly and supportive; they made me feel at ease. A pre-operation chat to the surgeon also made me feel a lot better. He has performed more than 11,000 surgeries and assured me that everything was quick and pain-free. Optical Express’ customer satisfaction figures of 99% also encouraged me, and if worse came to worse, I could have got my money back if 20-20 vision was not acquired!
Fortunately, it was. In fact, I can now see two lines below the 20-20 line on the eye test! The surgical process was so easy; some people go in and out of the operating room within a few seconds! However, I’m not going to lie, it is quite daunting knowing that your eyesight is in the hands of someone you’ve never met before! You’re also thinking ‘please work!!!’.
I was probably in and out of the operating room within five minutes! After receiving a plethora of anesthetic drops in both eyes, eye by eye, my lids were kept open by a immovable ring (to prevent you from blinking) before I was surrounded by a burning, orange flame! I had to think of nice things at this point, especially considering that I could actually smell the effect on my eyes too...But after 30 painless (there was absolutely no pain whatsoever) seconds (16 on my left eye, 14 on my right), it was over. All things considered, the surgery equated to more than £100 per second. Madness!
Looking like Count Dracula’s long-lost brother as I slowly sat up from the operating bed (I probably fitted in well with the appearance of some Norwich folk at this point), I did panic a bit as my eyesight was seemingly no better! This wasn’t helped by the previous gentlemen, who left the clinic boasting that he ‘could see for miles’ straight after his treatment. But different people react and recover in different ways. For around two hours, post-surgery, my eyes were as red as a clown’s nose. I couldn’t stop crying or blinking and it felt like a series of needles were continuously pricking me. It didn’t hurt, but it was pretty uncomfortable.
But that uncomfortable feeling was all over after a good old sleep in my own bed! Unfortunately, the land of nod took a while to get to as my majestic mother isn’t the fastest of drivers and really struggled to work the computerised McDonalds self-service (something my tender eyes were meant to avoid). I’ve got no idea what we ordered, I just wanted to get to bed! Hurrah. When the moment came, and I opened my ‘new eyes’ for the first time, it felt fantastic.
Dark rooms are advised post-surgery and for the next couple of days I had no choice but to put my feet up and take it easy. What a shame! No screens. No driving. No physical exercise for around a month. I also had to wear a sexy pair of goggles to bed, which made me look all the more beautiful! After a successful check-up visit the day after my surgery, I was given the all-clear - and here I am - I feel like a new person finding their way around a new, colourful world!
I can now see cobwebs on ceilings and hairs in the bath; how wonderfully charming! Everything is a lot clearer and sharper, and I can see things that I could never have seen before! Watching television for the first time post-surgery felt really weird (because I could see so well), as did doing everyday things for the first time - including playing football. My decision making and judgement are now so much better; I think the teams I play for are grateful for that (I’ve got no excuses now...)!
My eyes feel amazing!. Recovery was quick, although showering was a bit of a challenge to start with as you cannot allow water to get in your eyes! I was red and sore for a few days, but everything is just perfect. Laser eye surgery has definitely been my best purchase yet - let’s hope it continues to be! It is expensive, but it has honestly been worth every penny so far!
Thinking about it? What are you waiting for? Get out there and book that free consultation and start making those steps for a better everyday life...
