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Laser eye surgery


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3 of our friends has had it both going to diffrent quality of clinics the person who went upmarket had a harder time that the persons who went just to a normal clinic, although uncomftable they wish they had it years ago.

 

Its about 1- 2k to get it done but thats about 2 - 4 pairs of glasses over the next few years so it pays in the end. if you go to certian clinics millers will do the 4 week check (at a price, still cheeper than going south though) .

 

you go in in the morning get it done, then you go home and have a wee sleep in the afternoon then in the evening you are up and about all good and ready to see the world. You need to take someone with you as you will have both eyes covered up when you get out.

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I was worried about the follow up checks, as eemed a hell of a bother haveing to go south again after getting it done. But if Millers can do it, think i may go get it done.

 

I would be too worried about it going wrong in some way. I"m dreadfully short sighted - to the extent that now I'm older and my sight is getting worse due to age (more long sighted) the nett effect is that my sight is improving.

 

I also found it very confusing seeing my face in the mirror clearly with no glasses when I got contacts - I looked nothing like I thought I looked... Very confusing!

 

THere was also the dead giveaway of an ex glasses wearer - the intermittent slide of the finger up the bridge of the nose to push the nonexistent glasses back up the nose!!

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I have known half a dozen people get it done. Only one had problems and has spent the time since only being able to stand subdued light.

 

I will stick to the glasses I think as the thought of something going wrong and being sightless fills me with dread. i know that it shouldn't but you never know.

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I had my eyes zapped at Optimax in Aberdeen last November - absolutely perfect vision now and certainly wish I'd done it sooner!

 

For most folk a standard laser only procedure (lasik) is the normal option to go for (need a prescription lower than +/- 6). This cost me £395 per eye. Paid a £90 deposit followed by 10 x £70 interest free payments.

 

Turned up on the morning got told I was suitable. Was back at the clinic at 3pm. Surgeon applied some local anaesthetic drops to my eyes. A clamp was placed over my eye to stop me blinking (didn't feel uncomfortable at all due to the anaesthetic!). A tiny "cake-cutter" like instrument was placed on my eye.

 

The surgeon then used forceps to peel back a wafer thin layer off the surface of my eye. I was told how many blasts I would get on each eye - 5 blasts of approximately 10 seconds each. No pain whatsoever. All I could see was red crackling within my normal line of vision. Come the 4th or 5th blast though there was a very faint burning smell (didn't occur to me at the time it was my eye!).

 

My prescription was quite high at -5, which meant I had more blasts of the laser than normal, which in turn meant that it would take me longer to get back normal sight. The first 2 minutes after the procedure were great as I could see perfect. I was told that once the anaesthetic wore off that I'd be in pain. They weren't wrong!

 

My eyelids closed naturally and it was more of a constant hose blast coming out than tears! Got into a darkened room and couldn't let any light near me eyes for well over 24 hours. Was able to open my eyes the next day but still in the dark room. The following day I was up and about wearing sunglasses. The next day I was outside wearing sunglasses (they look great in the middle of a Shetland winter!).

 

I had to take the full week off work though, whereas the average is just 2-3 days. The focusing of the eyes takes a bit longer to settle down. It was about 10 days before I could look at a computer screen or my mobile. For a couple of months after I had night glare when I was driving. Now everything is absolutely perfect.

 

The reality of this procedure is that at worst you might still have to wear glasses/lenses afterwards. For 99.9% of folk it is a success. There is no pain getting it done, just a few days of discomfort afterwards.

 

There are of course other procedures available:

- Epi-Lasik: involves cutting a groove first before applying the laser, bit riskier than laser only Lasik that I had, but recovery time is only about 24 hours for all prescriptions - about twice the price of Lasik though.

- Wavefront: very expensive, generally for more complicated prescriptions

- Implantable Contact Lenses: when nothing else will work, very expensive (though my mam got hers on the NHS)

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