Still too much of a risk for me,our eyes are precious things!
I had it done 3 years ago at the age of 46, I was long sighted - +3.5 in both eyes with a slight astigmatism. I have worn specs on and off since I was 7, more frequently after the age of 40 till eventually I needed them all the time as everything was a blur........I would have been knacked on the hunter gatherer front back in the days of Ulug.
If you are interested I will explain the process I went through and my feelings on the procedure now.
I initially went to St Albans for a consult about 4.5 years back. At no cost I had the most thorough eye test I had ever had and was deemed to be a suitable candidate for treatment. I then spoke with the 'Customer Liason person/Advisor' who gave me the sales pitch for Lasik..........at this point I mentioned I wanted Wavefront Lasik which I knew they had available. I was told it was only available at humungous cost and to patients who would benefit specifically from it. So I left.
Now then, I had spoken to a chappie in the USA who is a Navy SEAL and he had told me that SEAL's and Navy Pilots were having this op done but only with wavefront. He gave me the name of the surgeon at San Diego Naval Hospital who does all the eye ops for the US Navy and I pulled some of his research papers. He has been doing eye surgery since he gave up flying F14's and has progressed with the technology as the technology has developed and even assisted in developing some of the techniques now used. At the time I was looking he was using and advocating Wavefront as the top state of the art for eye surgery.
Wavefront, google there are lots of articles on it, but in short. It maps your eyeball and traces all the imperfections that should not be on the perfect spehroid surface (I still have the map of my eyeballs, it looks like an interplanetary photgraph). This information with the calculated corrections is transferred to the laser operating machine. During the operation the wavefront comes into play. It monitors your eyeball at milliseconds directing the laser to millimetre sections of the eyeball only correcting errors and not blanketing the entire eyeball unnescesarily. Should your eyeball move even a fraction of a thousandth of a millimetre the laser breaks off.
Anyway, about a year later it was coming up to spec replacement time - the walking around pair, the reading pair and the combined pair. So I called a place in Solihull and asked them if they did Wavefront - "Thats all we offer, we consider everything else to be sub-standard"..........good enough, a week later on a tuesday I was there being tested and booked myself in for the op on the Thursday.
Thursday the wife came with me (no driving post op) and dropped me off outside and went to park the car. Ten minutes later when she walked back I was still wandering around outside giving myself a talking to - to say I was s****ing myself would be an understatement. Anyway I went in and saw the Optician who did a few re-checks on the eyes just to make sure nothing had changed and I met the surgeon, nice Indian guy.
There is a steady stream of people going into the operating room wearing glasses, about one every 15 minutes, they all come out with no glasses and a marvellous expression on their faces. The guy before me was wearing +6.5 magnifying glasses, he came out without them walked to the window and said "I can read that sign over there", and he cried.
I walked into the operating room having had a mild anaesthesia to my eyeballs. They showed me the machine which is like a metal bed with a console to one side and a slidey thing that come over your head that the surgeon sits behind. They took my glasses telling me I would not need them anymore. I laid on the bed and had some more anaesthetic drops put into my eyes.
My eyelids were clamped open to prevent blinking, the slidey bit was placed over my head and a thing pressed down around my right eye - watch the green light, I was told, you have no idea how hard I stared at that light so as not to move the eyeball. The keratome cut the flap on the eyeball, the surgeon lifted the flap and the laser started up..........I must mention at this point, I was s****ing myself outside, here I have never been so scared in all my life and I have been shot at. About a minute later it was done. Left eye next, no fear here, I knew there was no pain and I was alive. Protective contact lenses were then placed in each eye.
All done, I got up and the surgeon asked me what the time was, so I looked at my watch without glasses on for the first time in years and I could see the numerals clearly. I walked out with a huge grin on my face to a waiting wife.
On the trip home and for the first night I wore skydiving goggles to make sure nothing got into the eyes. I had some special protective covers to place over the eyes when sleeping.
Next day it was back to the surgeon to have a post op check up and have the contacts removed. All was well and, hey, I can see without glasses........I could actually see my kids without glasses. There followed the post op check ups: 1 week; 1 month; 3 months; 6 months; 12 months.
I am personally very happy with the outcome. I do not need specs for day to day stuff - walking and driving - but I now use some off the shelf +1.5 for reading and computering. To be honest I was told that this would be the case happening about a year after the op as my age caught up with me. But, I am nowhere near as bad as if I had not had the op. I have also been told that my eyball thickness means I can easily go back again and have a touch up at any time should I want it..........maybe in ten years, or so.
Happy, happy, recomend Wavefront without reservation - minimal loss of night vision and blurring and no perceptible change to contrast........which is why the US navy lets its Pilots and SEAL's have it done.
Apologies if I bored you
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