Disclaimer: These are my experiences alone and I’m not medical etc. They should give you questions to ask yourself or your surgeon. You should not rely on my advice. I would also consider myself a pretty terrible patient so not representative of most peoples’ experience.
I used a review website, did my reading and selected someone in my price range and close enough that I wouldn’t have to travel too far home.
This had a non-refundable cost. Compared to previous eye tests this was more thorough, I think they measured my prescription in multiple ways and asked me loads of questions. It ends with a chat with the surgeon so ask the questions here if you can. This is where I discussed Valium because I knew I wasn’t going to cope well. Also recommend asking what oral pain killers you can take on the day should you need them.
I met someone once who said ‘oh it was amazing, there were some coloured lights and then I could see!!’.
For the type of surgery I had there were 4 mini procedures. I was laying back on a bed that pivoted between two devices. The first device cut the flap and the second device did the lasering. The whole experience was over in 15 mins? But I found it pretty traumatic. I ended up squeezing a stress ball because despite valium I was struggling to hold it together.
You have to stay very still and keep the eye that isn’t having a procedure open (the eye undergoing a procedure has an eye clamp to hold it open).
The anesthetic drops mean it isn’t painful, I just found it uncomfortable and yes there is a smell which some people claim is eyeball but like I said, I’m not medical so I don’t know.
Afterwards I could see, but it was like having sleep in my eyes, it was hazy. I got in the car and spent the journey home trying to prevent any light getting into my eyes. I had to put eye drops in every 15mins so by the time I got home I was already in severe discomfort and struggled to get the drops in. Once they were in, I started a cycle of eye drops go in and I feel better and then I’d slowly feel worse and worse until it was eye drop time again. I think I had 3 sets of drops to start with but the cadence drops pretty quickly from 15mins -> 1 hours -> 3hrs etc.
I had a really bad headache so got someone to call the surgery and ask about paracetamol. After the first couple of hours were done, I started to feel better and napped between eye drops. In the evening I staggered downstairs but my vision still wasn’t great and I was pretty shell shocked.
Some people wake up to a new world and life is amazing. I was not one of those people. My eyeballs are incredibly bruised. My vision is still a bit hazy and I have really bad glare from anything that gives off light. I'm wearing sunglasses inside the house. I tried listening to audiobooks so I could amuse myself without using eyes and in the afternoon I go for a walk with sunglasses on.
I had my follow up appointment and I’m enjoying reading all of the number plates of faraway vehicles on the way to the hospital. I have better than 20 / 20 vision. I have better than air-force vision but this isn’t guaranteed. It depends how things heal.
I found screens tiring and because of my blood shot eyes I avoided being on video for a day or two when on work calls.
You can’t get your eyes wet when showering for a while. You also can’t rub your eyes so that creates a state of constant eye awareness. I was pretty paranoid about even getting an eyelash in my eyes but everything was fine. I took eye drops everywhere in case I needed them.
Things steadily improve. The glare took about 3 months to go back to normal-ish levels.
I am really glad I did it. There are so many benefits to not having to wear glasses or wrestle contacts in but the long term risks and the first 12 hours after the surgery are not to be taken lightly.