I've been wearing glasses since I was 11 yrs old and had dislike them since I was 12. I tried to wearing contact lens but my eyes get dry too easily so I can only wear them for couple of hours at a time.
A week a go accompanied by Pauline and my Aunt to the hospital for a very efficient check in and check up the pain began - THE WAITING. It took a good hour before the doctor even arrived! Being extremely nervous and bored didn't work too well for me. Along with everyone else in the room I was really agitated wanting to get it over and done with ASAP
Eventually the first out of two stages of the operation began, which is the cutting off of the flap to the cornea. I didn't actually know what he was doing at the time, so I just listened to his instructions and tried to keep my eyes looking at the red light, as he went on with aligning some sort of equipment to my eye I was told my vision would go very blurry and misty but that's completely normal. The challenge then became trying to keep looking forward toward the red light without being to see! It was like being told to sticking your arm infront of you completely straight in pitch black! That perhaps was the hardest part of the operation.
With extremely blurred vision I was sat back down in a little room to wait a while before the actual laser zapping. Again WAITING! it was then that i realised he had actually cut my cornea flaps off and there it was are just sitting infront of my eye ball with nothing keeping them there. Panicking slightly I tried very hard not to move my eyes too much.
About 20 minutes later I went back to the same room now with a different machine set up. I lie back down, some instructments were fixed around my eye . The next stage was rather bizarre as I watched him peel off the cornea flap he removed earlier but I couldn't actually feel anything. The actual laser part was very quick - maybe 30secs. and only half way throught did the doctor decide to tell me not to worry too much about moving my eyes because there's another blue laser tracking my eye so the actual laser can adjust accordingly (Not that I can move very much, but it did feel like my eyes were moving ever so slightly). I would have been so much happier if he told me that before the operation. Like i was warned I could smell something burning but again I couldn't feel a thing. From start to stop this took less then 5 mins for each eye.
After that I was ready to go back to the little room to rest so they can make sure I'm good to go home. So there I was with uber unfashionable eye guards we made our way home.
For anyone thinking of getting lasered - I would strongely advice make sure you have someone who can drive with you. The journey on public transport was a bit stressful for me. I was told I can use my eyes but they will be very blurred and i should rest them as much as possible, there was also the fact that my eyes were extremely sensitive bright lights at this point so I kept them shut as much as I could. Turning the normal 10mins walk back to the train station turned into a 30min stubble with Pauline and my aunt guiding me very slowly across a number of traffic lights, road works and lamp posts, after another 40min train journey we were finally home. I was much happier being back where I did a relatively good job at navigating around apart from smacking my shin into a coffee table once. It was rather strange when you can't rely on your eyes. It made it rather difficult to concentrate, I never realised how much noise they were or how bumpy roads can be.
I really could not thank Pauline and my aunt enough for getting me home in one piece and making sure I was fed
The next several hours I would say were the hardest part of the whole ordeal - the staying still, trying to relax and trying not to move my eyes around too much. The problem was this operation was so fast (maybe less then an hour ignoring all the waiting around) and I was not tried in the slightest! I didn't feel like sleeping at all. I was more bored then anything else. My eyes were water very badly and it did hurt slightly but it wasn't exactly painful - just a bit uncomfortable like wearing a pair of thick, uncomfortable and dry contact lens. I wanted to be working or watching TV.... the night was difficult since I was so conscience I have to sleep on my back and not touch my eyes. but now less then 24 hours later my eyes are feeling much much better. It was only the intial several hours not knowing how fragile my eyes were (apparently not very) and trying to keep still and staying relaxed that was hard.
A week later I'm fairly happy with my new vision although my hand still reach for my glasses in the morning.
I hope that had been useful to you
