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7 days ago I had laser eye surgery at the Focus clinic in London after hearing the results of my brothers laser eye surgery that he had 1 month before. His prescription was twice as bad as my own, I had a prescription of -2.5. That means I was short sighted and struggled to see things at a distance clearly, in fact being short sighted has a technical term of myopia.

Basically there is nothing wrong with the hardware of the eye in my case, the eye is actually just longer than it should be due to short sighted genes and lot’s of near work such as with a computer. As a result the back of the eye grows slightly and moves the movie screen (the back of eye) away from the lens (the front of the eye) and thus blurs the image. Laser eye surgery basically counters this by taking away microns of tissue from your cornea at the front of the eye and thus bringing the movie screen at the back of the eye closer making the picture back in focus.

The type of surgery I had was LASIK, this is a surgical procedure that uses a laser to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness, and/or astigmatism. In LASIK, a thin flap in the cornea is created using either a London blade or a femtosecond laser. The surgeon folds back the flap, then removes some corneal tissue underneath using an excimerlaser using 2 lasers the lens of the eye is folded back allowing another laser to remove the smallest amount of eye to re-focus the eye.

Watch my whole experience and surgery below.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OdPFEAGPI8&feature=youtu.be

The Surgery

The actual surgery itself was easy and painless, of course I had some nerves but my nerves came more from the fact that I could currently see fine while wearing glasses, they are just a pain when working out or on holiday as I can’t wear sun glasses. Contacts irritated my eyes after years of use so they we’re also out of the question. So my question was am I taking a needless risk? I had complete trust in my surgeon David Allamby as he has done this procedure on my brother and his wife recently, the only worry I actually had was if the machinery itself went wrong and i’m sure the chances of that are very small.

Being on a table, well chair was weird for me as thankfully I’ve not had more than a tooth removed in my life. David and the nurses made me feel really at ease and comfortable and in fact they told me I was a very cool customer we even had a joke during the procedure, obviously happening in the breaks of the laser work.

 

The surgery

The first thing that happens is you have anaesthetic drops put in your eyes to make sure your eyes are numb, then your eye lashes are taped back and a clamp holds your eye open. This sounds so much more dramatic that it is!

More lubrication drops go in and the first laser is used to cut the window flap in your eyes, you feel no pain at all during this just a bit of pressure on your eye, imagine someone pushing the heel of their hand on your eye. An odd feeling and mildly uncomfortable but certainly not a feeling I associate with pain.

This laser takes around 15 secs an eye I believe, David then removed the laser and folded the newly cut flap on my eye back revealing the cornea. This seems to be the bit people freak out about but nothing is in focus so you can’t really see what’s happening and again it’s painless as you have no feeling.

Next the laser comes in and re-shapes the eye and takes a short time also, you just stare at some red dots and a green light then it’s done. At this point you do smell burnt hair which is obviously the laser on your eye but again it’s not intimidating at all.

Next the flap is folded back down and BOOM you’re half way there.

Once the procedure is completed you’re advised to lay in a dim lit room for 15 mins and wear sunglasses for the next few days, you are also not allowed to travel by tube or anywhere that is considered dirty.

For the next 7 days you have 3 sets of drops to take, a in-between, a antibacterial and a lubricator I think. The next morning you go back to see David to check everything is fine then you carry on with your drops and come back in 7 days for a check up. In these 7 days you are not to work out, wash your face or do anything that could impact your eyes.

The only pain I had throughout the whole procedure was after it, when home I was very sensitive to light and the steroid drops sting for 5 secs when first put in. I’d advise going home and sleeping as when I woke up my eyes had settled and over the coming hours my eye got more and more HD.

It’s quite exciting as you start playing games to see what you can see now that you couldn’t before, I was challenging friends and family to see what they could see.

In fact with in 2 mins of my surgery I was at 20/20 vision and by the next day I was at the limit of the human eye which is 20/12 this is the same vision as a falcon, which still blows my mind!

falcon-647075_960_720

In my opinion the results way out weigh the cost of the surgery which for my procedure was £4500, to be honest it would not take too many years for it to pay for itself when you consider the price of contacts and glasses, not to mention the convenience. I actually couldn’t wear contacts anymore as they were causing my eyes issues, such as dryness and blocked ducts, another reason to have the surgery.

How long will it last

Laser eye surgery is only advised once your eyes have settled, this means your prescription have not changed in several years. With this taken into account your eyes should not deteriorate other than degeneration from age which happens to everyone between 50 -70 years old.

Final thoughts

Laser eye surgery was one of the best things that I have ever spent my money on and David at Focus clinic was just incredible.

I don’t want to sway anyones decision to have surgery that is your decision to make but I would reassure you that for me there was no pain at all during the surgery and if you do choose to have it then I hope your results are as good as mine and if not BETTER!

 

 

Join the discussion 2 Comments

  • Mike says:

    Hi,

    I recently saw your vlog on youtube with lasik. Glad everything worked out for you. I also recently had lasik about 2 months and a week ago and wanted to ask you some questions if you don’t mind. I wanted to know how long to took for your eyes to feel completely normal like you never had lasik? How long has it been since you had lasik and did dryness go away for you? Also, i have been experiencing some night time issues. I notice seeing in dark or dim lighting is harder and my eyes seem fuzzier like eyes don’t adjust to darkness as well, did this happen to you and did it go away ever? Also, I get halos and starburst right now that having been getting better lately. Did you experience this and how long if you did? Thank you appreciate it
    Mike

    • TheLeanMachines says:

      Hi Mike,

      I must of had mine about 1 year ago now,time flies.

      I know everyone has different experiences but in terms of vision it was perfect within 48 hours and then I just had all the eye drops etc which could make my eyes blurry from time to time.

      For my the dryness too maybe 6-10 weeks to dissapear, I would advise you take flax oils or omega3 if you’re not (obviously speak to doctor first)

      I can’t say I had any issues with starbursts or with my vision at all to be honest, but everyone is different i’m sure.

      I hope this help buddy.

      John

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