General: Laser Eye Surgery with Optical Express

As many of you will know - I've been suffering pretty badly with eye strain the past few years. My GP has been little or no use, and I've tried every piece of advice possible from the internet to very little avail. It's dramatically affected my work ability and I'm frankly fed up with it

After hearing about my friend Rich Trenholm's surgery going so well, I started wondering if it might be for me. Somehow, I saw an advert for Optical Express, and put my details in for them to get in touch. I must admit, they went a little overboard - I got a *lot* of phone calls and being an 0870 number, when I missed the call, I wasn't exactly motivated to call them back, so I just waited for the next call, which thankfully wasn't too long.

Optical Express offered me a free consultation, and I thought this would be worth my time as they perform such a thorough examination that they might pick up on something that so far hasn't been discovered by my high street opticians.

It turned out that my prescription is wrong. Whether my eyes have changed since I bought the glasses, or whether my prescription was wrong in the first place (which is perhaps why my eye strain didn't disappear when I got the glasses) is anyone's guess - but using objective wave scanning (rather than purely subjective methods) they felt that, where as my right eye has previously been diagnosed as 0.5d short sighted, it is in fact not short sighted at all, but -1.25d astigmatic.

After a number of tests, a lot of talking and a lot of questions and answers, I was torn between getting the corrective surgery, or merely getting another pair of glasses - but with a more accurate prescription.

I didn't grow up wearing glasses, and I hate them almost as much as I hate having squinty, red eyes. I am forced to remove my glasses when doing anything active (Mountain Biking, Gymnastics, Dancing) which always leaves me with a headache.

After the tests were finished, I talked to the sales guy and decided to go ahead with the surgery. Being self-employed, my schedule is more flexible and he managed to get me 10% off by simply taking an appointment that was fairly soon and they hadn't managed to fill yet. At the prices they were talking - 10% is a lot!

I didn't see the point skimping on costs when it came to the procedure, so went for the Wavefront LASIK treatment. Rather than simply having a single prescription uniformly etched into your eye - this takes a reading at multiple points in your eye, meaning that not only will I be free of glasses - but have better vision than glasses will ever give me.

My biggest concern about getting the treatment, was my prescription changing - and frankly, it could happen. However, if it does happen within the first 4 years - they will give me a top-up surgery free of charge.

All in, I ended up paying £1790 - which I was given at 0% interest over 10 monthly payments, just to make things a little easier. That might seem like a lot of money, but if it stops my eye strain - it's money well spent.

I'm having the procedure on December the 10th - so stay tuned for my results, where hopefully I will be typing from a glasseslessness state!

I have thought about eye surgery but it just turns me off.

Mmm, that might be wise Spode, my eyes vary from day to day and because this happens I have two pairs of reading glasses. Luckily, my eyes vary from 1.5 to 2.0 dioptres equal in both eyes with no other aberrations. Great! that means I can buy "readers" off the net at around £9 a pair with sprung arms and a huge choice of styles.
But with astigmatism these may not be suitable. Although this condition comes and goes. I used to have it, but sometimes wonder whether it matters that much as I have never noticed any problems using readers and I bet the astigmatism has come and gone a few times.

Interesting isn't it, three eye tests from well known and I guess respected opticians can give you three different prescriptions on the same day ? Talking to the guy that fits the lenses in to the frames etc at my small independent optician, said lenses were only matched to 0.25 dioptres. and only buy in these increments for standard non bifocal lenses.
Aberrations are adjusted out by moving the centre of the lens across the frame. It's all a bit hit and miss I said, yup came the answer. The days of really grinding a lens exactly to some ones needs are long gone, is a bit pointless as eyesight varies from day to day and eyes will adjust to the slight difference. If too far out, eye strain and headaches usually follow.

A bit worrying really, especially as glasses are so expensive when supposedly tailor made. I asked to watch a lens being ground and all I saw was a machine that tracked the inside shape of the frames and cut the lens to suit.
I really didn't want to tell you this sooner and you are an adult and you always think things through. You seemed to be happy having the surgery. It is good and does help a lot of people see much better, even better than with with good glasses, but, I'm glad your not having it done, even just for the cost alone. as with any surgery, there is always a danger and sometimes you must think, "is it worth the risk"?

At least you don't have to give up the whole "Fargo from Eureka" look...

Carl Zeiss is well respected by us 'tographers, but I've seen Nokia mobile phones with zeiss lenses - so I'm not sure they don't just cash in on their name from time to time. So I'd be very interested to know how good the lenses actually turn out to be!

And yeah, he does look very different without his double glazing - but then, don't we all???

I take my glasses off when I go to bed or go swimming - the rest of the day I'm wearing them. If I tried to go anywhere or do anything without them, I'd be getting serious headaches.

As for the lenses, if you're curious enough, get a pair made at glassesdirect.co.uk - you can get them made and delivered for about £20. Then you'll know how much the Zeiss lenses help over standard lenses.

Either way, just wear your glasses all day every day and welcome to my world!

Well, erm...

*Something about the glasses working this time*

That's what I meant. That right there.