Sometimes an opportunity in the blogging world comes along that is too good to miss; I didn’t entirely expect it to be this though, nor did I expect that it would be Max who got the life changing moment! But when your husband is so shortsighted he only knows it is you asleep in bed with him because of the way you snore, turning down the chance to review laser eye surgery is just too good to say no to. Max is part of #Team21 with Optical Express and has been offered free surgery in exchange for us talking honestly on the blog about it. We are very grateful to Optical Express for the chance to do something that will really change his whole view of life (ba dum tish!). I hope you’ll be kind to Max as he takes up the blogging reins in the first of a short series about taking this step.
Decision to consider laser eye surgery
I’ve been toying with the idea of corrective laser eye surgery for a few years now so when the opportunity to take part in the Optical Express Team 21 project came up it seemed too good to be true.
At the age of 42, with a short-sighted prescription of around -5.50 in each eye I’ve been wearing glasses all of my adult life. I used to wear hard, gas-permeable lenses when I was younger but since we had the girls and life became more family-centred and less about going out socialising I’ve not really had the inclination to bother with all the hassle of contact lenses. But now in the last few years, I’m not sure whether it’s mid-life crisis or a onset of teenage children, I’m finding times when wearing glasses is down-right inconvenient. Whether it’s trying to get my motorbike helmet on or off while balancing my specs on the tank of the bike and hoping they don’t fall off or playing Summer Touch Rugby with the kids and hoping nobody tackles me too hard, I’ve been looking for ways to ditch the glasses.
So last year I took the step of trying daily contact lenses. The first thing I found after not having worn lenses for more than 10 years was just how great it is to not be seeing things through a frame: suddenly I have peripheral vision and when I touch my face it’s just me, no framework and no loss of vision as I knock my specs. The next thing I noticed was just how comfortable to wear they were after my memories of the old hard lenses. For going out and general day to day use these were a great solution but for playing sport I found that when I was running about or it was windy the lenses would occasionally slip across my eyes and leave me blinking and looking through a film of tears until they settled again. I never tried wearing lenses for riding my motorbike for this reason so they have not turned out to be the solution I was looking for and to be honest I’ve not worn them at all for the past 3 months.
So this brings me back to considering corrective laser surgery. It’s not the first time I’ve considered it; I went as far as having a consultation for laser surgery 2 years ago but on that occasion during the examination the Optometrist noted some discoloration on my retina and referred me to a specialist to have it checked out; it turned out to be nothing but by the time the months had passed waiting for the appointment other issues had taken priority and I didn’t follow it up.
So here I am now with a great opportunity as part of Optical Expresses 21st anniversary Team 21 project to take another look: I’ll let you know how it goes…
Good luck with it; I hope it all goes well for you 🙂
Exciting stuff 🙂 Hope it goes really well – I’ve never been at all tempted, but the people I know who have had it done have been really happy with it.
Good luck with it!
I had my eyes zapped on 16 February 2006 and have never looked back LOL! It was wavefront LASIK flap-and-zap, which at the time was cutting-edge but the whole field seems to have moved on. My prescription was similar to yours – -5 in one eye, -4.5ish in the other. I had been umming and ah-ing about it for 5 years, partly waiting for a sufficient gap between babies. I had quite a few minor complications – dry eyes, inflammation, reaction to some of the eye drops. Once my toddler punched me in the eye and seemed to disloge my corneal flap (!! – I kind of smoothed it down… all healed brilliantly in the end). I had to use artificial tears for about 6 months to a year. And despite all that – it was BRILLIANT and I am so, so glad I had it done. My eyesight ended up better than I’d been able to achieve with glasses or contacts – I have 20/20 vision in one eye and the other is something like 22/20 – fighter-pilot level I think 😉 When I go to the park with friends, if someone’s child wanders off then I have to seek them out with my bionic eyes because I can see better than all my mates. When I went to an independent optician a couple of years ago for a thorough check-up, she said she couldn’t find any scar or sign that I’d had surgery, even on the highest magnification her equipment allowed. I was puzzled when she wrote an infinity sign on my sight test for my best eye – apparently that means my sight is technically perfect! So, no looking back here – wish I had it done years ago. It’s so great to wake up in the morning and not have to look for glasses, to not have to worry about taking contacts out while the worse for wear, etc. Every day I silently thank my surgeon, Mr Patel – especially when I’m enjoying a spectacular view and know that I just wouldn’t have seen that much before. Hope it works out as well for you.