Laser Eye Surgery - My Experience With Optimax! Pre-Surgery

This is my Laser Eye Surgery Story, I guess its best to start from the beginning...

I have worn glasses for 18 years since I was 12 years old.  I started wearing contact lenses when I was about 17 years old but only used them during weekends and nights out etc.  My prescription was quite bad - I was short sighted in both eyes and had an astigmatism also.  My left eye was -5.75 and my right -4.50. I have always found having to wear glasses and contacts so inconvenient i.e. when swimming, not being able to put sunglasses on, getting wet glasses when it would rain, contacts drying my eyes out after long periods of wear etc, and I felt I looked better without them. I had dabbled with the idea of  laser eye surgery for years but was always too scared that something would go wrong. 

I'm not sure what made me finally do it but when I turned 30 I plucked up the courage to book a couple of consultations with the view that I would find out the facts and figures and also find out if I would even qualify to have it done.  I printed off a couple of money-off vouchers and the first company I went to see was Optical Express in Bournemouth. When you get there you fill out a couple of medical forms and have your eyes checked like you do at a normal opticians appointment.  You then have your pupils dilated which relaxes the muscles in your eye I believe and they check your eyes again.  It wasn't painful and lucky for me I was a candidate - Optical Express recommended I had the Lasik Wavefront procedure.

There was nothing dreadful to report about Optical Express, I liked the people there and what they had to say, it was also conveniently close to where I live - you have the actual surgery in Southampton but all the after care was carried out in Bournemouth.  The problem was that I wasn't entirely convinced and felt they gave quite a hard sale before I left when I said I needed time to think. I also had an appointment booked with Optimax and wanted to weigh up my options before I committed. 

When I went the following week to Optimax I went through the same tests I had with Optical Express they also recommended the Lasik Wavefront procedure. As I liked Optimax the best, with a little prompting from my mum I decided to go for it. I booked an appointment and knew if I did change my mind I could cancel at any point.  Like I said I had a money off coupon for both companies - Optical Express had ended up  being£100.00 cheaper so I decided to email Optimax and ask if they would match it.  I received an email back after only 5 minutes saying that yes they would match the price and as per their 'price guarantee' they would take off a further £100.00.  I signed up for a 24 month interest free payment plan and went ahead with my surgery on 7th June 2013.

Go to Surgery Day and Post Surgery for more...