Consultation - August 2026

This is where the referral code is required to be provided. I had an initial consultation at my local Optical Express, the session took around 90 minutes including waiting times and consisted of a regular eye examination and eye health check.

These tests indicated if I was suitable and for which type of laser correction would be best, my tests showed I would be eligible for LASIK and was recommended to have the iDesign process to further correct my astigmatism.

Pre Surgery Clinician Discussion - September 2026

I had a short teams video call with the clinician that would be conducting the surgery, this call lasted around 15 minutes during which any queries or concerns I had were answered by a very friendly clinician who assured me of the process and his experience in the industry.

Surgery Day - October 2026

The total time of my surgery day was 90 minutes, not including travel time, 60 minutes of this was waiting and pre tests; the balloon one, the pressure one and an iDesign check to ensure the previous readings were accurate.

In the room was the surgeon and two assistants who were all very comforting and relaxed which put me at ease. The surgery itself was very quick, from laying on the table to entering the recovery room was 16 minutes. This included administering numbing eye drops and conducting the surgery. One thing I thought was going to be a much larger issue is blinking, a device is used to keep the eye operated on from blinking but your body does still feel like is is blinking so was much more comfortable than I thought it would be, now the surgery itself is not comfortable but is over so quickly that it never caused a real issue.

I had the laser on for 24 seconds per eye which felt like no time at all, the only sensation I had was how cold the laser felt and then it was over. The surgeon administered some final medicinal eye drops and I was able to enter the recovery room, at this point I could see okay with a little bit of blur but well enough to move myself into the room.

In the recovery room I had a week long eye drop regime explained, 2 different types of eye drop spaced 5 mins apart 4 times a day, with some alarms set this wasn’t very intrusive at all. The also provided some moisturising eye drops to be used whenever my eyes felt dry.

Recovery - October 2026

The immediate time after the surgery was rough, the numbing eye drops wore off during the drive home, once this happened my eyes felt very uncomfortable and just wanted to stay closed, I spent most of the journey home with my eyes shut mainly feeling sore and odd shooting pain but it was very manageable. Once I arrived home I went up to the bedroom, made the room dark and fell asleep for 3 hours using the cool goggles Optical Express provided which are surprisingly comfortable to sleep in.

Waking up from this nap my eyes felt much better and I didn’t feel the need to keep them closed though I did still get the odd pain it felt okay, I started the eye drop schedule which further helped my eyes feel better. I stayed in the dark room for a few more hours trying to rest as much as possible, I had a podcast put on for entertainment as I couldn’t look at screens yet. By the evening my eyes felt much better and I was able to look at a screen though the lights had a faint halo around it which made it difficult to focus.

At this point my distance eyesight already felt better than my glasses though my near sight felt a little blurred, I finally looked in a mirror and my eyes looked a mess, the redness took over a week to go away but each following day the eye sight felt sharper and my eyes felt almost no discomfort just dry at times which was easily remedied with the regular eye drops.