Laser eye surgery at Moorfields

[minipie]

I'm considering laser eye surgery. I know there have been threads about this before and all seem to say that Moorfields is the best option (expensive but safest esp if you have very short sight which I do).

Is there anyone who has had it done at Moorfields and could tell me who they went to?

Also, anyone who had it done with very short sight (I am -8.5 and -7.5) and also astigmatism (I am -2.25 and -1.5 astigmatism)? Is this possible?

Thanks all

I had it done about 6 years ago at Moorfields, by Mr Gartry. He was excellent.

I was short sighted too, -6 in each eye with astigmatism but it was straightforward and completely worth the money. Of course, as with anything like this there are risks involved, but after alot of research I felt it was the right choice for me.

Good luck!

Thanks Huge. I read an article by India Knight who also went to him... so seems like a good recommendation.

I had a look at their website and it seems you have to not wear contact lenses for a week or so before the op - is that true? My glasses are 10 years out of date...

Hmmm, that rings a bell... But maybe best to have a consultation appt first and see what they say.

I read the IK article too - woah, she is definitely a convert! And it was definitely one of the best things I've done too. The first morning waking up without glasses is AMAAAAAZING

mini I had it done at Optical Express two years ago, was -9 and -9.5. You need to keep your lenses out for at least a week prior to ANY measuring they do - contacts affect the shape of your eye. My vision is now perfect in one eye and -0.5 in the other.

One thing to be aware of - the more correction you need, the more cornea they need to 'remove' with the laser. For a bigger correction like yours, your cornea must be thick enough to allow that much to be removed. I was lucky, I had very thick corneas. The surgeon explained that if your corneas are thinner, they can still do the surgery but then if further corrections are needed they may not be possible.

IIRC, they said that your eyesight can take a year to 'settle', as your eye adjusts to the new focussing, and Optical Express will do a free correction after a year if you need it. I didn't.

If you want more info on the actual procedure, I am more than happy to tell you all the gory details about it!

Yes, you need to keep your contacts out for at least a week.

Yes, it can be done with your prescription, although depends on the general state of your eye and cornea.

Yes, go to someone and somewhere with an excellent reputation with that prescription if you can afford it. You need to feel confident that they will have done all possible checks for suitability, have the latest and best equipment and procedures, have excellent surgeons doing the work (and supervising/doing the checks and doing the after care) and an excellent track record for patients however complicated the initial prescription is to deal with. I went to Mr Daya at Centre for Sight, not Moorfields, so couldn't recommend anyone at Moorfields for you, but could strongly recommend him.

I echo what Rabbitstew has said. I too went to Mr Daya in East Grinstead, West Sussex. I was amazed at how far people had travelled to be seen by him. I was told that he operated on those who had chosen the "cheaper option surgeons" and who had to have susequent surgery to correct mistakes.
If you cannot afford to be operated on by the best then I would advise waiting and saving up some more - your eyesight is not worth gambling with by taking the cheaper option.

Thanks, the East Grinstead centre is the other place (along with Moorfields) which seems to get lots of recommendations especially for the higher end of the short sight scale.

Thanks for the information about keeping contacts out. Eeek. My glasses are so out of date it's silly - I would have to take the week off work realistically as I can't really work with my old glasses. I wouldn't want to have to buy new glasses just for that week if I was about to have my eyes (hopefully) corrected!

What is the recovery time from the operation - would I need time off afterwards too?

Also, we are TTCing at the moment. I've read on the Moorfields website that they don't operate on pg women. Do you think this is something I could get done when on maternity leave? My mum could probably help looking after the LO for a couple of days... [planning ahead]

rabbit and gail I agree about not taking chances! Luckily I can afford the fees of Moorfields (and am london based) so would probably take that option, though I'd consider East Grinstead too if they had particular expertise in my sort of sight issues!

Hi yes another who had their eyes done at Moorfields (Bruce Allen) and was very satisfied. I had quite difficult eyes and a history of very bad eye infections and tear duct surgery so I was definite about having the op done at Moorfields and have never regretted it. About two years later I talked my very squeamish husband into having it done too and four years down the line he agrees it was the best thing he ever did.

Sorry minipie, have realised I did not actually answer your questions. Depending on how much work they do you might be quite sore later that day. I wasn't but my husband was. He was fine the next day and went back to work. Your eyes are a bit red for a week or so and you have to put lots of drops in every couple of hours so personally I would give yourself the next day off (or have your mum with you in case you want a break) just to chill out, but I think lots of people do go back to work the next day (its a bit like magic, you go to bed with much better but slightly foggy vision then wake up (you have to sleep in very fetching googles for the first week), take the googles off and go "oh my God I can see!").

Oh the goggles... they do make you look rather lovely in bed...

They said there would be 'minor discomfort' when the anaesthetic wears off (about an hour or so after surgery). I don't know about that, it bloody hurt! Sort of felt like my eyes had been burned with a laser... . No, seriously, it was more than 'minor discomfort' but I was armed with Co-codamol which really took the edge off, got home at 3pm, slept for about 4 hours, then was up watching CSI by 9pm.

You can ask for a sort of gel in a tube instead of the drops if you get really dry eyes, it is much more soothing and lasts longer than the drops. I was using the drops every hour for the first few days.

I still can't get used to swimming though. Through 25 years of wearing contacts, I have a 'flinch' reflex if any water heads towards my eyes and if my face is wet I CANNOT open my eyes unless I use my hand to wipe them first. I have tried, believe me!

Hi, minipie. I would check the amount of time you have to go contacts free - it might be as much as 10 days.

As for ttc, I have heard that pregnancy can affect the corneas (I think they contain connective tissue and this is affected by pregnancy hormones so might react differently during pregnancy). This may be why operating during pregnancy is not something they would want to do, as your correction post-pregnancy might be different and therefore the correction could become inaccurate/unpredictable. I would apply the same logic to the period post-birth when you are breastfeeding and your body is returning to normal, myself, although I guess the people at the clinic you go to could tell you about that.

As for East Grinstead, they have a clinic in London, too, so I think you might only have to go to East Grinstead for the operation itself, not pre and post-op check ups - worth checking up on.

Recovery time varies hugely from person to person. I didn't find it at all painful and the first week was fine. In my case, the second week was less comfortable, because that's when you start lowering the amount of steroid drops you are putting in your eyes and I became more aware of eye dryness! I had fairly dry eyes for several months afterwards and it took a few weeks to get used to how many eye drops I should put in - I tended to leave it until it was too late and my eyes were feeling quite gritty and my vision a bit bleary. Once I started putting drops in on a regular basis regardless of whether my eyes felt uncomfortable it was fine, but it took a while to work that out! The goggles were a bit of a faff - I seem to remember it was a whole month sleeping in goggles.... Still, the end result was crystal clear vision and it is so lovely to be able to take my children swimming and not worry about having glasses knocked off my face/goggles steaming up/risking eye infections or contact lenses being washed out/not feeling I was safe looking after them; being able to see without grease and scratches in front of my eyes and a blurred world around the rims of my glasses, or little bits of plastic feeling like dried out cling film on my corneas; being able to enjoy going for a walk in the rain (I more or less gave up with contact lenses in the latter years as I found them very uncomfortable), etc.

Thanks so much everyone! This has been really really useful.

Hmmm. I think I'm coming to the conclusion that I might leave it a couple of years more. Mainly because we are TTCing and so it seems that kind of puts the kibosh on things for the moment - I hadn't really realised that before. I agree rabbit that the hormones pre and post baby might make things a bit more unpredictable, I wouldn't want to take that risk even if they would agree to operate (which they probably wouldn't). Also partly because I'm not yet actually finding contact lenses a problem.

Maybe I'll treat myself to a new pair of glasses (which I'd need anyway for getting up in the night with a baby, I guess), so I'll get a couple of years' wear out of them before I need to wear them pre-op.

In the meantime hopefully the procedure will become even safer and/or cheaper!

Can I ask a question please to those who went to Moorfields, can you give me a rough figure as to how much it costs in total? Thankyou.

have you seen this page jasmine - gives an idea of cost.

minipie, thanks, very helpful. Need to start saving now!

My partner just has his done at optical express with astigmatism, he only had it done 2 weeks ago so still very early days but he seems fine his eyes are just a bit dry and he's struggling a bit at night but that's normal. He said the worst bit was when the anaesthetic wore off he just had to lay in a dark room!

Also he had his done sat and was back at work Monday.

Has anyone had laser eye surgery recently? Am considering this.