I had my surgery on Friday 12th @ 17:30. It was relatively pain free and apart from the first night where my eyes streamed til midnight and felt slightly uncomfortable it was a walk in the park. I managed to get about 5 hours sleep in the end. The following day i had my check up @15:00 and was able to read the 4th line down with my left eye and 3rd with my right..not great..but here i am on day 4 and i can now see the 8th line down from a eye test chart printed from the net. Also a good test is number plates.Walking back from the station on day 2 i could see one at 40 paces..now 70 paces on day 4. For the record Dr Patel told me to rest my eyes completely on day 1 and 2 and that means eyes shut as much as possible and no TV/PC use !!  

I still have some mistiness and the odd sharp pain and am now down to taking the eyedrops 4 times a day and the refresh drops about 5/6 times a day..definately no dry eye syndrome so far and my eyes have improved every day.

Let's see if this continues..From my research and also chatting with a frriend of the family who works at a hospital which does eye surgery i'm expecting it to get worse before it gets better and not get anxious when it does..but..early days and easier said that done i guess.

Will update with any major news. My 2nd check up Monday 22nd Sep.

Joe

At the moment i would class my vision as a little cloudy as if i was looking through a very thin white veil. I was told this was because i hadn't been using my eyedrops enough (my eyes don't feel dry until the evenings) and was given the name of some gel drops(Viscotears) i could use of a night and another that i could use during the day (hypromellose)which came to under £8 in boots. This doesn't seem to be making much difference though and vision is still much the same. My eyes have also become more light sensitive lately although not enough to really bother me too much. The mornings seem to be worse especially under artificial light.

Night vision is still a bit weird but good enough for me to drive safely and with no problems..I still have some scarring on my left eye under my lid but my right eye has nearly cleared completely. I also get the odd mild stabbing pain in my eye now and then and occasionally i have the feeling that i have a eyelash in the centre of my eye but this soon goes. 

So far , so good. As it stands at the moment i'm pleased that i had it done although still mindfull that my vision is not 100% and may fluctuate in the coming months.

Pease feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Joe 

I have a day off from work tomorrow and will get the chance to rest my eyes a bit more. 

P.S. One thing i didn't mention was that i've been taking flaxseed tablets twice a day from a week before surgery. Whether it has helped ? Who knows ?! 

Joe

I rang Monday and spoke to Optimax but they insisted i made an appointment for an aftercare. So i went the next day and saw the optomotrist. I gave her the info i had printed off the web and in as many words was told that she had never heard of it and that she couldn't prescibe me steriods and i would have to see Dr Patel who performed the surgery. Unfortunately he was busy for the rest of the day so had to go back today for a medical review (again).

Dr Patel looked at the scans from the surgery and looked at my eyes and said that i had TLS and prescribed me steroids..I have to take them 4 times a day and the TLS should disappear in 2-3 weeks. Good job i did my research eh ? Otherwise i'd have been stuck til December with it. He also said that about 1% of patients get TLS and he hadn't seen anyone with it for about 3 months.

Will update if the TLS gets any better.

Joe

Night vision is a little better and streetlights don't seem so hazey although brake lights do look a little weird.

I would say my overall day vision is still much the same but my eyes do not feel so tired of a night and the twinges i was getting have all but gone as has the scarring on my left eye under the top eyelid. My vision still feels a bit glary not sure if that is down to the TLS in some way or maybe the astigmatism ? Best i can describe is like when you get a new pair of glasses with a higher prescription and everything is a bit too clear at first(if that makes sense). Early days though and i'm of the mindset that my eyes will be 6 months til i get an idea of how they're going to be in the longer term.

Still using my eye drops about 3-4 times a day on top of my steroids and using the visco tears before i go to sleep.

Will update in a week

Joe

Joe

One thing i would recommend is buying a decent pair of UV sunglasses as i purchased a pair when i had the TLS and wear mine when a bit sunny and driving etc. I can really tell the difference between them and a cheap pair i was wearing before. £59 well spent,got mine at boots opticians.

Night vision is very good but lights still a bit hazey.

Will update after my 3 month check up on 12th December.

Joe

On my check up i was found to have -0.25 myopia and astigmatism -0.75 in my left eye and +0.25 and -0.5 astigmatism in my right eye. I could read most of the bottom line. The lady looked at my eyes and seemed to think something was wrong. She thought that as the prescription was so low it was unlikely the headaches were due to my eyes. I went to see my surgeon Dr Patel who happened to be free. He looked at my eyes and said that it was possible to have slightly milky vision after surgery on a particuarly high prescription as they have to laser deeper into the layers of the eye. He also said that when coming off the steroids(FML) i should of been weened off of them gradually rather than stopping dead after one week ( i wasn't told to do this ). The eye takes longer to heal thus the cloudiness.

So i am now back on the steroids (FML) for 4 weeks. 3 a day for 2 weeks,then twice for one week then once for a week. I have my next check up on the 19th January.  

Overall still pleased with no regrets but need to get this sorted out.

Will update on 19th Jan

Joe

Now to the appointment. I was told that the FML has worked well and that my eyes looked considerably better than a month ago and they were healing well. I was told that they expected the mistiness to all but disappear in a month. I've booked an appointment for a months time so will update then. Optimax did stress to me that i could come back as much as i liked and they would only discharge me when i was happy.

For the record the last 3 check ups i have asked to see the same person which helps  as when you go they are reading their own notes and you get a more personal service (i think).

See you in a month !

Joe