Hello! I just wanted to share my experience of laser eye surgery. I had it done in Feb 07 - so two years ago now and I haven't looked back since. It was the best (if scariest) decision I have ever made.
I am not gonna lie, it was a bloody horrible experience, the whole day as after it was done, I went to the hotel and tried to sleep but my eyes stung and were streaming so much it was horrible. However, the next day there was no pain. It took me about a week until my vision was what it should have been 20/20 but I think that was due to my shortsightedness being so bad in the first place (so the more shortsighted you are, the more they have to work on you and so the longer it takes to recover - or at least I think that's how it works!!). I had the most expensive that Ultralase do - £3600

and only managed to do that as they were doing "buy now pay Jan and then 18 months interest free" - otherwise I couldn't have done it. The first 6 months or so was amazing as I'd keep noticing things that reminded me how annoying glasses were and therefore how brilliant it was to see! such as when it rained and my glasses used to steam up or when I went swimming and couldn't see anything, or in the shower, everything was a blur - but now I could see everything - fantastic.
2 years down the line and I still have days when I think it's amazing that "I can see" (meaning I can see without glasses!) - If I knew then what I know now, I would have done it sooner! I think unless you have to wear glasses you'd find it hard to understand, but for me, I had to wear them all the time and so it just feels brilliant now! Except my husband is now jealous as he has just started to need glasses!! Only slight shortsightedness for him, but he doesn't like it!!!
I don't know about the intraocular lens, but for me, I would say unless there's a reason you can;t have it - i'd defo go for the laser.
For info - I was about -3.75 and -4.25 shortsighted, with astigmatism. I went to Birmingham Ultralase and had the most expensive surgery (was too scared to go cheap) which was intralase lasik plus. My vision is Now 20/20.
Side effects. My first check up I went back and the one lens flap hadn't healed properly, which meant my vision wasn't as good as it should have been. They had me in again to re-seal the lens and all was then fine (I think that it's extremely rare to have this done) long term effects have been that I have is when I am driving at night - i guess it's halos or something, but it's basically the same as what I got when wearing glasses and particularly lenses, so me it's no different but I have great vision. All still worth it
