Optimax

I had bi-lateral epi-lasek treatment at Birmingham Optimax in March 2006. I was about -1.75 in each eye with a bad astigmatism. I was seen and treated by Andre Obersholster. Andre was helpful and honest during the consultation, agreeing that he was able to achieve 20/20 vision with epi-lasek rather than lasik. Treatment wasn’t as bad as expected, except he didn’t put enough anaesthetic in the first eye so I felt them scraping off the surface. The second eye was fine because I’d piped up and asked for more as it hurt. An unpleasant operation, but it was only 15 minutes start to finish. Very satisfying to smell your eyes burning. It felt like getting good value for money… The three day recovery time was agonising. I was in constant, searing pain for two days, and fair to reasonable discomfort for the third. Having the bandage lenses was one of the best experiences in my adult life. The relief was unbelievable. My vision took about two weeks to come back to a reasonable standard. Using a PC was fine, but I recommend taking breaks every 30 minutes or so. I was driving four days after the operation. At my after care appointments I was told that my vision was slowly getting better. At about eight weeks after treatment, I started to feel my eyesight deteriorate. This gradually got worse until, by six months, Optimax had agreed that I had regressed to a worse standard of sight than before. I wasn’t so happy about the whole thing, but I had to wait a further four weeks for another consultation. The optometrist who saw me the second time round casually steered me away from Dr Oberholster toward Dr Madhusudhan. I kept asking why, but they were fairly evasive. This time my consultation lasted the best part of three hours and I was seen by two optometrists and by Dr Madhusudhan. It was decided that I would have been better off all along with lasik, rather than epi-lasek. I was understandably annoyed that I wasn’t told that in the first place, but carried on regardless. My main gripe was being asked to pay extra for the re-treatment. After a decent sized row with the staff at Birmingham, they agreed that I shouldn’t have to pay extra for treatment that I didn’t even want. I was never keen of the flap idea and the eye being weakened. Lasik surgery was a tad more unpleasant then epi-lasek. But still over in fifteen minutes. I watched Dr Madhusudhan place the flap back down three times on one eye, so he could get it to seal perfectly. Surreal. The pain that night was 75% of the pain on epi-lasek. People who have no pain with lasik are lucky, as mine was fairly bad. I slept well. The next morning I had no pain. Just a little discomfort as Dr Madhusudhan had used bandage lenses. When I had them out the day after treatment, I was nearly 20/20. Three months after the lasik, I have finally been discharged. With a confirmed bi-lateral 20/20. As everyone says in this forum – it is truly life changing to have the surgery. Despite the re-treatment, I’d recommend it to anyone. I have recommended three people to Optimax using their referral process. Be wary that you have to really chase them for the £25. Months for one of my referrals………. Staff at Birmingham are polite and efficient. The manager never did ring me back to finally agree to re-treat me for free. Instead, choosing to make me wait for the day o f my treatment to let me find out the good news. I never had a straight answer to my question – “Did Dr Obersholster mess up my treatment?” I did have plenty of inferences and hints to confirm that, though. Don’t pay more than £895. Just ring them and tell them that you saw it on eBay. Enter into the process with an open mind, and be mindful that it can be a surgical process as opposed to a one hit wonder.

I had epi lasek on 10th jan and it was the best thing i've ever done!! The clinic were great as was Dr Materman. Procedure was COMPLETELY PAINLESS and quick, not as bad as the dentist. First 24 hours after were fine, just mild gritty sensation then between 24 and 48 hours my eyes were unfortable and had some difficulty opening them. I spent most of this time asleep or listening to radio or audio books. After the pain went each day my sight has been getting better and better!! everyday i wake up and open my eyes and can't believe what i can see! i did a lot of research and was very nervous about having it done but it is amazing ( and as i'm only 2 weeks after my treatment i've still got more improvement to come) and i wish i hadn't waited for so long!!!

I had fetmo lasik at the Bristol clinic yesterday with Dr Materton Apart from a few minor problems I am now over the moon! The staff at Bristol were very courteous but some of them seemed to be very new. I suppose everyone has to start somewhere! I was booked in after the normal consultation in the morning for 2.30pm for bi-lateral treatment. Dr Materton is spot on and I would recommend him to anybody. He even saved me money by not recommending that I had wavefront done! I eventually got in the treatment room at 4.05 pm. The clinic had been struck down with a computer problem and the printer cartridge ran out and so they couldn't print any lables! My prescription was -3.75 and -3.75 with some sort of minor astigmatism. Everyone else seems to have explained the unpleasant and uncormfortable procedure (with no pain I admit) so I wont and if you type 'lasik' or 'fetmosecond lasik" into google video you will see what happens!. For 3 hours after the main event I couldn't really open my eyes and couldn't even bear any sort of light. Luckily I had my brother to drive me home (1 hrs drive)with my shades on in the dark. I got home with my shades on and spent the next 2 and a bit hours pacing around in the dark taking the odd peak out the window to see if I could see anything. At about 8pm I was able to watch telly and by 9pm I could watch the telly with all the lights on and the brightness turned up! I know they don't recommend this but I didn't have a problem. I wass even able to check my e-mails. I made made the odd few phone calls to relatives ( I live on my own to reassure them I was not blind!) Stuck the drops in as prescribed stuck the old eye pads on (hilarious but essential) and went to bed. At 6am I woke and the world took on a new perspective - I knew I had made the right decision. I could see almost perfectly and was well chuffed. I had to go back to Bristol at mid-day today (19 hours after treatment)and have the first follow up. Apart from a bit of bloodshotting and inflamation I am fine, and it will evidently get better. I could read the bottom line of the chart with my left eye and the 2nd from bottom with my right. If anyone wants to e-mail me ref. Bristol clinic I will be happy to go throgh my experience in more detail with them. It is now 27hrs after op and I am going to the pub for a well earned drink (LUCKILY PUB IS NO-SMOKING) but even though I smoke I know it won't be. In my honest opinion if you are thinking about having laser tratment go for fetmo lasik if you can afford it (if you can't get a bank loan as you only have one set of eyes!). You will not regret it - unless you have a problem (mostly all problems can be rectified in some way or another). If you do want it as I have said speak with Dr Materton and he will put the facts to you in a courteous and diplomatic way. If I had to have it done again I would even though I now know how mildly unconfortable it was(again no pain whatsoever). Please don't think I have been a bit "blazei" with this - I did a hell of a lot of research (which is why you are on here?) before I decided I was going to have this done. But now it is done I feel a great relief and look forward to a focused (un-aided) future Cheers, John

Epi-lasek at Bristol on 22nd November, procedure was painless much easier than expected.(Prescription was -2.75 + astigmatism in both eyes) Had fairly severe pain from the bandage lenses and was glad to have them removed on the 25th. Nearly touched the ceiling with pain when I awoke in that night, as my right eye had stuck to my eyelid. Should have been offered eye gel to prevent this. Just visited clinic for first check up and am slightly long sighted with astigmatism but told this is normal and can take upto three months for best vision. Slower recovery than expected but no regrets.

Had my eyes treated with Lasik 2 days ago at Hull. Everyone very friendly, excellent surgeon. Op wasnt as bad as id imagined, just a bit strange when being cut! No pain at all, and the following day at my check up i was told i had better than 20/20 vision. So glad i had it done.

It's now 18 months since I received corrective eye surgery, and can honestly say that it is one of the most gratifying things I have ever done. From the first consultancy to the completion of the work I was looked after extremely professionally and was made to feel at ease throughout. My eyesight is absolutely superb and is better than 2020. I can't praise the staff at Optimax in Croydon highly enough. Paul Childs, Rainham Kent

I'm due to have treatment with Dr Materman in bristol, any experiences of this doctor???

I am booked to have Femtosecond Wavefront Lasik in a couple of weeks with Dr. Patel at the Finchley Road clinic- does anyone have any comments about the procedure? We are booked to go skiing 4 days after the op, am I dreaming?! Thanks:)

had epi-lasek at the liverpool clinic on 21 oct 06 and it is the best thing i have ever done. First 24 hours were not painful for me. i would say more uncomfortable and definately like peeling lots of onions as previous people have described. The next couple of days eyes were sensitive to light but by weds much better. I returned to work after one week but really should have taken another week off as my job involves alot of computer work. The worse thing i found was the endless amount of drops you have to use - a pain but you get used to it. Epi-lasek is slow in getting perfect vision. it took 6 weeks for my eyes to totally feel 100% but be patient you will get there. 10 weeks on my eyes are now 20/20 from -1.75/-2.00.its fantastic.

Visited the Brighton clinic on 2nd December 2006 for a consultation with the surgeon, Dr. Hoe, and opted for Epi-Lasek to both eyes (incl. 'wavefront') that same afternoon. (I was a little concerned that being diagnosed with MS 8 years ago, I may be unsuitable for treatment, but this was fully discussed with Dr. Hoe, and no problems anticipated in my instance.) I had the following week booked as leave, so that took care of any major urgency of recovery. Well, I won't kid anyone - the op was unpleasant (but not painful) and the smell of burning flesh as my eyes were being treated was rather stronger than I expected !! Immediately after the procedure (which only took a few minutes), both my eyes and nose were streaming profusely - like I had really bad hayfever?!! Having been kitted out with painkillers, eye-shields, artificial tears, antibiotic eye-drops and steroid eye-drops, I was allowed to travel home by minicab (unaccompanied ...my choice) within about 20 minutes of the operation. Once the local anaesthetic wore off, my eyes were tender to say the least (quite understandable in the circumstances) so the painkillers were most welcome. Vision was very poor for about 2 days, and it was actually quite uncomfortable to open the eyes at all. However, after 2 days of inconvenience, I started to become aware of how well my eyes were healing and saw glimpses of the joys to come. Day 3 saw me returning to the clinic to have my 'bandage lenses' (fitted to offer a level of protection and aid in the recovery process) removed and getting around alone in an unfamiliar area was no problem, despite some minor lingering blurriness. The recovery rate has been slightly different for each eye but returning for a check-up 17 days after the operation, my eyes were tested at slightly better than 20-20 each. I had been wearing glasses or contact lenses for the preceeding 18 years and had a prescription of -3.00 & -3.25, with mild astigmatism in each eye. I can't begin to describe the sense of freedom I am now enjoying and, as many other have already said, I wish I'd done this years ago. For the sake of 2-3 days discomfort and inconvenience, the outcome is absolutely worth it a thousand times over. The staff in Brighton have been so helpful and friendly, I can't thank them enough. I have already had no hesitation in recommending treatment to friends, family and colleagues who have expressed even a passing interest ;-)