Having the vision of a mole could make you a good candidate for laser eye surgery. So what is the experience like, and is it worth the expense?
It always seemed to me that I was born with the genes of a mole. I saw my childhood through a blur, which I thought perfectly normal until the age of five, when somebody noticed that I told the time on the kitchen clock by dragging a chair underneath it and climbing up to peer at the hands. My eyesight was -6.5 in one eye and -7.5 in the other, which translates as severe myopia.
Glasses made my life a lot more interesting, allowing me to see much more of the world. As children often do, however, I hated wearing them. At 18, I switched to contact lenses. There followed years of rituals involving solutions and cleansing, not to mention lost lenses, including a pair that somebody swallowed when, having mislaid my lens case, I stored them overnight in a glass of water - which you should never do.
I had been aware for several years that an increasingly routine laser operation could correct your sight. Squeamishness kept me from fully investigating the operation until this year: there is something very private and vulnerable about eyes.
In August, I finally made an appointment with Michael Browne, a surgeon at Blackrock Clinic, in Dublin. He told me I should be a perfect candidate for the operation; as my sight was so poor, I would benefit from it more than most.
He would need to examine my corneas, however, to make sure they were the right shape for the procedure.
He talked me through the operation, which is known as Lasik - or laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis - and involves cutting a flap of the cornea, then lifting it to reshape by laser the stroma, or middle section of the cornea, beneath.
He also told me about the possible risks and side effects, which occur in a small percentage of patients. One that stuck in my memory was that the operation doesn't always work but nevertheless prevents you from wearing lenses again.
I wore my glasses for the week before the operation, as I had been told to do, and used antibiotic eye drops. On the day my eyes were due to be operated on, I turned up feeling a tad nervous.
Anaesthetic drops were put in my eyes and I was brought into the surgery. The drops freeze your eyes, but you are conscious the whole time.
Once I was lying in the dentist's-style reclining chair, an eye clamp was applied to one of my eyes, to keep it open. It is a horrible sensation - not painful, but extremely unpleasant, not least because our instinct is to close our eyes against anything that might touch them.
What happened next is a bit hazy, but the surgeon cut the flap in my cornea. It was either at this point or later that he explained I would be blind for a short time, while they operated.
Fear spread through me, and I irrationally thought I had made a huge mistake and might end up blind. Temporarily unable to see, I couldn't stop hyperventilating: my body felt suddenly traumatised.
Once the surgeon had lifted the flap, he told me to keep very still and look at the red light of the laser, which takes less than a minute to do its job. Then he put the flap back, paused and repeated the procedure on my other eye.
The process took very little time and caused me no pain, but I'd still rate those minutes among the more unpleasant of my life.
After the operation, I went home and lay down for a couple of hours. The world still looked very hazy when I opened my eyes again, foggy and blurred. That night, and for three more nights, I had to wear protective eye shields, like goggles, and use anti-inflammatory eye drops four times a day.
The surgeon had told me I should be able to drive to my post-operative check-up the following day. It turned out I could see to a distance of only about six feet, however; everything else was still the same blur as before, which concerned me, as driving was out of the question.
I started making calls to people who knew people who'd had the same operation, to swap notes about recovery times. Everyone said it had taken several days, if not weeks, before their sight settled, which reassured me at a time when I felt worried that the operation hadn't worked.
At a second post-operative consultation, the following week, the surgeon assured me that I now had perfect vision in one eye and near-perfect vision, of -0.25, in the other. In fact, two weeks on, my sight was still adjusting and improving: it was by no means an overnight result.
But, yes, I can now see the world unaided for the first time in my previously mole-like life. No more four-eyes, no more contact lenses, no more waking up each day to a blurred world. And it feels miraculous.
What it costs
- Blackrock Clinic, in Dublin, charges €101/£80 for an initial consultation and €2,031/ £1,600 for treating each eye, including three months' aftercare
- The operation is offered at a number of other hospitals, including the Mater Private, Waterford Regional and Auteven Hospital, Kilkenny. Average price per eye is €1,968/£1,550. The period of inclusive aftercare varies from three to 12 months, depending on the clinic.
- You can claim back 40 per cent of the cost as a tax rebate, using form Med 1.
- In the UK, Boots Laser Eye Clinic quotes £1,250 sterling (€2,037) per eye.
- One US clinic quotes $1,250 (€1,419) per eye, but prices can vary greatly. In Germany, the average is €2,000.
