The experience of being fully conscious, helpless to blink or move away, as a surgeon works on your eye is quite something. Yet even the slicing of your cornea pales into insignificance when contrasted with the immediacy and impact of laser eye surgery on the life of someone reliant on spectacles for 27 years.
I became aware of the treatment through my work as editor of Medicine Weekly, a newspaper for Irish doctors. At an information evening for GPs at Dublin's Blackrock Clinic on a "new dawn" in eye surgery, I found myself making arrangements to have an initial consultation to establish if I was suitable for the procedure. It took about an hour. Mr William Power told me I had "good thick corneas" and was suitable for LASIK surgery. This go-ahead left me with three major considerations - cost, risk and the likely unpleasantness of the actual procedure.
Since 1973, my family and I must have spent at least £1,000 on glasses and contact lenses, so although the procedure can cost £1,700 for each eye, this is remarkably good value for a benefit which will last the rest of your life. Factor in that you can claim tax relief on the surgery and the bill can, in many cases, be cut by almost half. I decided it was well worth the outlay.
As far as risk goes, I'm well aware that there is an element of chance associated with all surgical procedures. But my eye surgeon showed me detailed percentages and, taking solace in high success rates, I decided the probable benefit was worth the risk.
Thus to the operation itself. I'm not squeamish, but it's unsettling to think of a flap being made on the surface of your eye, it being lifted back, and your cornea reshaped with a laser. However, the creation of the flap is very quick and you don't feel a thing because your eye has been anaesthesised with rapidly acting drops. The clamp which prevents you blinking is unpleasant but it is bearable, once you get over the laser sounding like a 1973 Ford Cortina with a loose exhaust.
Afterwards, I walked the short distance from the clinic to a pharmacy in Blackrock to get eye drops with no difficulty. I had a little grittiness in my eye but that wore off four or five hours after surgery, and there was no pain at any stage. My eyes were done separately, about two weeks apart - the stronger one first - and I haven't worn glasses since that afternoon. Now all I have to do is stop pushing non-existent glasses up the bridge of my nose.