Ok, so my surgery date was about two weeks after my consultation. Off I went. Before you continue, if you haven't read my previous post about the consultation - here it is.

My surgery was booked for Bristol and up till this day I was slowly getting more and more worried about the surgery. I continued to Google the procedure and read up on it but I was pretty nervous. I told myself it was totally normal to be worried - it is!!

I talked to a few people but in all honesty I didn't tell many people because of how nervous I was. So the day came and off we went to Bristol. When I got there, the place was easy to find and the people were super helpful - very calming and friendly. I waited to be called and met the assistant who I had for my consultation - she was pleased to see me!

I took this before going - little did I know!

They began by doing some tests to check my eyes and my prescription before they did the procedure and then, whilst the surgeon looked at the results, I waited. They then repeated a few tests assuring me that it was just because the surgeon wanted to double check a few things - I wasn't convinced.

Anyway, finally I met the surgeon and he was a quiet man who introduced himself and told me the reason for repeating the tests - something about the shape of my eye. Because of the shape of my eye, they had made a clinical decision that the procedure I was booked in for was not the one they would recommend for me to have. Basically I wasn't going to have the operation that I was told I could have.

Brief description of the procedure they originally told me about: they would create a flap in the top layer of my eye then shoot a laser through the lifted flap. Then close the flap and tada - done! The recovery time for this procedure is around two days and it's reported to be relatively pain-free.

Brief description of new procedure: instead of making a flap in that layer, they'd remove the whole layer altogether and then shoot the laser through. A bandage contact lenses would then be inserted and taken out a few days later. Recovery time is much slower than a week and vision can take from ten days to six months to settle.

Now'd you get why I hesitated and decided to re-book? The end result would be the same in both procedures but recovery time wasn't and this, at that point in time was my concern. So off I went home with a new date and my thinking cap on.

Let's begin at the beginning :)

I finally took the plunge and booked to have laser eye surgery. This is something I have been researching for a while - four years to be exact - but previously I had only ever skimmed the surface and then never actually done anything about getting the surgery.

But a few months ago, I did. I'd been searching Google for local hospitals that offered the surgery and finally found one - I was really excited because the doctor in question was the same doctor that had performed my grandparents cataract surgery - he had a lot of experience.

So I rang up to see if I could get an appointment but unfortunately, I hit a brick wall. The assistant on the phone told me that the doctor had stopped performing laser eye surgery over Christmas and the alternative was too far away for me to travel. In all honesty I was quite annoyed at myself because I was thinking about this before Christmas and had I actually done anything about it, I could have booked for an appointment locally. Bummer.

No more poking my eyes out or glasses?!

So I left it till about eight weeks ago when I booked myself an appointment at Optical Express. I have always known about Optical Express and have met quite a few people who've had their eyes done there - my lovely aunt and uncle have too and they loved it! When I got there for my consultation the people were really nice. The assistant who did most of the tests on me was reassuring and had seen and knew a lot of people who had laser eye surgery. We talked about it and when it came to booking an appointment, it just happened that they had an opening in two weeks time. It was that or a good few weeks later. That's when I had my 10 seconds of courage and told her to book me in for the appointment in two weeks time.

I knew that if I left for later, I wouldn't do it. So it was done. What's really lovely is that she told me she'd be there when I had the surgery and it's always nice seeing a familiar face. They gave me a profile of the doctor who'd perform my surgery and as soon as I could see, I Googled him. What I mean by 'as soon as I could see' is that I had some eyedrops put in that meant I was super light sensitive and I couldn't see anything close up. For a good few hours my phone was just a blurry block of lights!! That was really freaky.

Anyway, I found a fellow blogger that that had had the surgery at the same place by the same doctor! And she seemed to be doing well! Read her posts on it here :)

Read next week to see how the surgery went...oh the drama!

Have you had laser eye surgery? What was it like? Is it something you're considering? Let me know.