Alison Durant
“People used to say things like ‘ooh, you’re brave’ and ‘I’d never have it done, too risky’…My advice is not to listen to scaremongers!”
Alison Durant
Training Consultant – Haywards Heath, West Sussex
I was short-sighted since the age of 12 and have worn contact lenses since I was 17. In my fifties I have had to start wearing reading glasses over my contact lenses.
My contact lenses never corrected my sight as well as I would have wished and I always felt my distance vision wasn’t good enough when I went to the movie theatre or music concerts for example.
Wearing reading glasses at first was okay, but later I have needed them for the simplest of tasks and found I couldn’t even read the car’s satellite navigation instructions without them. Also, I would need them when shopping to see prices and put my pin code into credit card machines and seemed to be constantly fiddling around trying to find glasses to do anything. If I wore my glasses instead of contact lenses I then needed to take them off for close work and always hated myself in specs too. It was all very frustrating!
I was getting so frustrated with my eyesight and both near and far sight never seemed to be quite right. It was actually quite depressing. However, I was lucky enough to be left some money when my Aunt died and it coincided with my Mum having her cataracts done. I talked to her surgeon about lens replacement surgery and he encouraged me to contact Centre for Sight. Everything aligned, I had the money, I was the right age and I was deemed suitable for the surgery. It was a no brainer for me!
I was very nervous to begin with, I was at a wedding the weekend before the surgery and a few people were saying things like ‘ooh, you’re brave’ and ‘I’d never have it done, too risky’ and other such motivating words which freaked me a bit, though I always had faith it was the right thing to do and I love telling people about my experience now.
One of the cynics is now seriously considering having it done himself. My advice is not to listen to scaremongers! Also, I can’t praise the staff highly enough for all they did to make me feel at ease.
Apparently I now have the vision of a fighter pilot, according to Mr Daya! My close vision isn’t quite perfect yet, but I don’t need specs and it is improving all the time.
It feels like I have fantastic vision and I feel blessed every morning when I wake up and I can see.
“My dream after having the surgery is to enjoy my new vision and look after my eyes.”
My experience was really good. Again, the staff were amazing, they look after you well, are very kind and explain everything at every stage. Despite the fact that I’m squeamish and the thought of eye surgery is terrifying, I really can’t remember much about the surgery and I certainly did not have any pain at any stage. I followed the post op advice to the letter and actually enjoyed administering the drops as I would lie on the bed with my eyes closed and it was like having a period of quiet and meditation 4 times a day!
I have just come back from holiday and it was so nice not to have to take any specs or lenses or solutions with me – just my designer sunglasses! It feels so great to have good eyesight, I’m so happy and I would definitely recommend Centre for Sight to my friends and family.
More about Alison’s Laser Lens Replacement procedure.