I'd worn contact lenses for almost 20 years. So, not too long ago, on a day when they were particularly irritating, I decided to get rid of them. Just imagine a piece of dry gummy plastic sliding up into your watering blinking eyeball and you'll get the idea. It wasn't the first time, but this time it was the straw that broke the camels back. Say hello to laser surgery.

Finally, time to get rid of the contact lenses and glasses!

Some of the things to consider when going for laser vision correction include the type of procedure to undergo and whether or not you would like to try monovision. For more details on the procedure types, what monovision entails and how my recovery process went, just choose a topic from the menu on the left.

Anyway, although many companies offer eye surgery, there was one in my own city called Focus Eye Center. The initial price includes all follow-up visits, ongoing medication, potential follow-up treatments if required and anything else that may be required.

The decision I made was really done on a risk avoidance basis. As you read about the different procedures you'll see some possible pro's and con's so that you can make up your own mind. Personally, I decided to go for the Wavefront PRK operation (read about my PRK recovery). Just in case you are wondering, I did have astigmatism. As they reshape the surface anyway I don't think it is an issue unless very severe.

The whole procedure lasted only a couple of minutes.

If you are considering laser eye surgery I strongly suggest you take your time reading up on the subject. Perhaps take a look at some of the web sites provided by various surgery centers. They will talk in detail about the procedures, equipment and staff experience at their own facilities.

Note: I believe it used to be the case that the doctor would manually adjust for eye movements and have more of a role to play in the actual surgery -- particularly with the inital slice for Lasik procedures. However, given the technological nature of the PRK surgery, the doctor did pre-work, is there in case of emergency, and does some post-work, but really isn't doing much with respect to critical hands on surgery other than scraping off epithelial cells.

Good luck!