Refractive lens replacement surgery

After Scotland, I finally decided that I cared enough to look at laser eye surgery. The problem is rain-on-glasses; on the summit plateau of Ben Nevis, I could barely see anything, and white snow and white cloud makes it hard to see what you can't see. This has obvious implications for safety. After some research-aka-googling, I went to talk to Optical Express, who told me I would get Refractive lens replacement surgery not lasering. This is because... natural lenses tend to start going around sixty or whenever; I forget the exact details doubtless you can find them if you care. Getting tested takes an hour and a half and involves about eight different machines, and ends with what is doubtless intended to be a reassuring video narrated by what looks like a prosperous farmer in a nice three-piece tweed suit, but is actually their CEO. Mostly, they are trying to reassure you that the chances of them miss-slicing up your eyeballs are small.

Lens replacement is more expensive; I was quoted and accepted £9590 for both. Trying to scout around for comparison is tricky, since people are shy about revealing prices. I decided to wing it and not go for two or three quotes.

The promise is that I won't need glasses afterwards. They are a touch vague about exactly how much I won't need them, but I'm reasonably confident they'll do as well as anyone, so I'm just going to suck it and see.

I thought about it for a week and could see no reason not to proceed so I did, booking my appoinment for early-April and handing over my £1k deposit. Naturally there is financing available, but I avoided that. Now I wait, having paid my £8590 balance (actually £8690, because they mistakenly added in a £100 price increase, but they have promised me the £100 back).

2026/3/31: I had my I had my videophone (Teams) chat with my eye surgeon today. All well, he answered my questions (mostly: what is the delay post-op about? Ans: mostly, letting a non-symmetrical lens settle in, so that any shocks won’t cause it to rotate). He did say they weren’t certain of getting my lenses in on time, but we’ll see (geddit?).