Laser eye surgery

Wondering if anyone's had laser surgery for vision correction.  I currently wear contacts and will on the rare occasion, wear my glasses.
I'm wondering if they do wave-front custom cornea surgery in the UK, which is what I'd need since my eyesight is so bad, and standard lasik would not work on me.
Is it as popular in the UK as it is in the US?  Does anyone know what kind of price I would expect to pay?  Does NHS cover the surgery or any portion of it?
I'm wondering if I'd be better off just having it done in the US...
Anyone know about it at all?   
Thanks!
Jeannie

Check with Moorfields Eye hospital in London -- that's where they do the majority of SERIOUS eye care.

I'm soooooooo looking forward to getting it done -- one of these days 

Yes, they do laser surgery here. But I've not looked into it to be able to answer your really good questions.

It's that I saw the topic and I had someone tell me something that frankly put me off the idea, whereas I was really considering it before.

You see, I have really great closeup vision. A lot of my work is closely viewed, so I really treasure that. It's the hassle of putting on my glasses to read anything further than 10 feet away that had me thinking I'd go for it.

When I mentioned this to an eye person (don't know her exact qualifications), she told me that the surgery will "level" things out. Yes, a 20/20 or something close, but I will probably make the difference up on my close vision. It'll take my great nearsightedness and make it average.

I just am not willing to give that up.

Besides, as we age, we get more and more farsighted, so I'm anticipating not needing any glasses (naturally) by the time I'm 97. 

My cousin has normal Lasik done in the US but my cousin went to the Wilmer Eye Institute which is part of Johns Hopkins. There, none of the docs or staff have had surgery. Why? Because they are the ones who spend their professional lives trying to fix the messes that happen when these surgeries go wrong.

Moral of the story? If you're going to do it, be absolutely certain that you are aware of all the risks and also get loads of references from people with the same degree of poor vision you have.

I'd start at the place DUC recommended for UK info...

I would not do it, why a woman I worked with had it done and she no longer was able to see as good as she could before. As it is still new, we do not know what will happen in 10-15 years down the road. I would rather spend my life with my glasses than go blind and not be able to see my kids grow up.

I agree with this one completely!

Moral of the story? If you're going to do it, be absolutely certain that you are aware of all the risks and also get loads of references from people with the same degree of poor vision you have.

 

Well, in spite of much negative feedback, I got all the facts, weighed the pros and cons, and decided to have the laser eye surgery.  My surgeon is one of the most renowned eye surgeons in my area (NY).  In fact, he did a cornea transplant on my mother's aunt, as well.  Additionally, he's a member of the same group of surgeons who performed laser vision correction on Tiger Woods.
The surgery itself lasted only about 2 minutes on each eye.  I knew right away, as soon as I sat up, that I was able to see more clearly.  I took only that day and the following day off from work.  My vision stabilized completely within about 2 weeks.
I've now officially gone from about 20/700 to 20/20 in both eyes.  For contact lens wearers, that's about a -8.00 (plus astigmatism).  I was extremely nearsighted. 
What Lisa mentioned about losing close-up vision is a bit true.  I noticed when I was trying to pluck my eyebrows.  So now I have a magnifying mirror.  To me, that's no big deal.  I have no problems reading.
I'm really happy with the results.  Insurance covered zilch, but to me, it was well-worth the $5,000. 
= no more