Celia Holman Lee shares her experience of life-changing eye surgery
Stunning style icon; television presenter and fashionista extraordinaire Celia Holman Lee was frustrated. She looks nowhere near her age, though she makes no secret of her 63 years, but one thing had fallen victim to the march of time – her eyesight.
“I lost my ability to see things up close, and became completely reliant on reading glasses”, says Celia. “It really drove me nuts. I couldn’t read my phone, no matter how big the font was; I even had trouble putting on eye makeup using a magnifying mirror - sometimes I had to try to do it wearing the glasses!”
Celia was experiencing an eye problem that happens to just about everybody over the age of 40: it’s ageing of the eye, known as Presbyopia. The muscles that usually squeeze the lens in the eye into shape, to allow you to see objects close up, become stiff and don’t work as well anymore.
Most people notice they have to hold printed material at arm’s length, away from their face, in an attempt to see it clearly - this is a dead giveaway for Presbyopia.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve had laser eye surgery before, or if you’ve had perfect vision all your life-Presbyopia is inevitable!
Celia’s work in visual media meant she had no choice but to rely on her glasses to see. “Don’t get me started about those glasses”, she laughs. “Every day without fail I’d put them down somewhere in the office and everyone would have to hunt madly for them, or I’d leave them behind in restaurants, or lose them at the bottom of my bag and be fishing around frantically.”
“I remember once I was doing fashion workshops at Brown Thomas and forgot them-totally stuck. What can I do from there? I couldn’t read anything; I was only looking at fuzzy pictures.”
Even if you wear reading glasses, you can only see about a foot on front of you so have to keep taking them off to see at different distances.
Then there’s the aesthetic issue- you’re dressed beautifully and every accessory has been carefully co-ordinated- having to add a pair of glasses to your ensemble presents an irritating lack of freedom. “I’m not anti-glasses - I think a sexy pair can be a great accessory”, explains Celia “But it’s the dependency and being forced to wear them I didn’t like. You no longer have the element of choice, and for my job, looking good is vital - how can I give a style talk with glasses on? I’d be wearing them perched on the bridge of my nose; looking down at notes and then looking up and not being able to see beyond the front row of the audience. Up, down, up down- it was so annoying”.
“It’s such a clever procedure, and now I can read my iPad; texts; computer; the newspaper apps on the phone - everything”
A revolutionary eye surgery available at Optilase, called Presbia, can turn back the hands of time and allow people with near vision problems to see perfectly, without corrective eyewear.
A microscopically thin disc is slipped into place over the cornea, and it works to gather all the light entering the eye; focusing it onto the retina to allow you to form a perfectly clear image. It only needs to be inserted into one eye, and your distance vision remains unaffected.
“I was excited to hear Optilase had a solution to my near vision problem” says Celia. “I was apprehensive initially - you would be when it comes to your eyes - but the Optilase team were so meticulous in explaining every detail, step by step, that I was reassured. Surgeon Wayne Crewe Brown was very candid – he explained it doesn’t give you back the eyesight of your youth, but it takes away the dependency on glasses.”
“I felt nothing other than a slight pressure during the procedure, and it’s so quick. There’s no bandages or anything- the only thing was I couldn’t wear eye makeup for 10 days after surgery, so I went to events anyhow and explained I’d just had Presbia surgery. People were fascinated!”
“It’s such a clever procedure, and now I can read my iPad; texts; computer; the newspaper apps on the phone - everything. This tiny little thing in my eye has made a massive difference in my life.”
To find out if you are eligible for this life-changing procedure, contact Optilase for a free consultation on 1890 301 302 or visit www.optilase.com