Viv,
There was absolutely no pain when they did my right eye, but the left, there was pain during the cutting of the cornea flap, but only due to the pressure they were putting on my eye, not the cutting itself. It only lasted about 3-4 seconds, though and I have a high tolerance for pain so it wasn't bad. After the procedure, the discomfort was like I had been at the beach and had sand blown into my eyes. I went home, and took a 3 hour nap as instructed, and when I awoke, my right eye felt totally normal with no discomfort. My left eye felt like it had an eye lash in there, but that's all. By the next morning, it was almost normal, and by that afternoon, felt totally fine. There is some inconvienence involved. There are quite a few follow up visits...day after surgery, one week out, one month out and six months out and the eye drops. I have to put in an antiboitic drop, a steroid drop and an artificial tear drop in four times a day and wait at least five minutes in between each drop so I don't wash out the previous one. That is for the first week, then it is just the artificial tear for the next three to four weeks.
I would highly recommend it to anyone that is a candidate for it.