I’ve worn (or, more like tried to avoid wearing) glasses since I was 7 or 8 years old. I was nearsighted with astigmatism, I don’t remember the exact numbers but I was somewhere in the -4 range. Laser eye surgery has been a temptation since I first heard about it, but shied away because of the cost, my rationalization that it would get better, and my secret fear that my blinding and death scene would play out like in Final Destination.
I finally went for a free consultation this summer. The fact that I had recently paid off my car and they had a 0% 24 month financing offer was enough to push me over the edge. (FYI, it totaled just under $5,000 for both eyes for me– so far worth every penny) After running a bunch of tests and making some colorful printouts of my eyes, they told me they didn’t want to do Lasik on me because one of my corneas wasn’t quite symmetrical enough. But I was a good candidate for PRK, which is the older version of laser eye surgery. I was discouraged until they told me that PRK is required by the military and for pilots. I was sold. By the end of the conversation I was actually feeling grateful that I wasn’t getting that cheap flimsy Lasik that everyone else gets. My eyes were gonna be hardcore.
For anyone who doesn’t know the difference between Lasik and PRK, (as I didn’t) let me back up a bit. During Lasik, a laser cuts a flap in your cornea. The flap is lifted, and the laser reshapes the middle of your cornea to correct your vision. The flap is than placed back, and you are pretty much good to go- back to normal life and seeing close to, if not perfect, the next day.
During PRK, the epithelium, or thin skin layer of the cornea, is dissolved away with acid, exposing the hard surface. The laser then reshapes the surface of the cornea to correct your vision. A bandage contact lens is placed over the eye until the epithelium grows back in a few days. You’re out of commission for 3-5 days, and it can be painful at times. You then have to take steroid drops for up to 3 months to control the healing of your eyes. Patience is key, as your vision can take 6 months to get to its best. Because PRK is done on the surface of the cornea, and nothing is cut, it leaves everything more structurally stable, and is a more conservative procedure. There’s also no flap that can become dislodged if you get punched in the eye down the road.
Below I’ll explain what happened during my PRK surgery, and briefly outline my progress since then. Because I became obsessed with reading other people’s detailed day by day timelines before -and after, -when I could- my surgery, and I will also write a follow-up article to this one detailing my day to day recovery.
The day of the surgery started out with paperwork, followed by post-op instructions. I was told that after the surgery, unless I was walking or eating a meal, my eyes should be closed. The eye drop regime was explained, and would begin at 4p.m. that day. After that I was given 2 Valium and led into a waiting area with a TV. I was feeling pretty relaxed when they brought me into the surgery room and I met my new buddy the red light, on whom I would be focusing during the action. I always thought those eye opening devices looked pretty uncomfortable, but I barely even noticed when it was put on me. My eyes were numbed too, so my eyeball couldn’t feel a thing. They then put in a tear plug (to keep my eyes wetter for the next few days). Next I saw this ring come down and felt it press on my eye a little. They poured a liquid into the ring. It looked like I was underwater for a few seconds, and then they soaked it up with this spongy thing. They then scraped it a little. Scraped is really too harsh a word, it just looked like that. It was then time for the laser. My right eye was first. The laser was on it for 26 seconds. During this time I could hear clicking and see blue flashes as I focused on the red light. Towards the end I smelled the faint odor of something burning. After that, some more stuff was poured in my eye, and the soft bandage contact lens was put in. The left eye was similar, except a slightly longer time with the laser. After that I was led to a nice comfy chair to rest for about 20-30 minutes before they checked me out, gave me some numbing drops for the road, taped on some plastic eye shields and sunglasses, and sent me on my way with a prescription for Percocet. I needed a driver for the day of the surgery and the next 2 appointments.
In the 3-4 days that followed I spent most of my time at home, taking lots of naps, listening to books on tape, and waiting for the kitchen timer to go off and tell me it was time for the next round of eye drops. I ate a lot of sweet potatoes, took extra fish oil and vitamin C, and cringed every time someone sent me a text message that I couldn’t read. My eyes felt a mild burning sensation overall, with a few bouts of stabbing pain that seemed to occur completely randomly. The Percocet was fantastic for this, and helped with the sleeping. My contact lenses were taken out on Day 5, and despite some brief irritation, the painful part was over. On Day 7 I drove to my 1 week Check-up. After 1 week I was seeing 20/40. I was farsighted now (temporarily over corrected) and it was very hard to read, but my vision overall was drastically better than it had ever been without glasses/contacts. It has been a month now and I am seeing about 20/30, still farsighted, but with much less ghosting/cloudiness. I noticed a significant improvement after switching to the weaker steroid drops. I have faith that things will continue to improve. Spending 3-6 months at 20/40 doesn’t mean much when you spent 30 years at 20/200something. Look out for updates and more details on my recovery in a future article. Good luck!
