Not happy with my PRK
Hi y'all.
I had Lasik done in 1996. My eyes were approximately -2.5 each, and due to my age, (40 then) I was given monovision. My eyes were done 24 hours apart, and except for me stupidly stopping for a coffee en route home, meaning that instead of SLEEPING through the rough 4 hours post-op, I was WEEPING! Yes, it hurt. No, it didn't hurt for long. After 4 hours there was only very minor discomfort, and it was short-lived. After the second eye was done I went straight to bed, and had no problems. Literally, 4 hours after LASIK I was out of pain, permanently. And having been a glasses wearer for 30 years, the improvement was instant and totally amazing. I am 6'4" tall and I've never clearly seen my feet in the shower! Now I could see things miles away! I was given a distance eye and a reading eye, and it took about 6 weeks for this to "kick-in". As a mechanic, requiring good close-up vision, my reading eye was set for clear vision up to about arms length, which was perfect. I thoroughly recommend LASIK.
But I'm now spending more time in front of a computer rather than a toolbox, and the "arms length" isn't good enough. I had glasses made with a "planar" right lense and a correction left lense. This was great but hey, I had spent a lot of money 12 years ago to throw away my glasses. I approached my original surgeon who checked out my vision, and said he wouldn't touch my reading eye as he felt it was good enough as it was. But he said my distance vision wasn't good enough, and he agreed to do a PRK enhancement for FREE! a 12 year warranty! From a surgeon! WOW, this is unheard of!
Partly because I just trustted him, and partly because he assumed his staff would have explained it, and partly because his staff thought as a repeat patient I probably knew what it was all about, no one bothered to tell me about PRK. When I sat up from this painless proceedure I suddenly realised I now had no distance vision. Remember, my left eye was set up for arms-length vision. And my right eye vision was all fuzzy and smoky. They told me that was because of the bandage contact lense, and that it would improve over the next two weeks. TWO WEEKS, I hadn't plannned on two weeks off work! They gave me a 7-day contact lens to correct my left eye for distance and told me to get some cheap reading glasses (about $15 at Kmart). At two weeks they said it'll be better by 4 weeks. At 4 weeks they said they wanted to see me again at 10 weeks, and if it's not better then I'll have to wait 6 months and they'll do it again! PRK has stuffed up my life! For now anyway.
I now wear a contact lense everyday so I can drive and function, and reading glasses so I can read. What went wrong?
After about 2 weeks I woke early one morning thinking I'd stabbed myself in the eye. I used pain killers and an ice pack, and after 2 hours I fell asleep. I went back to the surgery where one of the staff (not the surgeon) checked the eye and said it looked fine. As the pain was long gone I dismissed the event.
At the 4 week checkup when I explained to the surgeon that the vision was now useless, he was at a loss to know what had gone wrong. Then I mentioned the "stabbing" incident, and straight away he said, "there's the answer. You didn't stab your eye, it dried out and the epithelium stuck to the eyelid. When your eye moved it tore away, wrinkling the epithelium layer." My correction is actually spot on, but the wrinkles cause severe astigmatism. When I look at a traffic light, I see another to the left and another below the "actual' light. He says it will settle down, and seemed confident. I have 4 more weeks to go till the 10 week visit. I see absolutely no improvement yet. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for this opportunity to read about others experiences. I hope mine helps someone make a decision. Lasik? Yes, go for it. PRK? Do a LOT of research on forums like this, and talk it through with the surgeon. I see plenty of reports of people who are totally happy with their PRK after six months. I hope I'll be one of them. But if I knew then what I know now I'd think twice about 6 months without good vision.
Locki.