PRK another experience

I though I'd share my recent experience as well for those of you doing your research, I found this forum before my surgery and appreciated all the info that it had to offer.

Pre-op:
I'm a 28yr old male who's been wearing glasses or contacts since I was 8 or 9. I had a pretty high nearsighted prescription -7.50 left eye, -6.50 right eye and had been considering laser surgery for a few years now. After talking with my current eye doctor I decided to investigate further and check out the laser eye center in hawaii. My ex got lasik there and is still very happy with her results 20/20 and 20/15, however a few friends of mine went the PRK route and they are also very satisfied as well. After a bit of research and a tour of the facility I was leaning towards PRK. I'm a surfer and avid scuba diver and had heard that there were some concerns about the lasik flap and extreme pressure changes (either high altitude or increased underwater pressure). However, on the day of the surgery the surgeon said that this was not a concern and there was no such evidence to her knowledge that the flap was susceptible to separation due to pressure.
By that time I had kind of made up my mind to go PRK anyway. I had similar reasons as the others on this forum, less invasive, no flap, less risk of dry eye, and additionally I had read a few articles that suggested that PRK vision was better and more stable in the long term than lasik. I still had some questions and wasn't super sure going into the surgery but figured that PRK sounded like there would be better results in the long run with the only drawback being a longer recovery time. Even after reading the forum I didn't know quite what to expect from that longer recovery time.

Day 0 Thurs May 15th, 2008:
Went into the office early morning, had started Vigamox antibiotic drops a few days before and took a Neurontin (nerve pain medication) before surgery first thing in the morning. Got dropped off at the office at about 8:30am, was taken into pre-op room and given all kinds of eye drops. Finally met the actual surgeon, Dr. Tyrie Jenkins, (up till that point all consultation was either with my current optometrist, the laser centers assistants, and their optometrist). Talked with Dr. Jenkins for 4-5 minutes after which she left the room and I was prepped and brought into the laser room. I had seen an operation during the tour a few weeks before so I kind of knew what to expect, I highly recommend this just so you have an idea to prepare yourself ahead of time because it's a pretty strange experience laying there on the chair and watching the blinking red light knowing your eyeballs are being sizzled. They did both eyes at once, I could see pretty well immediately after, Dr. Jenkins examined the eyes and then I was done. From arriving at the office at 8:30am, I was ready to be picked up by 9:10am. Probably the most expensive 40 min of my life. I waited a few minutes for my ride, I could see pretty well, my left eye was a bit blurrier than my right eye but not that bad. I went out to breakfast, the eyes started hurting a little when the anesthetic wore off but not too bad. Made it home and went to bed. I was able to watch movies, take it kind of easy and go to bed early. They gave me Nevanac as well 3xs/day although it didn't help as much as it helped Matt and I continued the Neurontin for 3 days following the operation as well.
A couple extra facts, they removed the epithelium with alcohol, i've heard disadvantages of all the different techniques but she seemed pretty comfortable with this one. They also had wavefront and intralase available, total intralase lasik cost was $2300/eye, PRK cost was $2000/eye with wavefront, and my VSP insurance gave me a $200/eye discount and allowed me to continue all post-op care with my primary eye doctor, so total cost for PRK was $1800/eye. Also, my prescriptions ran me and extra $100 bucks which I hadn't counted on before.

Day 1:
Slept in and woke up feeling pretty well, my eyes were kinda gooey from the thicker overnight celluvisc drops so I had to carefully clean them off without rubbing, things were a little scratchy and not quite as clear as day 0. I actually drove to my 1 day post-op appointment without much problem although focusing was tiring at times. They said everything looked good, I couldn't see too well and am not sure what my vision was at that point maybe 20/100 or something. Came back home and didn't do much but watch TV. Tried to drive to the store later which was definitely not safe, had a really hard time focusing and keeping my eyes open, made it back home without crashing and things started to get a bit worse. Lots of burning and tearing, scratchy feeling, couldn't keep them open very much at all. Ate some food, tried to get ready for the next day and went to bed early and in pain, maybe a 6 or 7 out of 10 on the pain scale.

Day 2:
My girlfriend and I had made plans to go to a neighbor island for a weekend vacation so we got up early and headed to the airport, I had thought after day 0 that things would be pretty well comfortable and the trip was still an alright idea. Things were about as bad as the night before, painful, hard to keep my eyes open, really sensitive to light. I had a pair of welding glasses, oxyactylene so they weren't too dark, that I use when I get dilated so I was wearing those plus some other sunglasses and could function outside. I was starting to regret the decision to not reschedule the trip or the surgery but it was too late now. I was able to kinda function for most of the day with the welding glasses, drops, and keeping my eyes closed alot. We finally got to the condo at about 3pm and I was very glad to be indoors, still needed my sunglasses though, even at night, the halos were pretty bad and the contrast was horrible. This was definitely the worst day by far.

Day 3:
Woke up feeling much better, most of the pain had gone away although some scratchiness remained, but I could keep my eyes open and check out the scenery. Still pretty sensitive to light although not as bad as day 2. Finished the nevanac and neurontin, kept on with the vigamox. Had a pretty good day, vision was still blurry, worse in the left eye but overall comfort was much better. Was able to enjoy the trip, was able to drive for a bit and felt pretty good by the end of the day.

Day 4:
Still a little light sensitive but feeling more comfortable vision still blurry and was starting to worry me a bit but I remembered that this was the "longer recovery time" I was supposed to be prepared for. I had my 4 day post-op to have the bandage contacts removed and I was a little apprehensive about feeling the pain again once they were taken out. I was able to drive pretty successfully although signs and letters were still hard to read. Went to the appointment and he treated me like a normal eye patient, I was a little surprised at his lack of caution in removing the contacts but there was no pain. He said that day 4 is usually one of the worst vision days and it should only get better from here with the pain behind me. He said that there's still a small area at the center of the eye that was blocking my vision much like a slight cataract and this was why it was still blurry. He started me on the FML 4 times/day and I was to use the vigamox until is was finished. I have another appoint in a week which will be 12 days post-op so I will continue the postings then. I tested myself with an online vision chart and am at abou 20/30 in each eye, still pretty blurry but it's kindof a weird blurriness like I can see things clearly but there's some blurriness around the objects. This makes me think that what he said about the healing area might be causing the general blurriness but that the eye can actually see clearly underneath. I don't know, maybe i'm just trying to convince myself to be optimistic but it's starting to dawn on me what that "longer recovery time" really means and I have to keep telling myself that I can't really make any judgements on the overall success of the surgery until a few weeks or months from now. My night vision is much better with not too many halos or starbursts, i haven't tried driving at night yet but think I could manage. At this point i'm just trying to maintain the best outlook, I can pretty much function normally although the blurriness is pretty frustrating. Other than that I'm excited to see how it all turns out. Thanks for keeping this post up and hope this additional testimonial helps.