PRK : the procedure

I had my laser eye surgery on Tuesday of this week. Today is Friday and it is the first time I have been able to look at a monitor long enough to submit an article. Here's how the whole thing went down..

The Procedure

The procedure was quick and painless.

1. My afternoon started off with a visit to the CustomVue machine. Three measurements were taken for each eye. When I asked why, I got a somewhat disturbing answer..each reading comes up a little bit different, the doctor then chooses the "best" reading out of all of them.. WTF? When I pressed the issue, and asked well how much different are the results? A: about 1 or 2 hundredths.. I then asked: Well doesn't the procedure trim a few microns off of the cornea? A: Yes.. Q: Well, isn't a hundredth of whatever measurement significant? A: No not really, just come this way and have a seat in the chair..
   
   I am going to press my doctor about this when I see him next. Even if the .01 is not significant, he should instruct his staff on how to handle questions from someone who understands what precision means and how it might apply to this situation.
   
   Update: Vishu (who had the LASIK) asked the same question and got a much better answer from his technician:
   The CustomVue measurements are hard because they are very affected by where you focus. The person giving you the exam does a bunch of stuff to try to get you to relax, thus relaxing your torquing of the cornea and focusing out as far as posible. So how you take the test is the true variable, not the test itself (of course right?)
2. I sit in a big chair that is reclined all the way back. My head is positioned on a air-inflated cushion that seems to keep my head a little bit more stable.
3. The technician then puts a bunch of different drops in my eye to numb them, etc. He then wipes my eyelids with some alcohol feeling wipe, in order to sterilize them.
4. The technician lays a plastic barrier on my face with a cut-out for one of my eyes that is being treated.
5. The doctor comes in and instructs me to look at the red light in front of my face. The apparatus is about 5 inches from my face (maybe closer).
6. thumb:98The doctor puts an eyelid retractor in my eye so that my lids can't close. Think A Clockwork Orange here and you get the picture. This was not painful or uncomfortable in the slightest.
7. The doctor scrubs off the epithelial cells on the surface of my eyeball with something that looks like an electric toothbrush. If you have an Oral-B you know what this device looks like. I felt a little bit of pressure during this phase, but not anything painful.
8. My vision goes blurry.
9. The doctor says hold still and then clacking sounds happen.
10. My vision turns red.
11. The doctor uses something to bathe my eyes with a clear liquid that feels really nice.
12. My vision turns crystal clear.
13. The doctor places a bandage contact (just a clear contact) on my eye.

The process then repeats for the other eye.