Zap zap!
I had PRK 9 days ago. I didn't have many expectations other than it being very unpleasant. My eyes are so sensitive I was never able to wear contacts, or even easily get eye drops in. There were, of course, a lot of eye drops before the surgery. They give you an eye-ball stress ball to squeeze during the surgery.
And I squeezed the vitreous humour out of that stress ball. Unfortunately, these don't numb your eyelids to make it any easier for the doctor to get the speculum in. Yes, it's still called a speculum. After you're all clockwork orange, the doctor tells you to relax as you're trying to clamp your eyelid down as hard as possible. I'll get right on that, Doc. More drops, a scrape to remove an outer layer of eyeball, which I didn't feel, more drops, "Please look directly at the light."
I could feel the laser on my eyeball, but it didn't hurt. When it was done, I could smell my burned eyeball. They applied some medication, then rinsed for while, some more drops, a pool of liquid, a bandage contact, and then some gauze over that eye and then they taped it shut. Repeat for the other side.
They told me I'd be "without functional vision" for 4-7 days, but I didn't know what that really meant. I was surprised how well I could see immediately after the surgery. They taped some plastic domes over my eyes and gave me very, very, very cheap sunglasses to wear over them. A friend was there to give me a ride home. I kept my eyes shut most of the way home. I slept probably 40 of the next 48 hours, waking up to put drops in and have some occasional codeine, although the pain was pretty minimal.
On Tuesday, I took CalTrain down to my 4-day checkup and to get the bandage contacts out. I'd healed on the better side of expected and tested at 20/40; the normal 4-day-after range is 20/40-20/80. I drove my car home without any issues. Later that day, my left eye hurt a lot, I ate a bunch of codeine and went to sleep early. Wednesday was as bad or worse, and I went through most of the rest of my codeine. Thursday was better, and towards the end of the day I called the office and was told this was not normal, and could I come down to the office?
I live in San Francisco. This doctor is in San Jose. Our public transportation sucks. It was after three, and I was in no condition to drive myself and there was no way I was getting there before 5. Plus I knew all they were going to say was that I had a tiny scratch on my cornea and it would heal fine, here have some more placebo^Wcodeine and enjoy your 3 hour trip home. I asked them to call another prescription into the pharmacy (sadly they didn't offer anything better than codeine), and they told me to call the next morning to schedule an appointment if I wasn't feeling any better.
Fortunately, on Friday I felt fine. On Saturday I went shopping for sunglasses, because the ones they'd provided were really, really bad. So bad they distort your vision. I ended up buying a pair of lightly mirrored Ray Bans from Macys, with a coupon I got by going into the Hilton on O'Farrell and asking a registration clerk for one. The more you know.
It's Sunday, and my vision is still getting better. My eyes dry out pretty quickly; I need to put in drops every 15-20 minutes if I'm looking at my computer monitor, and it's a lot easier on my eyes if I zoom in. If I'm out and about, I put drops in every hour. I definitely need the sunglasses outside unless I'm in the shade.
PRK is in a way more damaging than LASIK, so it'll still be a few weeks before my vision stabilizes. I have high hopes. My next checkup appointment is at the end of April, so we'll find out then!
And I squeezed the vitreous humour out of that stress ball. Unfortunately, these don't numb your eyelids to make it any easier for the doctor to get the speculum in. Yes, it's still called a speculum. After you're all clockwork orange, the doctor tells you to relax as you're trying to clamp your eyelid down as hard as possible. I'll get right on that, Doc. More drops, a scrape to remove an outer layer of eyeball, which I didn't feel, more drops, "Please look directly at the light."
I could feel the laser on my eyeball, but it didn't hurt. When it was done, I could smell my burned eyeball. They applied some medication, then rinsed for while, some more drops, a pool of liquid, a bandage contact, and then some gauze over that eye and then they taped it shut. Repeat for the other side.
They told me I'd be "without functional vision" for 4-7 days, but I didn't know what that really meant. I was surprised how well I could see immediately after the surgery. They taped some plastic domes over my eyes and gave me very, very, very cheap sunglasses to wear over them. A friend was there to give me a ride home. I kept my eyes shut most of the way home. I slept probably 40 of the next 48 hours, waking up to put drops in and have some occasional codeine, although the pain was pretty minimal.
On Tuesday, I took CalTrain down to my 4-day checkup and to get the bandage contacts out. I'd healed on the better side of expected and tested at 20/40; the normal 4-day-after range is 20/40-20/80. I drove my car home without any issues. Later that day, my left eye hurt a lot, I ate a bunch of codeine and went to sleep early. Wednesday was as bad or worse, and I went through most of the rest of my codeine. Thursday was better, and towards the end of the day I called the office and was told this was not normal, and could I come down to the office?
I live in San Francisco. This doctor is in San Jose. Our public transportation sucks. It was after three, and I was in no condition to drive myself and there was no way I was getting there before 5. Plus I knew all they were going to say was that I had a tiny scratch on my cornea and it would heal fine, here have some more placebo^Wcodeine and enjoy your 3 hour trip home. I asked them to call another prescription into the pharmacy (sadly they didn't offer anything better than codeine), and they told me to call the next morning to schedule an appointment if I wasn't feeling any better.
Fortunately, on Friday I felt fine. On Saturday I went shopping for sunglasses, because the ones they'd provided were really, really bad. So bad they distort your vision. I ended up buying a pair of lightly mirrored Ray Bans from Macys, with a coupon I got by going into the Hilton on O'Farrell and asking a registration clerk for one. The more you know.
It's Sunday, and my vision is still getting better. My eyes dry out pretty quickly; I need to put in drops every 15-20 minutes if I'm looking at my computer monitor, and it's a lot easier on my eyes if I zoom in. If I'm out and about, I put drops in every hour. I definitely need the sunglasses outside unless I'm in the shade.
PRK is in a way more damaging than LASIK, so it'll still be a few weeks before my vision stabilizes. I have high hopes. My next checkup appointment is at the end of April, so we'll find out then!