PRK

Last week I finally took the plunge and got laser eye corrective surgery. After several preliminary appointments, it was determined that I was not a good LASIK candidate because of my corneal thickness. I was, however, a good PRK candidate. After doing a little more research, talking with people whom have had PRK, and just basically being done with glasses I decided to go for it. In the week leading up to the surgery I was very anxious. I had a hard time falling asleep at night b/c my brain just wouldn't shut down. It was kind of a relief once surgery day was here.

Surgery Day 4/26/2012
Dave's parents were in town so I knew the kids would be taken care of during my recovery so no stress there. Dave went with me to the Wright Eye Center for my surgery which was scheduled at 1:10 p.m. I filled out some forms, paid a lot of money, and then took some Valium. It is hard to tell when the Valium starts working. I still had minor butterflies after about 45 minutes so they gave me another. I was taken to a holding room so to speak where I sat on a recliner and a nurse would give me eye drops every 5-10 minutes to help numb my eyes. At one point I had to go get my eye drawn on so they knew where to direct the laser to correct the astigmatism in my left eye.

About an hour after arriving at the center, the nurse asked if I was ready. I'm not sure you can ever be 100% ready to have a laser directed at your eye, but I might as well go get it over with. Right? I laid down on a table in a dark room with some nurses and my Dr. They used a metal clamp to keep my eye open. Putting the clamp on was surprisingly the most obnoxious part of the whole ordeal. Some sort of medicine was placed on my eye for 1 minute while a nurse counted up, then I could see the Dr. scraping my eye with an instrument but couldn't feel it at all. Next up is the laser. I am told to look at the green light and then I hear a female voice through the machine say something along the lines of "22 seconds laser set". The laser part looked like what I would imagine an alien abduction might seem light. Very blurry, lots of lights, and slight burning smell. Then it was over and I was getting a saline wash and then a contact put over my right eye.

My left eye went very similarly except the laser said, "27 seconds laser set" and the Dr. moved my head around slightly. I am assuming he was correcting my astigmatism. The whole process took about 10 minutes. I sat up and already could see better than I could just 11 minutes ago. There was no pain yet either as I had taken a Demerol prior to the surgery. They checked out my eyes for like 2 minutes and then I was able to go home. Dave lead me out to the car and we went home. I put on my pajamas. laid down, and slept for the next 3 days. I had my alarm set to go off 4 times/day so I culd put in my antibiotic eye drops, steroid eye drops, take my Demerol, and take my Promethazine. I am told I came down about once/day to eat but I really don't remember much from those days.

(update 7/1/12)

It's been a little over 2 months since my surgery and my vision is better than 20/20! I wake up wit dry eyes, but that is the only side effect I have noticed. I am more than thrilled with the ability to see unaided my glasses or contacts. Having PRK was totally worth the cost, the recovery, and having a laser pointed at my eye!