I’m getting PRK next week (eek). Despite how excited I am, I’m also very nervous. Very, very, very nervous. I get woozy watching the little films they make one watch showing the corneal scraping and flap-making and whatnot. I’m woozy typing about it, so I’ll move on now.
PRK is similar to LASIK, only instead of making a corneal flap and resurfacing the underside, they just scrape off the epithelium and resurface the entire thing, then allow it to heal. I takes a few days for your vision to come back, rather than instantly, like LASIK. It supposedly has a slightly better outcome, both in vision and long term vision. I have worse than 20/600 vision (can’t see the big “E”), so any improvement is going to be fantastic to me, but I chose PRK over LASIK for the fact that I have a free week and would rather do the “better” way.
So, the other day I went in for yet another “make sure all is well” checkup and they handed me a few prescriptions for the drops I’ll need, plus a script for DEMEROL??? They said I’d experience “some discomfort” which I took to mean “some discomfort”, not “needs Demerol.” This is disturbing me.
So, I’m asking anyone if they’ve had this type of surgery if it’s that painful. Also, I’m having it done Wednesday and planning to return to work Monday - will I likely be able to do that? They are also planning to bandage my eyes and put goggles on my head - should I be extra nice to my husband this week so he can’t slip anything into my food that I can’t see? How quickly did your vision return? Are you really really really glad you had it done? Any other suggestions? I have until Monday, when I have the mapping done, to change my mind and choose LASIK, but I don’t know that’s what I want to do.
I did research the crap out of all this, I think I just would like some soothing, comforting opinions that it’s not going to be as bad as I’m fearing…
The discomfort is from pressure put on the eyeball in the handling of it. For some people (like my wife) it is hardly noticeable. For other people (like me) it is excruciating. It hurt like hell. It’s the sort of thing that I can almost feel again just from remembering it. Yours will probably be more like my wife’s, though. We had LASIK, by the way, but it’s the same sort of eyeball squeezing for what has to be done. Still, we got only Valium.
Incidentally, LASIK isn’t always instant vision. Neither one of us could see for shit when we sat up. We wore dark glasses and stumbled to the car (my sister took us) like blind people. But we did as instructed and went home and lay down for a nap. An hour or two later, we woke up, and for the first time in many years, I could see the time.
We ran outside like school kids, jumping up and down. Look at THAT tree! Wow, yeah, look at THAT one! Oh my god, there’s a SIGN!
I had BOTH Lasik and PRK done in 2000. They did my right eye with Lasik, stopped, and told me that because my cornea cells were “against the grain”, that the other eye should be done with PRK. So they did the left eye that way, on the same day.
As I recall, the PRK was not painful. The main thing I remember is, during the next two days, that I had INCREDIBLE. LIGHT. SENSITIVITY. in the left eye. I felt like a vampire, and didn’t even attempt to go out until after the sun had set. By the third day, that started to fade.
In the 7 years since, I haven’t had any problems with either eye. But I would say getting it done now, with the short days, is a good idea.
I had LASIK done, and it could not have possibly gone any better. My recovery was pretty quick too. I basically went home and slept that day, and then drove to Seattle the next day. (My wife was going to drive, but I totally felt OK with it.) I was able to see right away from the chair. My only problem was that I think I needed more eye numbing solution, because the microkeratome (the pulsating razor blade that cuts open your eye) hurt like a bitch. I was using all my mental power to not move… and afterwards mentioned I didn’t think it would hurt. They said I should have said something, and theyd’ have given me more. :smack:
My friend had PRK done, I believe LASIK wasn’t an option for her for some reason. It took her much longer to recover. Like was mentioned her eyes were REALLY sensitive to light for at elast the next few days. She was out of it, total, for a week or so as I recall. But she is very happy with her result now. The scrubber brush thingy they use for PRK I think may have been more than I could have handled :s
I have a cousin who had PRK on one eye. He plans to eventually have LASIK on the other.
His PRK eye actually needs to be touched up because the original correction wasn’t quite enough. His doctor is well-regarded and the surgery was done correctly.
He won’t go back because of the pain and the fact that it took at least a week for his eyesight to be clear enough to drive.
Even after seeing his experience, I would still choose PRK if I decide to do something about my eyes before something better comes along.
I would just make sure that the prescription was filled and ready before I left for the surgery. Really.
I had PRK done on both eyes a few years ago because my corneas are too thin for LASIK. The surgery itself was fine. It was kind of odd to see your vision go all wonky as they scrape the surface of your eye, but it honestly didn’t hurt at all. The most painful part was when they put in the little spreaders that keep your eyelids open, and that was because they didn’t wait for the drops to take effect, because it doesn’t really hurt.
As for recovery, there’s some discomfort, but generally, as long as you remember not to rub your eyes, it’s not bad. I had one contact lens that tended to pop out now and then, which didn’t feel good, but other than that, they just felt sort of dry and uncomfortable. You mentioned going back to work - it depends on what you do. I went back to work about three or four days later, and was mostly OK, but some of my lab work involved staring at very small objects very close to my eyes, and that was kind of tough.
