PRK: Holy Shit

[The Reverend Floater]

Got PRK on Thursday. My eyes feel like they're in a deep fryer. Tell me this subsides quickly! Day one was rough, two was chill and today is PAIN CAVE.

[Jethro]

I am an eyeglass wearer for the past 25+ years with a slight prescription. I have been considering Lasik, but I googled PRK and it seems like it might be less invasive. Wikepedia did say the healing was more painful and took longer though. What made you choose this over Lasik or lasek?

[The Reverend Floater]

Basically my doctor (I went to the Casey Eye Center at OHSU in PDX which I'm told is a premier Lasik/PRK facility) told me the outcome is the same, the variables are largely the same, etc but that PRK is simply more durable. With LASIK, you have that outside chance of dislodging the "flap" they make later on down the road. My doctor said it's extremely rare, even for active people, but that maybe the best way to look at it is the fact that the military ONLY allows for PRK. He said that as long as I'm down for a little pain and have some patience for healing, it was likely a better option given my lifestyle. Today is better than yesterday but will likely flare again by the evening. I'm still blind as a bat. It's a trip...right after the procedure, you have great vision (I was 20/20), then it gets bad for a while as it heals. I will likely have 20/10 - 20/20 (knock on wood) when I'm done and I was pretty blind beforehand.

[PaSucks]

Had PRK coming up on two years ago in July. The ride home was rough. After the nap it wasn't bad though until day 5 I believe. They had taken the contacts out on day three and apparently a little piece of flesh had come loose it fully dislodged itself on day five. Luckily I was already scheduled for a five day checkup so they just put the contact back in that eye and it felt instantly better. The next 6 months were up and down as far as vision was concerned but the pain goes away fairly quickly. Artificial tears are your friend. Do everything they say exactly as they say it for the first few months and you'll be fine. I was just a hair worse than 20/15 at the one year mark. My night vision is better and I have virtually no halo problems, in fact I'd say they're much better than when I wore contacts. Probably the best money I ever spent.

[The Reverend Floater]

Had PRK coming up on two years ago in July. The ride home was rough. After the nap it wasn't bad though until day 5 I believe. They had taken the contacts out on day three and apparently a little piece of flesh had come loose it fully dislodged itself on day five. Luckily I was already scheduled for a five day checkup so they just put the contact back in that eye and it felt instantly better. The next 6 months were up and down as far as vision was concerned but the pain goes away fairly quickly. Artificial tears are your friend. Do everything they say exactly as they say it for the first few months and you'll be fine. I was just a hair worse than 20/15 at the one year mark. My night vision is better and I have virtually no halo problems, in fact I'd say they're much better than when I wore contacts. Probably the best money I ever spent.

Thanks for posting that. I've heard absolutely nothing but great things regarding the end results but it's been rough. Today was better than yesterday but we'll see what happens. Vision is better today, too, but still pretty blurry. How long until you have at least somewhat normal vision? Today is day four.

[wurst]

I didn't have that much pain, but it took a looonnng time to get back to 20/20 (from 20/400). My doc would only do one eye at a time, so I had to go through it twice. When I removed the clear contact (bandage) my vision got noticeably worse, and seemed to only marginally improve to around 20/100 after 4 weeks. I started worrying that he'd screwed it up, then BOOM, 20/20 by week 6. Most people heal faster, so YMMV.

Second eye was a piece of cake once I knew what to expect. Hang in there, it's worth it.

Second the artificial tears — it seems ridiculous how much you need to use, but do it as often as you can and you'll heal up faster.

[rideit]

Do you just have to imagine the midget porn now, or can you increase your screen resolution enough?

[Arty50]

I'm thinking he had a premonition that Zach Randolph was going to go off Sunday and had his surgery just before the game so that he wouldn't have thoughts about what could have been...

[PaSucks]

I had the surgery on a Wednesday afternoon and drove to work Monday morning. It was Monday afternoon right as I was leaving work to go to the five day post-op checkup that I started having the problem I described above. That was really the only complication I had. I felt my vision was functional pretty much from day 3-4 on, but it definitely fluctuates. It would be great one minute and 20 minutes later things would be blurry. Another 20 minutes and things were crystal clear again. At the one month point I was 20/20 but still with some minor fluctuating. It was probably the three to four month range before I felt 100%, but don't let that discourage you, it didn't stop me from doing anything other than the first few days post-op. I'll still have some dry eye when I'm fatigued, but that really isn't any different than when I wore contacts or even glasses, so I doubt it's a result of the surgery.

[fixiewrek]

Thanks for these updates. I'm getting mine at the end of the month and not looking forward to the surgery, but can't wait to not have to wear glasses/contacts.

[jSki]

Had PRK last Friday. No major pain, hopefully I'm not on the pain train today though. Every morning it feels like I'm coming out of a coma and takes an hour to get my eyes open. Vision fluctuates but isn't bad. I'll be real happy to have this over with and skiing again.

[Blatant]

i really want this or something as contacts are a pita but i've lived with them for so long so what the hell. All the threads over the years in here are always positive for the most part but it scares the hell out of me. Especially incompetence, what if they fck up. You can fck up fixing an ankle or broken arm, if you fck this up you'll need a dog.

[Jethro]

i really want this or something as contacts are a pita but i've lived with them for so long so what the hell. All the threads over the years in here are always positive for the most part but it scares the hell out of me. Especially incompetence, what if they fck up. You can fck up fixing an ankle or broken arm, if you fck this up you'll need a dog.

Same here, except I wear glasses only. My lenses are -1.00 & -1.50 with no other issues. I am just afraid to do the surgery, even though a robotic laser does it to perfection.

[PaSucks]

i really want this or something as contacts are a pita but i've lived with them for so long so what the hell. All the threads over the years in here are always positive for the most part but it scares the hell out of me. Especially incompetence, what if they fck up. You can fck up fixing an ankle or broken arm, if you fck this up you'll need a dog.

Do the research to find the best doc in your area and go there. If you're not a good candidate, they won't perform the surgery anyway, so it is highly unlikely you'll have long term issues. If you're really scared about it, get one eye done at a time, that way if it doesn't come out the way you want you can skip it for the other eye.

The only people I've ever talked to that actually had problems with the surgery (moreso with lasik than PRK) are people that went to the cheapo places that will do it for 200 bucks an eye or whatever. You get what you pay for.

[snowsprite]

Do you guys know if this works for "old person vision?" I have posted MANY times about how fucking sick I am of being able to see ok from a distance but having really bad issues w/ up close vision (I can't even pluck my damned eyebrows anymore and forget seeing anything closer than 20 inches from my eyes). I also am blind as a bat at night. I hate this so much. I want some kind of surgery to correct this. Last I looked into it I heard about some thing where they take out your lens and put in a differently shaped one or whatever. But do you know does this surgery you had help old person vision? I would very happily suffer great, great pain unflinchingly if it would fix my problem. I hate it every single day and can't wait until I fix it somehow.

Oh yea, and fuck glasses I am sick of them and they make me look/feel about 10 yrs older than I am. Not sure how people deal w/ chronic glasses/contact use but that's not for me.

I'm ready to sell my soul to satan for restored vision, or something like that.
Sprite

[PaSucks]

Sprite, they told me that I would need reading glasses when I got to that age (currently I'm 27) so my guess is that laser surgery doesn't work to fix age related eye problems. As to the surgery you mention, I have no experience with it but I have also never met anyone that has had it, which would tell me that it isn't often performed. Everyone experiences vision problems as they age, so it stands to reason that if their was some surgery to correct that you'd have met people that have had it.

[PaSucks]

I am an eyeglass wearer for the past 25+ years with a slight prescription. I have been considering Lasik, but I googled PRK and it seems like it might be less invasive. Wikepedia did say the healing was more painful and took longer though. What made you choose this over Lasik or lasek?

I chose PRK because from my research it seemed like the better surgery.
Pros:
Long term vision tends to be better than with lasik, although we're not talking a significant difference
Less incidence of side affects such as dry eye
No corneal flap to come dislodged after a hard hit to the head such as one might experience while skiing
No corneal flap to give you problems at high altitude, such as what one may experience skiing in some locales
Less incidence of problems with night halos

Cons:
Longer recovery time
More painful recovery time

Seems a no-brainer to me. The only reason I can figure why more people get Lasik is they don't want to take time off of work. I say burn a few vacation days and get the better surgery. As an aside, PRK is a little cheaper as well. I didn't base my decision on that in any way but it was a nice bonus.

[Blatant]

Oh yea, and fuck glasses I am sick of them and they make me look/feel about 10 yrs older than I am. Not sure how people deal w/ chronic glasses/contact use but that's not for me.

I'm ready to sell my soul to satan for restored vision, or something like that.
Sprite

take it easy with the soul bit, so you'll look like you're 32, fckn boo hoo, big deal.

When you coming to visit. The North Rim will open up in by the middle of May...Get out here!!

[The Reverend Floater]

I chose PRK because from my research it seemed like the better surgery.
Pros:
Long term vision tends to be better than with lasik, although we're not talking a significant difference
Less incidence of side affects such as dry eye
No corneal flap to come dislodged after a hard hit to the head such as one might experience while skiing
No corneal flap to give you problems at high altitude, such as what one may experience skiing in some locales
Less incidence of problems with night halos

Cons:
Longer recovery time
More painful recovery time

Seems a no-brainer to me. The only reason I can figure why more people get Lasik is they don't want to take time off of work. I say burn a few vacation days and get the better surgery. As an aside, PRK is a little cheaper as well. I didn't base my decision on that in any way but it was a nice bonus.

Another pro for PRK is that typically Lasik uses about 20% of your cornea and doesn't leave nearly as much cornea for (God forbid) further corrections if necessary.

My pain is waaaaay better today. Vision is stilll somewhat hazy but getting better. Know that recovery to optimal vision varies wildly from patient to patient. Some folks are at perfect vision in a week, others 3 weeks, others six months. Saw the doc yesterday and he said I'm healing very well, just slowly. Like PASucks said, it's crazy because my vision will be noticeably different any given hour. Mornings are still rough. I'm on day six, FYI.