I had PRK and LASIK eye surgery done 2 weeks ago. Now, most people don't get the opportunity to experience both of these procedures, but I am special - just like my parent's told me when I was little.
I've been wanting LASIK ever since the Air Force paid for Joe to have PRK done 5 years ago. Every time I had to take my contacts out or put them in, I was jealous that he did not have to do that. Not to mention, his vision is 20/12! Spectacular! I was not envious of the pain he experienced. They say everyone is different with PRK. I'm not sure why, but some people do experience pain. Joe's not usually one to complain and seems to have a pretty decent tolerance for pain. I'm always the one whining when I'm sick.
Most people can get LASIK and see beautifully the next day with little to no discomfort. Here comes the part where I'm special. My cornea is too thin on my left eye for LASIK. LASIK leaves a flap, which acts as a bandaid, but if I were to have LASIK on my left eye, I may not have enough cornea left for later. In PRK, they use a contact lens to act as the bandaid instead of a corneal flap.
My eyes are -5.75 on the left and -2.75 on the right. Both eyes are well within the parameters for LASIK, so it didn't have anything to do with my horrible vision.
I was pretty saddened by this news after remembering the pain that Joe experienced with PRK. But, it didn't take long for me to change my mind and go ahead with the surgeries. PRK on the left and LASIK on the right. At least, I'd have one good eye, right?
So, I had my surgeries on the same day. It was weird. It's easy not to blink because they have this piece that keeps your lids open. And, you never see anything coming at you. You just stare at a green light the entire time. I wasn't really prepared for how long it would take though. For some reason, I thought it was just a minute or so, but maybe it was more like 5 min for each eye. That might not seem like much, but it's just weird. The laser gives some kind of burning smell. Definitely not something I had thought about before. The most uncomfortable part was just trying to focus on the green light while he was repositioning the flap. I kept losing the light.
The PRK eye was creepy. They do some sort of scrubbing and while you can't feel anything (They numb your eye), you can tell. Your eyeball is moving all around from it.
I could see better immediately, but the eyes were watering like crazy within in 5 minutes. I couldn't even open my eyes. It never hurt. Maybe just a little burning at times...like chlorine from swimming...but mild. The LASIK eye was fine after a couple of hours. The PRK eye annoyed me for a few days. He gave these dilating drops that lasted an entire week in that left eye. Definitely annoying, but it was supposed to make me more comfortable along with the numbing drops and Tylenol 3. For the first 2 days, I stayed on T3 and numbing drops. The eyelash sensation (feels like there is an eyelash stuck in your eye) stayed for about a week.
Everything gradually gets more clear for the left eye. They say it takes longer the worse your prescription was, so it should take a nice long while. The epithelium has healed, and I just wait. It took a few days before I could drive though because of the sensitivity to light. The right eye, the LASIK eye, was 20/20 pretty quickly. But, it could take 3 months for the PRK to catch up because the prescription was so bad before.
Would I do it again? Definitely would do LASIK again. Very easy! Piece of cake. Ask me in about 3 months for the PRK. Really, it was fine. But, it's weird to have had your vision corrected to 20/20 for so long, and now it's 20/25 and you can't correct it. I just walk around with a little blur until that left eye catches up. I'm right eye dominant anyway, so it compensates a little of the blur from the left. The best part...seeing the clock in the morning and not having to bother with contacts! And, that was the point, right?
I've been wanting LASIK ever since the Air Force paid for Joe to have PRK done 5 years ago. Every time I had to take my contacts out or put them in, I was jealous that he did not have to do that. Not to mention, his vision is 20/12! Spectacular! I was not envious of the pain he experienced. They say everyone is different with PRK. I'm not sure why, but some people do experience pain. Joe's not usually one to complain and seems to have a pretty decent tolerance for pain. I'm always the one whining when I'm sick.
Most people can get LASIK and see beautifully the next day with little to no discomfort. Here comes the part where I'm special. My cornea is too thin on my left eye for LASIK. LASIK leaves a flap, which acts as a bandaid, but if I were to have LASIK on my left eye, I may not have enough cornea left for later. In PRK, they use a contact lens to act as the bandaid instead of a corneal flap.
My eyes are -5.75 on the left and -2.75 on the right. Both eyes are well within the parameters for LASIK, so it didn't have anything to do with my horrible vision.
I was pretty saddened by this news after remembering the pain that Joe experienced with PRK. But, it didn't take long for me to change my mind and go ahead with the surgeries. PRK on the left and LASIK on the right. At least, I'd have one good eye, right?
So, I had my surgeries on the same day. It was weird. It's easy not to blink because they have this piece that keeps your lids open. And, you never see anything coming at you. You just stare at a green light the entire time. I wasn't really prepared for how long it would take though. For some reason, I thought it was just a minute or so, but maybe it was more like 5 min for each eye. That might not seem like much, but it's just weird. The laser gives some kind of burning smell. Definitely not something I had thought about before. The most uncomfortable part was just trying to focus on the green light while he was repositioning the flap. I kept losing the light.
The PRK eye was creepy. They do some sort of scrubbing and while you can't feel anything (They numb your eye), you can tell. Your eyeball is moving all around from it.
I could see better immediately, but the eyes were watering like crazy within in 5 minutes. I couldn't even open my eyes. It never hurt. Maybe just a little burning at times...like chlorine from swimming...but mild. The LASIK eye was fine after a couple of hours. The PRK eye annoyed me for a few days. He gave these dilating drops that lasted an entire week in that left eye. Definitely annoying, but it was supposed to make me more comfortable along with the numbing drops and Tylenol 3. For the first 2 days, I stayed on T3 and numbing drops. The eyelash sensation (feels like there is an eyelash stuck in your eye) stayed for about a week.
Everything gradually gets more clear for the left eye. They say it takes longer the worse your prescription was, so it should take a nice long while. The epithelium has healed, and I just wait. It took a few days before I could drive though because of the sensitivity to light. The right eye, the LASIK eye, was 20/20 pretty quickly. But, it could take 3 months for the PRK to catch up because the prescription was so bad before.
Would I do it again? Definitely would do LASIK again. Very easy! Piece of cake. Ask me in about 3 months for the PRK. Really, it was fine. But, it's weird to have had your vision corrected to 20/20 for so long, and now it's 20/25 and you can't correct it. I just walk around with a little blur until that left eye catches up. I'm right eye dominant anyway, so it compensates a little of the blur from the left. The best part...seeing the clock in the morning and not having to bother with contacts! And, that was the point, right?
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