Last Wednesday, the 20th of January I went in for PRK (a similar eye surgery to LASIK) to correct my vision. I went to Hoopes vision and the experience was a good one, although I am still waiting for my vision to come back completely. Recovery from PRK takes longer than post-LASIK, and is more uncomfortable for the first few days, but that is what the doctor recommended for my eyes so I went forward with that.

Here is a video of my PRK surgery. I showed this to one of my friends and he passed out, so I don’t blame you if you don’t want to see it, but a lot of people have asked me to explain and I told them I was going to post it. If you want an explanation of what they are doing you can read the part below “How is PRK performed?” and that explains it in detail. The video is 5 minutes long and it is of just my right eye. I was awake the whole time and what I saw most the time was a blinking red light interspersed with several fuzzy red lights which was like looking through a broken single colored kaleidoscope.

From PRK Surgery

The next three paragraphs comes from Hoopes Vision website.

PRK
Like LASIK eye surgery, PRK (short for photorefractive keratectomy) is a surgical procedure that can help to correct and improve vision dramatically through cornea reshaping.

What is PRK?
PRK is an effective refractive procedure that can be used to correct hyperopia, myopia, and astigmatism. While the procedure is similar to LASIK eye surgery, the first step of PRK greatly differs from that of LASIK.

How is PRK Performed?
Numbing drops are administered so that the surgeon can operate on the eye without the patient feeling any pain. While LASIK surgery requires the surgeon to create a corneal flap and fold it back to access the inner cornea, PRK requires the surgeon to remove the epithelium (the outer, one-cell-thick layer of the cornea).
After the epithelium has been removed, the surgeon will reshape the cornea with an excimer laser to correct the anomaly that has been causing vision problems. Once the cornea has been reshaped, the area will be “bandaged” with special contact lenses that will assist the eye in healing the epithelium.

Alot of people have asked about the differences between LASIK and PRK and why choose one over the other. This person’s blog describes a few reasons why PRK can be better.

My Recovery from PRK

When I was talking to the eye doctors consultant/sales person who also received PRK I thought he said that PRK  puts you out for 3-4 days and you are in so much pain you just sit with your eyes shut and listen to 12 hours of books on tape and you can’t really do anything else. I expected to be blind for 4 days straight, but so far my experience has been different.

Day of Surgery- went home and could see a little better, my eye was still numb and there wasn’t any pain. A couple of times every hour it would feel like I had an eyelash stuck it my eye, but a couple of blinks and I felt good again. Drops every 1/2 hour and 4 hours, and ice packs for swelling. I slept with eye protection on that night and it was pretty uncomfortable. I watched television and it wasn’t too much of a strain to see.

1 Day after surgery- not much pain or discomfort, drops every hour and every four hours, post op checkup and they said all looked good and I could drive.

2 days after surgery- I drove into work and it was the worst day. vision went in and out while driving and I decided not to drive home and we just went and played board games that night. It was really uncomfortable in the morning, but more annoying than painful. I couldn’t focus on the computer and it was better for me to either lie down in the dark conference room, or walk around with my sunglasses on, but not really accomplishing anything.

3 days after surgery- mild discomfort, blurred vision, but could function normally

4 days after surgery- no discomfort but blurry vision, enough to drive and read and everything, but not clear

Saturday January 9th (1/9/10) around 12:17 p.m., I asked Michelle Rigby if she would marry me. She was really surprised and had no idea it was coming (she just didn’t expect it so soon in our relationship (1.5-2 years, depending on who and when you ask)). To my great delight she said “yes”, I said “wow”, she said “when”, I said “how about April 17th”…..

So the quick details are as follows: We went snowmobiling at Daniels Summit with about 30 other people from my work. A few people dropped out and so we were asked if we wanted our own snowmobiles. I was a little disappointed because I wasn’t sure how I would make the proposal situation work and I thought it would have been a lot easier if we were on the same snowmobile. So off we went with our own snowmobiles and our group. We had a blast and a few times I tried to ditch the others and have Michelle follow me up the mountain so we could be alone, but each attempt was frustrated. So we finally traded another couple that were on a double riding snowmobile and I thought that would be my chance, but we couldn’t steer the darn thing very well and we ran into a pole going about .01 MPH (no damage done, but again my plan was foiled). So we switched back to having our own snowmobiles which proved better for our relationship but worse for my plan. We were about to head back to return the snowmobiles, but I decided to make one more attempt and we finally shook off all the other snowmobilers and found a deserted mountain and went racing up it. We got off our snowmobiles, made snow angels, and then sat there in the snow staring up at the clouds and talking hand in hand. I turned to her and said a few things, pulled out the ring and then asked her to marry me. She said “Yes”.

We got back on our snowmobiles and headed off to lunch where we were greeted by my colleagues with applause.We drove back to SLC and had a nice dinner and I gave her a picture book that had pictures from the last 2 years (some of which come from the slideshow below)

We are super excited to get married and continue our adventures together!

Reading the Old Testament is very challenging and rough going for me because I struggle to understand the history and happenings which in turn makes it hard to find and apply the principles, but I am learning that the more we search the Old Testament the more often we will find the diamonds in the rough, or the specific verses that teach us the principles that we need and are able to apply. I found one that I really liked today.

Deuteronomy 6: 6-7

6) And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine ^bheart:

7) And thou shalt ^ateach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt ^btalk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

I think that the adversary doesn’t bother being bashful about his beliefs, bearing down on us from all sides. Therefore we have to combat his forces with simple but consistent spiritual things for as Paul wrote in Romans, “be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21) In order to do that, I think this scripture tells us that we need to first listen and embrace the word of God, and then we need to teach and discuss it diligently, in every situation and place possible. To me it means we talk of Christ not only at Christmas or on Sundays but every day in our houses sitting around the dinner table, when we are running errands, in our cars, when we go to bed and when we get up. Jacob did ask, “for why not speak of the atonement of Christ, and attain to a perfect knowledge of him…”(Jacob 4:12) And we know that coming to know God and Jesus Christ is what will lead us to eternal life (John 17:3).