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