PRK eye surgery experience
09-16-2014, 07:55 PM
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PRK eye surgery experience
I am writing this because I really appreciated the PRK posts from other pilots when I was considering the surgery. I ended up getting PRK last week and here is my experience so far.
Background: I am a pilot for a Legacy airline and am fortunate enough to work for a company that allowed me to use sick leave for this procedure and the recovery
Pre-Surgery: I had my consultation for LASIK, only to find out that because of the shape of my astigmatism, they did not recommend LASIK. The doctor informed me that PRK actually is a less-risk procedure, it just is much less comfortable and takes longer than LASIK.
Decision: I did a lot of research and kept reading stories online about people saying they took a long time to get to 20/20. This was my biggest concern, as I want to return to flying as soon as possible, which requires 20/20. However, when I spoke with doctors, and people that have actually had the procedure done, most had much faster recovery times, and highly recommended it. The internet's gloomy outlook worried me more than it needed to. Also, when I limited my search to more recent PRK experiences, I found much better results.
Surgery: I requested a sedative because I was VERY nervous. They numbed my eye and the surgery was so fast, I didn't feel a thing. I was more nervous than I needed to be. Just be prepared for weird smell from the laser burning the eye! The surgery only took about a minute for each eye. I could see clearer than before immediately following the procedure.
After Surgery: I left feeling fine with my numbed eyeballs and sunglasses the office provided and was driven to the pharmacy to get my Tylenol 3. On the way to the pharmacy the numbness started to ware off and my eyes started to burn. Waiting at the pharmacy for my prescription was hell. I was just shaking my leg and trying to do anything to take the pain off of my mind. Note: I know the pain varies from person to person, I expected to have mild pain because other surgeries, like tonsillectomy were not very painful to me so I figured I have a high pain tolerance. Well I was proven wrong. Very very wrong. I took a Tylenol 3 the second they handed me the prescription, went home, and tried to nap like I was supposed to. My-oh-my this was not even possible. Keeping my eyes closed? No problem! I couldn't open them if I wanted to! Sleeping? No way. I would doze off and wake up in terrible pain every ten minutes and I couldn't open my eyes or even try to look at anything so I would yell to my boyfriend asking the time. Each time I thought I'd slept a couple of hours, only 10-20 minutes had gone by. I couldn't have any lights on. I was counting the minutes till I could take my next dose of pain medication. My eyes burned so, so bad. Tip: a plastic bag filled with ice water, and covered in a paper towel then held on the eye lids helps the burning. This went on for the next 24 hours.
Day 2: I had to go to my next day follow up appointment. This was the first I would be around light, so I wore my dark sunglasses with an eye mask over them so that I could slip the eye mask up a tiny bit to make out the ground so I could walk. Slowly throughout the day I got more comfortable being able to have my eyes open so long as lights were dim or not on at all. Pain was still at a 10. I couldn't even do the eye test because I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough.
Day 3: I woke up to my eyes watering, but shortly after that things improved dramatically throughout the day. The pain went away completely. by mid-day I had 0 pain. I was still sensitive to light so my apartment was dark like a cave, but I felt much better.
Day 4: More rapid improvement! I was able to open the blinds a bid and let light in. I couldn't watch TV early in the day because it was a light source and it was impossible to focus, but I was pretty comfortable hanging out on my couch LISTENING to my TV. Idea for making it through this until this point... Cheers! The TV show, which is on Netflix. Its all in the same setting, a bar, and the show is almost all dialogue, so I was entertained without feeling like I was missing anything from not being able to see. By the end of day 4, around 8 pm or so I noticed I could finally focus on the TV in order to watch a movie.
Day 5: Even more improvement, easily could watch TV, movies, have the blinds open, etc. My vision had worsened which is what I expected. Was pretty blurry but certainly clearer than it was before the surgery. I even went outside briefly with sunglasses.
Day 6, Contact removal: Went for my check up to have the contact removed, and it felt really really... weird. My eyes started watering and felt scratchy, but I wouldn't describe it as pain, just an uncomfortable feeling. On the drive home I was putting drops in my eyes and I looked up. For a brief second, with my eyes well lubricated, I saw a bulding in the distance with complete clarity. Wow! It was so cool to see clearly on my own. It only lasted for a second because the eyes were so dry it immedaitely went back to blurry, but still I felt like I was seeing well enough to drive. My eyes were very very dry this entire day. I fell asleep in the evening and woke up to my eyes being stuck shut. I had to douse them with eye drops all over the lashes and in the corners and was very slowly and cautiously able to get them to ease open.
Today: Today is day 7, and its more of the same from yesterday, but better. Everytime I put drops in I have moments I can see so clear I know my vision is going to be better than 20/20. I can't go back to work until it is. I will keep updating my progress, and say how long it took to return to work, but so far I have to say the clarity I have when my eyes aren't dry is so incredible, if I can have that for a lifetime it will be totally work the two days of misery!
Background: I am a pilot for a Legacy airline and am fortunate enough to work for a company that allowed me to use sick leave for this procedure and the recovery
Pre-Surgery: I had my consultation for LASIK, only to find out that because of the shape of my astigmatism, they did not recommend LASIK. The doctor informed me that PRK actually is a less-risk procedure, it just is much less comfortable and takes longer than LASIK.
Decision: I did a lot of research and kept reading stories online about people saying they took a long time to get to 20/20. This was my biggest concern, as I want to return to flying as soon as possible, which requires 20/20. However, when I spoke with doctors, and people that have actually had the procedure done, most had much faster recovery times, and highly recommended it. The internet's gloomy outlook worried me more than it needed to. Also, when I limited my search to more recent PRK experiences, I found much better results.
Surgery: I requested a sedative because I was VERY nervous. They numbed my eye and the surgery was so fast, I didn't feel a thing. I was more nervous than I needed to be. Just be prepared for weird smell from the laser burning the eye! The surgery only took about a minute for each eye. I could see clearer than before immediately following the procedure.
After Surgery: I left feeling fine with my numbed eyeballs and sunglasses the office provided and was driven to the pharmacy to get my Tylenol 3. On the way to the pharmacy the numbness started to ware off and my eyes started to burn. Waiting at the pharmacy for my prescription was hell. I was just shaking my leg and trying to do anything to take the pain off of my mind. Note: I know the pain varies from person to person, I expected to have mild pain because other surgeries, like tonsillectomy were not very painful to me so I figured I have a high pain tolerance. Well I was proven wrong. Very very wrong. I took a Tylenol 3 the second they handed me the prescription, went home, and tried to nap like I was supposed to. My-oh-my this was not even possible. Keeping my eyes closed? No problem! I couldn't open them if I wanted to! Sleeping? No way. I would doze off and wake up in terrible pain every ten minutes and I couldn't open my eyes or even try to look at anything so I would yell to my boyfriend asking the time. Each time I thought I'd slept a couple of hours, only 10-20 minutes had gone by. I couldn't have any lights on. I was counting the minutes till I could take my next dose of pain medication. My eyes burned so, so bad. Tip: a plastic bag filled with ice water, and covered in a paper towel then held on the eye lids helps the burning. This went on for the next 24 hours.
Day 2: I had to go to my next day follow up appointment. This was the first I would be around light, so I wore my dark sunglasses with an eye mask over them so that I could slip the eye mask up a tiny bit to make out the ground so I could walk. Slowly throughout the day I got more comfortable being able to have my eyes open so long as lights were dim or not on at all. Pain was still at a 10. I couldn't even do the eye test because I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough.
Day 3: I woke up to my eyes watering, but shortly after that things improved dramatically throughout the day. The pain went away completely. by mid-day I had 0 pain. I was still sensitive to light so my apartment was dark like a cave, but I felt much better.
Day 4: More rapid improvement! I was able to open the blinds a bid and let light in. I couldn't watch TV early in the day because it was a light source and it was impossible to focus, but I was pretty comfortable hanging out on my couch LISTENING to my TV. Idea for making it through this until this point... Cheers! The TV show, which is on Netflix. Its all in the same setting, a bar, and the show is almost all dialogue, so I was entertained without feeling like I was missing anything from not being able to see. By the end of day 4, around 8 pm or so I noticed I could finally focus on the TV in order to watch a movie.
Day 5: Even more improvement, easily could watch TV, movies, have the blinds open, etc. My vision had worsened which is what I expected. Was pretty blurry but certainly clearer than it was before the surgery. I even went outside briefly with sunglasses.
Day 6, Contact removal: Went for my check up to have the contact removed, and it felt really really... weird. My eyes started watering and felt scratchy, but I wouldn't describe it as pain, just an uncomfortable feeling. On the drive home I was putting drops in my eyes and I looked up. For a brief second, with my eyes well lubricated, I saw a bulding in the distance with complete clarity. Wow! It was so cool to see clearly on my own. It only lasted for a second because the eyes were so dry it immedaitely went back to blurry, but still I felt like I was seeing well enough to drive. My eyes were very very dry this entire day. I fell asleep in the evening and woke up to my eyes being stuck shut. I had to douse them with eye drops all over the lashes and in the corners and was very slowly and cautiously able to get them to ease open.
Today: Today is day 7, and its more of the same from yesterday, but better. Everytime I put drops in I have moments I can see so clear I know my vision is going to be better than 20/20. I can't go back to work until it is. I will keep updating my progress, and say how long it took to return to work, but so far I have to say the clarity I have when my eyes aren't dry is so incredible, if I can have that for a lifetime it will be totally work the two days of misery!
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