I had PRK done in 2009 (by the military). 20/15 in both eyes and no astigmatism. I love it - it's awesome! I get some occasional dryness and have to put a couple of drops in at night.

The first few days after surgery were uncomfortable and it took about six weeks for my eyes to heal and vision to stabilize.

 

I had custom LASIK, all laser, have been seeing 20/15 for four years now. No problems.

 

rightside02, I would seriously recommend that you have a Doctor do it.
fbh

 

I'm in the Air Force and just had PRK done about 16 days ago. They say on average it takes about 2.5-3 months to get back on flying status. That will vary with each individual person.

I had some burning in the eyes about 24 hrs after the surgery that lasted about 1.5 days, but that's it. Some pain meds they gave me fixed that right up. The vision changes daily, but that's just part of the healing process. I have to take steroid eye drops for 4 months to keep the eyes from healing too fast so that they don't scar.

I still don't have the clarity I had with glasses yet, but they say it takes 6 months to get optimal vision. Also, that's just to be expected at the stage I'm at after the surgery.

I talked to several guys I fly with before I had it done. They all highly recommended it.

 

Mode - what you are experiencing is absolutely normal. Not sure if your doc's recommended 1000 MG vitamin C every day for 90 days after the surgery but mine did. Some web research also supports that. Obviously listen to your doctor. Later

 

Mode - Where did you get it done? I'm "deploying" stateside and won't be flying for 5 months next Fall and want to get it done just before I go. I've talked to the flight doc a bit and was told I could "pick" the location, just had to pay for the flight and lodging. True in your experience?

 

lots of AF PRK/LASIK stuff here guys

Baseops Military Aviation Forums

 

Satpak -- yep, they told me about the Vit. C. I've been getting at least that much every day. Thanks for confirming that this is all normal.

Nextlife -- got it done at Travis. I'm up at Beale so it was a short drive down there. Travis puts a ton of people through every week so they get lots of practice. If you pick there, you could setup your pre-op appt for Thursday morning, tour Thursday afternoon, and have the surgery the following Monday. That's there standard schedule. I'd say your eye Dr. is correct on just paying for the airfare/lodging. You'll get convalescent leave for the procedure so won't cost you any which is nice.

After the Monday Surgery, you return Tue and Friday for followup appointments. After that, all can be done back at your home base.

Good luck with it. They have tons of opening so the process can be as fast as you want. The only thing that takes a few days is getting Wright Patterson to sign off on your approval. I doubt you'll have any problem with that.

 

Mode and anyone else, in April 2013 (next month) I will be at the 1 year mark. Be advised that even at month 6, my eyes weren't "perfect" again. They were about 90% there. 9 month mark, you are 95-100% fully back to normal. For a good year I took the Vitamin C and being paranoid, put lubricating drops in multiple times a day. At the 9 month mark, I installed drops once in AM and once before bed and thats kinda what I still do. Probably not needed to be honest but I feel better doing it.

I took sick time/vacation time and just my personal opinion, wouldn't go out solo flying until past 30 day mark. You can drive (again my opinion) after 1 week but probably better to wait 2 weeks. My employer was aware of surgery and I was doing admin work/etc during some of the healing. Prior to surgery I called my AME and gave him a heads up of my plans and literally prior to surgery I filled out the PDF FAA forms and gave them to the doctor and said "before we proceed, these forms will be required by FAA after we are done, any issues/heartburn/etc with that." So basically both AME and Eye surgeon were on board with FAA requirements before the laser got turned on.

My earlier posts about it

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/pi...ery-diary.html

 

Yep, great info satpak. The eye Dr. said about 6 months to optimal vision. The Air Force just requires you to get to 20/20 and have two eye checkups with stable vision 2 weeks apart. I'm hoping that will only take about 2-3 months. Historically it's taken about 3 months on avg to get there.