Post-Op Day 10

Mar 8, 2010

Vision is getting better but still not quite there. I still am on the 4x a day Flarex for anti inflammatory, but i'm not sure why. From what I've read online people are on steroids to help strengthen their eyes. I re-read the post-op procedure papers and am doing everything to the T so I'm guessing Dr. Hyver knows what he is doing.

First day back at work and man is it rough. I had to move my monitors way closer to my chair and had a hard time seeing small things on a screen.

Met more people that have had lasik done at work, most of them got it done through Dr. Hyver which is pretty amazing. That guy has been around for so friggin long!

Around 430 we had a presentation in our theatre and I could read anything on the screen so I ended up falling asleep during the meeting.. whoops =p

This is gonna be a lot tougher than I thought..

Post-Op Day 9

Mar 7, 2010

Ok I lied maybe this will be the last one. Vision is getting marginally better but still not where I want it to be..

I'd like to comment on a few things just incase you're reading this and trying to decide if you want to do PRK or lasik.

1. I have a very high tolerance for pain. From other people that know of others who have done PRK and reading online, there is a LOT of bitching about pain and itchiness and dryness in the first week. I did not have that feeling.

2. Mentally you have to just TRUST in that your vision is going to get better. At this point had I not read other blogs and other things, I'd be shitting my pants because I feel like this blurriness will never go away. Similarly I have gotten to the point where I can live my life with the current vision, albeit a lil painfully since I have to constantly rest my eyes or have difficulty reading things from afar.

3. I'm also so jealous at people who got LASIK done that I want to smack one in the head to see if the lil flap pops out. Seriously, LASIK people get their eyes cut, and whammo in 1 hr you're seeing 20/20 or better! PRK has definitely pushed my boundaries of patience to the limit =p. (i wasn't that patient to begin with)

4. I keep having to tell myself that this was better because it allows for future eye surgery if i ever needed it, or if I ever toppled over in a dune buggy or got smacked in the head with someone else's head.. etc. I'm pretty careless with my body when it comes to things like ATVing, dune buggying etc so not having that constant "omg is my flap gonna pop" is the only thing keeping me sane in these days of blurriness.

Post-Op Day 8

Mar 6, 2010

Drove myself to my general Dr. Appt today. This had nothing to do with PRK and just happened to fall around the same time. I was so happy to be out on my own and driving that I actually passed the exit I was supposed to take and ended up taking a 2 mile detour.. whoops.

Vision still isn't close to perfect. I talked to my regular dr about it and she actually said some people use glasses to get to 20/40 20/60 so I should be pretty happy about how things are right now! heh..

I might discontinue writing in the blog until something significant changes since from what people say I won't see huge gains for at least another week..

Post-Op Day 7

Mar 5, 2010

Frick... A lot of the same today as the past days.

I read some blogs where people said around day 7 their vision got much better, what a bunch of crap. My vision is slowly getting better and is still the worst at night. One thing I did notice was when I woke up I felt like I had scratched my cornea for a second. I think some eye crustiness caused it because after a second it disappeared.

Worked on the computer most of the day but noticed I had to take frequent breaks in order to stay focused. I did do the 30 min drive from my parents place back to my own. Which also is the first day i've driven since the surgery! I missed driving for sure....

I'm still not planning on driving at night since by the end of the day my vision deteriorates quite quickly.

Post-Op Day 6

Mar 4, 2010

My first full day with no contacts or glasses since the 4th grade!!! Amazing..

I must admit this slow recovery time really does suck, I noticed myself turning to look for my glasses every so often because my vision gets so blurry. I'm pretty damn envious of all those LASIK folk now.

The beginning of the day was better than yesterday, I could read the brand of my tv from across the room in the morning. Throughout the day my vision would fluctuate between that and semi blurry at distance, and very occasionally it would get blurry mid-ranged.

Since i'm only on the 4x flarex now i noticed that when it got close to when i needed to put drops in my eyes would get a little blurry. Maybe that's in my head, but I'm going to test this theory tomorrow with some wetting drops. It's possible that my eyes are getting dry and i don't even realize it!

Oh I also forgot to mention at the end of the night i'm using this new thing to keep the eyes moist, ho-ly crap does it work, but it also makes your vision SUPER blurry. When they say put it on before you go to sleep they weren't joking, you really can't do anything after you've put those things on your eye.

I already got my first bill from Chase, and my vision hasn't even gotten fully better yet!!!

oh well.. 24 months interest free financing here we come! =p

Post-Op Day 5

Mar 3, 2010

Woke up this morning with some slight haziness in the eyes which was a little disappointing considering what I read on other blogs. Most people seem to say around day 5 they wake up and it's like BAM clear vision.. Not so much for me, but maybe I notice the gradual improvements throughout the day where as people compare things from one day to another.

Anyways, I went to see Dr. Hyver today to get the protective contacts removed. I got to the office ontime and was really hoping that maybe the contacts were holding me back and when they took them off i'd be healed like a blind man in a southern church.

Surprisingly enough I did not actually meet Dr. Hyver at all today, instead another Optomitrist gave me the numbing drops for my eyes and then after a quick health check removed them with some weird tool. I've had a lot of contacts removed by eye doctors in the past, but none quite like this. It felt like removing a bandaid from your skin rather than the popping off of a contact.

Afterwards my eye felt a little dry and itchy. I asked what my current vision was and apparently it's around 20/60 but should improve over the next month. I'm also only on the Flarex now, so that reduces the number of drops I have to carry around.

Just as a quick FYI, 20/60 is pretty blurry in my opinion. I couldn't read the license plates of cars until they were almost 1/2 a car length away, and I still had a hard time reading the computer screen. I was able to keep the computer at arms length rather than up to my nose, which helps.

I was told by the Optometrist that my healing was going as planned and that there was really nothing I could do to speed things along. I could also expect to have good and bad days of vision between now and the end of the month.. =(

I did start working again today. When I work from home I mostly respond to emails and program, so that shouldn't be a problem for others.

My original plan was to take the 30 mile drive from my parents place back to my own tonight, but my vision in the later part of the evening deteriorated even more so i passed on that as well.

Post-Op Day 4

Mar 2, 2010

Today is definitely better than yesterday. I can mostly read things on my computer, but they are still very blurry. At least I can have it at arm's distance to type and read. I was able to keep my eyes open all day again, and was able to watch some TV etc.

I'm not sure about my light sensitivity since I didn't go out in the daylight hour. I did notice some fog like haze for most of the day. It was almost like my place was a smokers den..

Tomorrow I have my first follow up appt with Dr. Hyver so i'm interested in what they say.

Post-Op Day 3

Mar 1, 2010

Holy blurry vision batman. Today's vision was the worst. Double vision everywhere, blurryness and some crazy hazing going on. I'm not really able to watch any TV or read anything on the computer. I tried and had to have the screen pressed up to my nose just to see what was going on. Even then i was guessing at several letters.

Today I was able to keep my eyes open all day, which was a great improvement over the past 2 days where I've been spending most of my day asleep on the couch.

Post-Op Day 2

Feb 28, 2010

I woke up this morning and things were pretty blurry, but to be expected. I was very sensitive to light and was CONSTANTLY straining my eyes. still on the 4x Vigamox, Flarex, 3x Xibrom. I forgot to mention in my previos posts I've also been taking 1000mg Vitamin C for the past week prior to surgery and continuing for the next 6 months. I highly suggest anyone getting this done to go to costco to buy the super huge bottle of vitamin C or be prepared to spend $$$.

Gf drove me down to her place in the morning and for the rest of the day I was on the couch watching olympics and passing out for hours after just 30 min or so of watching TV.

Reading things online was difficult at best and definitely not ideal.

Post-Op : Day 1

Feb 27, 2010

I woke up this morning with some crusty feeling in my eyes, similar to the feeling of sleeping with your contacts. (which essentially I did). It isn't easy to sleep with the goggles at all since it's really difficult to sleep on your side. I was able to see and read fairly clearly, although a bit hazy. Again I was on the 4x a day Vigamox, Flarex, and 3x a day Xibrom .

I spent a lot of the day watching TV and even some of it on my computer, although my eyes would get tired fast, I was definitely trying to work them out and see what I could and could not see.

I think because of this I was dizzy a lot of the day, and had constant headaches from trying to focus my vision. I noticed that shifting my vision from short range to long range would definitely cause my headaches to increase.

Operation : Day 0

Feb 26, 2010

Operation day.

I arrived at Scott Hyver's office at 11:30 am, after signing some papers I was brought back to the examination area where they took a baseline for my vision. -4.75 each side!!

They asked if i wanted to take any Valium to soothe the nerves and I declined. I'm not a big fan of any sort of drugs or medication, so during this entire process I will be using the bare minimum medication required to heal.

I was told to put on some surgical boots over my sneakers and then sent to the waiting area. 10 or so minutes later I saw another man go come out after having his surgery and I was brought back into the surgery center.

Gauze was placed over my ears and a cap over my head, then I was asked to lay back. At this point they taped my eye lids open and placed an eye opener around my right eye. Several fluids were splashed into my eye and then the procedure began.

I was told to constantly look at this green light directly in front of my eye, which i definitely tried to do, but wasn't easy at times. Dr. Hyver then used what I can only describe as "that thing the dentists use to clean your teeth" on my eye for about 10 ish seconds. my vision went from my normal vision to really blurry and back to close to normal.

At this point Dr. Hyver brought over the lasers and told me to keep my eye on the green light no matter what. I looked up at the green light and it went from my normal fuzzy to REALLY REALLY fuzzy and in about 15 seconds SUPER clear!! holy moly!

After this my eye was splashed with several more fluids at which time my vision went fuzzy again, then back to clear. Afterwards a protective contact was placed over my eye and the procedure was over.

The same procedure was done for the left eye.

In about 15 minutes I was all done and being shuffled into another examination room. I was given a baggy filled with medicine, some instructions and some sunglasses.

I left the Dr's office at 1245 pm. My dad wanted to get lunch so I agreed to get some drive through and immediately passed out in the car. Pain wise I didn't feel any pain but my eyes were exhausted. I felt like they were open for a really long time and I just wanted to close them.

I got home did my first round of eye drops. Vigamox, Flarex, Xibrom , immediately ate lunch then proceeded to pass out on the couch for a few hours.

I woke up later in the evening and was able to see semi-clearly although my eyes were still really tired. for the most part I felt like i was walking around with contacts that had been in my eyes for days. More eye drops and I passed out again

My PRK Experience: Feb 2010

Feb 26, 2010

I decided to come out of blogging silence to talk about my PRK experience with Dr. Scott Hyver.

Many people don't know about the difference between PRK and LASIK, so my comments about being blind and disoriented seem to be scaring people away.

The major difference between LASIK and PRK is the beginning of the treatment. LASIK creates a flap (usually by laser) which is then folded back and your eye is treated via more lasers. when the lasers have done their work the flap is folded back and whammo your surgery is complete. Vision after the surgery is 20/20 or better. The one major drawback to this procedure is that in very rare cases people have had their flap not heal fully and the flap actually pops off or becomes dislodged.

PRK clears away the epithelium layer of the eye and then uses the same lasers to complete the vision enhancement. The downside is that since your epithelium is cleared away you must naturally heal, this takes months rather than the days/ hours normal LASIK takes.

The upside is that since there is no flap, you can have vision correcting surgery again, and this method is approved by the U.S. military. (if i ever wanted to take up fighter pilot training!)

From here on out I will be describing my PRK treatment and experience