PRK Experience- post surgery

Part 1- Pre-surgery

Part 3 Day 2 and 3

Today is Day 3 and I've got a lot of haze going on which makes it hard for me to really see what I'm typing, but I want to get this up here before I forget. So I'll try to catch all typos and grammar errors, but please forgive me if I miss some.

A little while after my previous post I went to the LasikPlus centre. Now they told us to arrive 30 minutes before the actual appointment and be prepared to stay for up to 2 hours. We left a little early and ended up staying about an hour, so that was better than expected.

After arriving at the centre, we checked in with the receptionist/surgeon assistant. I'd like to note that there wasn't a person working in this office that didn't have scrubs on, so they were all technicians or nurses of one kind or another. It's actually quite comforting to see these people have dual jobs. At least, it's comforting to me, since it feels like everyone knows what they're talking about and has training in the Lasik field.

For those who might choose LasikPlus, they offer a great Lifetime Acuity Plan. Which means that once you sign this piece of paper, you are eligible for free enhancement surgery at any LasikPlus location. Since they're located all over the United States, it's a pretty good deal. At check-in I had to sign that and the 3 page patient condition paper. It basically tells you this is what you should expect, here's your confidentiality agreement, don't sue us because you're an idiot and can't follow basic directions, etc. Both of these papers must be signed at check-in because you need a witness (the nurse who checks you in). Something interesting to note, in some states you must provide a living will before they'll perform the surgery on you. If anyone knows what states require this, please let me know. I'm quite curious.

After that and the always depressing matter of payment, we were told to take a seat. Less than 5 minutes later, another technician came by with a little black leather purse that has LasikPlus and the doctor's name printed on white on one side. This is my "kit". In it are two kinds of medicated eye drops, a few boxes of artificial tears, sunglasses, an instruction paper and some coupons. I also got a blue haircap, which makes perfect sense. This technician took me back to one of their exam rooms to map out my eyes once agaun and explain all of the eye drops and what to expect after surgery.

Before the day of the surgery you are required to bring in one thing and one thing only, a small bottle of Vigamox eye drops. They give you the prescription on your consultation visit and expect you to have it filled. You do have to play your usual insurance copay, but that's it. Everything else is provided for you by LasikPlus.

So, we go in to the exam room, the technician explains everything to me. The three kinds of eye drops are as follows (and I don't know if the names change depending on your location/surgery/whatever but this is what they are for me):

-Vigamox-The antibiotic used to fight infection
-Acular LS- The analgesic used to minimize discomfort
-Omnipred- The steroid used to control inflammation

She explained to me that I take all three eye drops 4 times a day for 5 days. After that, I just continue to take the steroid. I'll talk about that at a later date, since it's not important right now. Anyway, along with these medicated eyedrops I need to use the artificial tears at least 4-6 times a day but really, whenever I feel uncomfortable.

I need to wear these sunglasses whenever I go outside, as I need to protect my eyes quite a bit. Not going to argue there, for the past 6 months I haven't been able to use sunglasses and it's been killing me. I miss them quite a bit.

She explained next what I should expect after surgery and what is happening to my eyes as they heal. I honestly can't remember everything that she said, and certainly not the medical terms, but basically it's this:

My eyeball shape is going to change over several weeks. At the time of surgery, it was quite oblong, as that is what happens when you have myopia (near-sightedness), So I can expect drastic fluctuations in vision. From day to day or even morning to night, my vision is going to get better, then worse, then better again. For the next 5 days, my vision will be hazy, but there will be improvement immediately (because of my horrible prescription, this improvement was major). Because the eyes are creating new cells, I need to keep my eyes wet using the artificial tears. This will prevent those new cells from flaking off and help me heal faster. Here's a pretty good diagram of what the cells healing looks like:



Because I have PRK and not Lasik surgery, I don't need to worry about sleeping with eye-cups or being very gentle with my eyes. There isn't a flap that may wrinkle or get nudged, so in that sense my healing will be much easier than Lasik patients.

After that, she had me look into a machine with a bright red shape that goes in and out of focus as she mapped my eye. I don't know exactly how it works but we had to do it multiple times for each eye, just to get everything perfect. Once that was over, it was back to the waiting room for me.

We sat there for about 10 minutes, watching the surgery room get prepped. The room itself is surrounded by glass, so anyone from the waiting room can look in and watch the surgeries take place. There isn't any privacy, but that shouldn't be an issue because you're in surgery. You're not supposed to look fabulous.

I met the doctor who will be performing my surgery. He took me into another exam room, made sure my eyes are looking good (nothing like one more check!) and then into the operating room we went.

I'll quickly summarize what goes on in PRK surgery, but here's a video of someone elses surgery that might be more helpful. This is not my surgery, and I don't know what doctor/office they used, so I can't say it's exactly the same, but pretty damn close.:


1. They apply numbing drops to my eye.
2. After a few minutes of the drop setting in, they tape back my eyelids so my eyelashes don't get in the way and put in the speculum.
3, The doctor begins to scrape off the top layer of cells using a very sharp, and very small, knife.
4. He brushes off the eye, clearing it of all debris, uses a crosshair to line up the laser.
5. The laser begins its work. You can see a pattern being displayed across the eye, the only thing that I could see, however, is a blinking red light with a ring of bright white around it. The red light is what I focus on throughout the entire surgery. The laser was on both of my eyes for 1 minute each, but it differs depending on how bad your vision is. Also, it smells like burning hair. Just an FYI

Here's where it differs from the video
6. They apply a medicated sponge to my eye for one minute. To me, it looks like frosted blue glass, but really it's a porous yellow sponge.
7. The sponge is taken off, my eye is drenched in a saline solution.
8. The bandage contact lens is applied.
9. end!

After both eyes were done, I was led into the waiting room and sat for a bit with my eyes closed. After that, the doctor took me back into the exam room to make sure everything looked good. I'm to wear these bandages contact lenses for 5 days sraight, I get them taken out on Tuesday. If one or both happen to fall out, my doctor gave me two emergency ones and told me to just put the fresh one in. If I keep up with the artificial tears, though, I shouldn't have any fall out.

He also gave me a prescription for Percoset, which is to be filled if I experience quite a bit of pain. I don't see myself getting it, since I really didn't feel any pain that day. In fact, right after surgery my eyelids where hurting, because of the tape.

We thanked him immensely and left to go home, where I would take a bit of a nap and use the medicated eyedrops every 4 hours. Thus ends the day of surgery.

Next: Day 2 and 3