PRK: Epilogue (Week 16)

On December 6th, I voluntarily let someone stick a laser in my eye with hope of being able to get 20/20 vision without glasses or contacts for the first time since 1982.

After a number of entries on my blog around my experiences with PRK, this the last of the posts.

Random thoughts, notes, and actions of the last couple of months, after meeting with the doctor today…

Drops, Drops, Drops

Looks like the artificial tears are the secret of success for PRK (and I’m told LASIK). I’m still taking them, especially if working on a PC for long periods at a time or if I have some pain in my eyes that feel like dryness, but I’m told that will continue to less over time. Althought my distinct impression from the doctor is that it’s never a bad thing to take artificial tears for your eyes…

Eye Pressure

No lasting issues from the steroids – in fact my eye pressure today was lower than it was when I started the whole thing.

Glasses

I still sometimes try to take them off before getting in the shower or going to bed. It also shows up when I try to put sunglasses on (I try to take off “regular” glasses before putting on new ones.) I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing that!

Movies

Went to a movie this past weekend and was amazed at how crisp things were this go around… the last one I went to was at least a month ago and it was OK, but the one this weekend was actually pretty crisp. Very nice treat.

3D Movies

Went to one a while ago and thought it went OK – actually nice not having the double set of glasses on…

Nintendo 3DS

In a word? Ow. I tried this at a Best Buy and I will say with complete conviction: I’m never using one again. At least not with the 3D effects turned on. Never. My eyes hurt for at least a few hours after playing with a demo device for less than 10 minutes. Painful. I think a stereograph would cause the same issues… it was shortly after playing around with the 3DS that I noticed my nearsighted strength – not saying the two are related but there are some times when I wonder…

Nearsighted Update

And so my up-close vision is starting to drop off already. According to the doctor, this is an age issue… as you approach and pass 40, this will happen to everyone at different rates. I can read a book fine; I can read my iPad, iPhone, Kindle, and notebook all fine. I can see my fingernails at the same distance: about 4 inches from my nose. What has dropped off is the way up close stuff. I remember being able to read things very close to my nose – more than once I’ve had my face pressed into a computer case, trying to read a DIP switch number on a motherboard… I don’t know that I still can. In fact, if I hold my arm bent in a curl position and look down the bottom of my forearm from wrist to elbow, it is now blurry at my wrist when it wasn’t pre-surgery. FWIW, I can see clearly down by my elbow. I talked to some ppl that had PRK and LASIK and this is definitely related to age and 40 is the magic number – I figure I’ve got about 5-10 years before I have to rock the half moon glasses but I honestly don’t know. Either way, it’s a trip to Bartell’s for an off the shelf pair… I can live with that.

Farsighted Update

And now the happiest of happy news: 20/10. Sort of. I think 20/15 is more accurate but to be honest: I was able to sorta see some of the letters on the 20/10 line. Enough to get more than 50% right… there was some straining to see but I also hadn’t used any drops yet that morning… if I had moist eyes? Maybe it would have been even clearer.

Bottom line: my near sight has been diminished (which is expected and explained in all pre-surgery documentation) and my far sight has improved to 20/15 (almost 20/10).

That’s what I would call a success story.

Past posts:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3 – 4

Week 4 – 5

Week 6 – 8


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