Good for you man. I'm having one of my corneas scraped tomorrow to deal with corneal map dot dystrophy. Hopefully, It will stabilize back at my old prescription eventually, but I will still need the glasses.

Wife had it done about 20 years ago.

Best thing she ever did for herself.

With age her vision is going bad again but it’s nowhere near what it was before the LASIK.

BTW, a few years ago (6-7) one of ours scratched my wife’s eye and really fucked up the “lens” made by the LASIK. She couldn’t really see very well out of that one eye and went back to the doctor that did her original fix.

Doc said that he didn’t know whether or not he could fix it as he had never done anything like it before, but he was willing to try.

He told my wife, “no guarantees”, and that there was “risk” involved. Right before he went in to do it he told me to, “be prepared for her to be blind in that eye”.

He fixed it, it worked. No charge.

Dude is fucking awesome.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

I had PRK in January 2010. Best thing I have ever done. I was blind as a bat. Wore contacts for years.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Between 2006 and 2010 there was a local ophthalmologist that was doing free Lasik and some other procedure for active duty military. Every Marine I knew with glasses went to him and all were most pleased with the results. I figured the doc was either writing a shit ton off on his taxes or using all the local military types to pad his surgery numbers. Either way, the guys loved him and to this day, the ones I keep in touch with, haven't had any issues.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

Best money I ever spent, wish I'd done it years ago.

Depending on a few factors I believe you can have it touched up once (it's like a milling process so as long as there is some material left to mill you can do it).

I'm hoping that in 20-30 years when my eyes start to go bad again we'll have figured out a material deposition method rather than just material removal.

Water sports, back country camping and being out in the rain were the areas I really noticed the biggest difference.

JSA - did you have them done at the same time? What was recovery like? I’ve heard it hurts pretty bad. I’m not a good candidate for LASIK as my astigmatism is too severe, so it’s PRK or nothing, and I can’t bring myself to pull the trigger.

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Harry: "I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this."
Loyd: "I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man."

I did PRK too. Took a week off of work. With Lasik, you go back the next day.

It was a while ago, but I remember my eyes being irritated for a few days which is really annoying. Sort of like I had been swimming without goggles in a heavily chlorinated pool. I also remember going through eye drops like an addict. But memory fades and I would definitely do it all over again.

I had both at the same time. I'm not going to lie - it was rough. Now, I made two errors:

1. I did not have the pain med prescription filled prior to the procedure.
2. I did not know to put something cold on my eyes.

The procedure is painless. You feel nothing. The numbing drops wear off after about an hour. Then the fun begins! It felt like someone had scratched my eyes, then poured acid on them. When I finally took the pain pills, it was too late. I could not get in front of it. Wifie came home about 6 hours after my procedure (my daughter drove me home) and found me in a lot of pain. Called the clinic. They said to put ice bags on my eyes. Instant relief! Once I got in front of it, it was not bad at all. Getting the initial pain over then allowed the pain meds to kick in.

I only took pain meds that first night. After that, I did not need the pain meds, just an occasional ice bag and some aspirin.

They put lenses on the eyes after the procedure. That is the most annoying. It feels like you have kept in your contact lenses too long and they are filled with crap. They get this caked on build-up which further causes hazy and blurry eyes. I think that lasted about 5-6 days. I took a week off of work. I spent the first 2 days in low light. It was better after that.

This is certainly not the easy way to go. But, the benefits of PRK made it worth it. No risk of getting halos. No risk of damage if you hit in the eye (that was important when I did IM swims and now that I do MMA training). Plus, you can repeat the procedure if your vision changes down the line.

I would do it again, especially knowing now how to deal with it.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Great to know about your recovery.

Smile now negates the halos and risk of injuries from Contact

It can also be refined.

My eyes were sore afterwards. More than a month later its life changing

I had a PRK in 1997, right when LASIK was taking off (and was $2k per eye). I'd worn glasses and contacts for 12 years or so. They said I would need it done again in a few years as my eye sight would continue to get worse as it had for the last 12 years.

It hurt for about 48 hours, and was expensive and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Best money I've ever spent.

How can instantly improve vision not be on the top of your "to do" list? - Brian Regan

I had RK surgery done in 1994 when I was 20 years old. Scalpel in the eye. Thankfully the Valium put me at ease.
I wore glasses or contacts from 6th grade until the surgery (7 years).
My vision was in the -4.00 range back then.
I still have 20/20 vision. I couldn’t imagine having to wear contacts every day.
My wife still wears glassss and contacts. She is terrified of any type of modification t her eye.
I’ll have her look into SMILE.