Finally doing it. T minus 24 hours. Wasn’t nervous until now. Any advice for speeding recovery and reducing discomfort?
My wife had it done and she went from -6 on one eye and -7.5 on the other to perfect vision!
She walked in and then she walked out…amazing…BUT…she was clearly off-colour when she walked out and felt a lot of anxiety whilst it was done…as the eye is sort of clamped and you see and hear it all happening…
I also remember the drops given to dilate her pupils etc…all in all an amazing experience…good luck.
My surgeon dispenses Valium, thankfully. Otherwise I fear I’d be a wreck. It took me weeks just to get comfortable putting in contact lenses.
Did it last week. “Almost” painless. Just relax when you’re on the table. One thing I screwed up was, immediately affter the surgery, I was taken to a “recovery room” - just another exam room - waiting for the doctor to come in and take a look. Well, I was all fired up, and started looking around trying to test out my new vision. Slowly, it got worse by the minute. I was reading blackberry messages, talking on the phone, and it kept getting blurrier by the minute and became hard, if not impossible, to blink. Doc comes in 10 minutes later and asks me what the hell I did. I told him.
Well, apparently you’re supposed to keep your eyes CLOSED for an hour right after surgery (and they MEAN IT). By opening them and blinking normally, I screwed up the flap over my cornea, so they had to go back in and redo it. It took 3 more minutes to do I’m fine, but learned a lesson. I thought I would drive myself home. So, my advice, KEEP YOUR EYES CLOSED right after surgery. Have someone there to drive you home. You’ll be fine the next day.
oh, and he said no swimming for a week (so I waited 5 days). Just use all of the drops and keep your eyes moist. I find my vision getting better each day
if you are really anxious immediately before have them give you something to relax. i normally wouldn’t but i took some valium to relax and it helped me during the procedure. i didn’t want to be really nervous and twitchy while they were working on my eyes. there really isn’t much you can do to speed recovery other than keeping your eyes closed as much as possible for the first 24 -36 hours, that is the best thing to speed healing. that and following the directions for all the drops you have to use.
i did it december of 2003 and it was definitely worth it.
Good luck Sir. Please file a complete report afterward. My best wishes.
I hate to say it…but you asked. I’d cancel your appt and reschedule to get PRK instead…
Otherwise, good luck…relax. It’s not a new procedure anymore. If they cleared you for it (which they obviously did), you’ll be fine.
Why PRK?
Interesting. Just read a little bit about PRK.
“Most PRK facilities and machines report that 65-70% of patients with correction up to -6.00 diopters can expect 20/20 uncorrected vision post operatively. The percentage with 20/40 uncorrected acuity is 90-95%. Corrections less than -6.00 diopters will have better odds and corrections greater than -6.00 will have lower odds.”
Alternately, LASIK with Wavefront (which is what I’m getting):
“Studies comparing results of wavefront LASIK with conventional LASIK found that 90 to 94 percent of patients receiving wavefront LASIK achieved visual acuity of 20/20 or better, whereas up to 80 percent of those receiving conventional LASIK achieved 20/20 or better.”
Seems like Wavefront LASIK has the best visual acuity results thus far.
I had it done about 3 years ago and love the results. 20/15. Just relax and you’ll be fine. My doctor asked if I wanted to be told what was going on. I told him no because I’m a weenie when it comes to medical stuff especially my eyes. The whole ordeal took about 20 minutes from the time I went into the room until I walked out. The actual laser time was under 10 seconds per eye (I don’t remember the specific times). The woman who was having it done after me was a nervous wreck when I went in. When I got done with the post-exam, she was coming out from the laser room. We chatted for a minute and she was exstatic and didn’t know what she was so worried about before. I saw her the next day at the follow-up and she was giddy. The valum helps and follow their instructions afterward! You’ll do great! It’s a peice of cake.
My doctor gave me a video tape of my procedure. I tried to watch it on a friends 60" tv but I was so grossed out that my eye was HUGE so I stopped after 10 seconds. My firends watched the whole thing and said it was a very cool procedure. You’ll be fine. GOOD LUCK!
I also had it done about 3 years ago, whenever the last Winter Olympics were on. My vision was milky immediately after the procedure, my gf at the time drove me home. Doc gave me a sleeping pill so I would nap the rest of the afternoon. We stopped and got lunch on the way home and I fell asleep right after eating, about 1pm. Woke up on the couch about 4pm with the TV on and rolled over and realized I was watching a hockey game and could see the little score-box in the upper portion of the screen. My peripheral vision was still off, but straight ahead I could see perfectly. Before, I couldn’t read the alarm clock next to my bed. Next morning, everything was perfect. The results are unbelievable.
My info is about 2 years dated…so I bet some things have changed…
PRK involves correcting vision by using a laser to remove surface corneal tissue. In LASIK, the surgeon cuts a flap in the cornea, flips it aside, removes corneal tissue with a laser, and flips the corneal flap back into place.
The outside of the eye heals, but the inside does not. Therefore…(at least in the past) certain activities (boxing, collision sports, etc) might re-open the flap. In PRK, the corneal tissue re-grow (although extremely painful).
But…once again, this info is dated and perhaps thoughts have changed. I don’t want to scare you, b/c I’m not an expert.
Jason,
I would NOT have PRK done unless they advise you that your cornea is too thin for a proper LASIK flap. Prk is much less stable and predictable, much more painful following the procedure, and requires medicated eye drops (steroids) for three months following. Healing is much faster with LASIK and you are on medicated drops for 1 week or less. I have co-managed hundreds of laser patients and LASIK is what I advise for the vast majority of them. However, the LASIK procedure is more invasive and, subsequently, a bit more risky so for quite small prescriptions PRK is fine.
If your Rx is higher that -2.50 I would go with LASIK without a doubt. Following the procedure remember to use LOTS of artificial tears. Some of your corneal nerves will have been severed so you won’t necessarily be aware that your eyes are dry but they need the extra lubricant to heal properly and aid in comfort.
hope this helps. good luck - it will be great!
robert
Take the valium beforehand, a nice nap afterwards, and use the drops…
Jhendric…you want wavefront guided Lasik…best of luck
Go Home close your eyes, rest , use your drops…use the artificial tears…relax…take a nap, and dont rub your eyes
Good luck…and DONT rub your eyes.
C johnston, OD
let us know your results!
100% of us are anxious and nervous prior to the procedure for all of the same reasons. Don’t worry because the docs have this all figured out and will put you at total ease (with valium and calming instructions). My doc, Manche at Stanford, did a great job of describing each thing that was about to happen so I wouldn’t be startled. Recovery was unremarkable, except that I have become used to using eye drops before getting out of bed in the AM.
First off…I should apologize to Jh. That was lame of me to mention an alternate procedure. I’m not eye expert…although I do have 3 friends who had PRK.
Robert - sounds like you’re an eye professional. Could you chime in about the “recent” news regarding collision sports and having PRK and/or Lasik. Is it really possible that the “flap” reopens…down the road?
My doc said that I have a nice, thick cornea. My pupils are just slightly larger than average (I think they’re 7mm and “average” is 6.5mm). I had the wavefront analysis and it showed a moderate amount of aberation. My prescription is fairly low (I want to say -1.75) and I have slight to moderate astigmatism. I’m definitely on the lower end of the correctable range, so the doc said I should have high confidence in a good correction, and the wavefront should really help with halos and other common side effects.
No worries. As you said, I asked. I had read about RK years ago, and being a rock climber at the time I heard horror stories about complications had by mountain climbers at altitude. I hadn’t read/heard about PRK, so it was nice to do some reading on it. I’m going to the best surgery center in the state, so I’m confident that my doctor would have mentioned it if I were a better candidate for another procedure.
Had it done 4 years ago. Life changing.
Your doctor should tell you. This is a surgical procedure and the eyes are very sensitive. DO NOT TOUCH THEM FOR AT LEAST 2 WEEKS. You will have an incision on your eye. Wear the safety goggles at night. Do not towel dry your face after showering. Don’t go swimming. Don’t exercise for fear of sweat getting into the eyes. Be as conscious of them as possible for as long as possible.
Imagine if you had knee surgery. You wouldn’t start running for two weeks or start picking at the scab. Leave the eyes alone and they will heal very quickly on their own. DON’T TRY TO RUSH THE HEALING PROCESS.