The F5 Guy

I’m stepping outside of my normal BIG-IP related posts today with a review and post-op write-up of my recent experience with PRK Corrective Eye Surgery.  I really want to share my experience not only with the surgery, but also the healing process which can be considerable with PRK eye surgery.

I had the procedure on October 1, 2011 at The LASIK Vision Institute located at 4750 Bryant Irvin Rd. Suite 812, Fort Worth, TX.  My eyes were treated for a -2.75 diopter astigmatism in each eye using their Custom Wavefront technology.  I did not have any nearsightedness or farsightedness.  I am willing to say that based off of my all around experience with them, that I highly recommend this facility.

For those who are not familiar with PRK eye surgery let me explain, no there is to much, let me sum up.  The same laser is used for both PRK (EPI-LASEK) and LASIK, but that is pretty much where the similarities end.

With the type of PRK surgery performed (EPI-LASEK) the surgeon removes the top layer of cells from your eye (the epithelium layer) by placing a liquid on the top that softens the tissue.  He then takes a rubber rake like device and rakes away that layer.  Then they tell you to focus on a blinking dot and zap your eyes with the laser.  After the zapping is done, they flush your eye out with fluid and then they put the epithelium layer they raked off back on and smooth it out.  After which, they place a contact lens over the eye to protect it and it’s on to the other eye.

After they were done I was able to stand up on my own and see things pretty well.  I walked out on my own and went outside to wait for my wife to pick me up.  The light outside was to intense though at this point and I couldn’t open my eyes at all.  They recommend that you keep them closed for several hours after the surgery BTW…

I have to say it was an excellent experience.  The surgery doesn’t hurt at all and they explain everything they are doing beforehand so there are no surprises.  Some folks have mentioned that they can smell their eyeball getting zapped, but I didn’t experience that myself.  Doctor Joseph was the surgeon who raked/zapped my eyes and Doctor Boyd is the one that I have had all my follow up visits with.  Both of them are great, very friendly, open to answering all your questions and professional.  Doctor Boyd gave me some excellent tips that I will be sharing with you.

Now on to the healing process.  Here is a day by day breakdown (in easy green for you post-op readers ):

Day 1 – Saturday – I was out of the office and back home around noon.  I had some pork ribs for lunch and felt OK enough to eat.  I tried to keep my eyes closed like they said, but I did open them from time to time.  I was told to stay awake for several for at least 4 hours and I followed the eye drop regimen they recommended on the first day which is different than the way the prescriptions read.  After about three hours I had pain in my right eye.  It was the equivalent of welders burn maybe a little more severe.  For those who haven’t had that, it is probably close to going to the Sahara desert on a hot day and pouring a crap load of hot sand in your eye, repeatedly.  No big deal really.  When I did open my eyes, I couldn’t see much at all, just vague shapes of things.

Doctor Boyd’s first tip came into play, I took off the goggles they told me to wear and placed an ice pack on my right eye.  It helped with the pain.  I didn’t take any of the pain meds they gave me and I did not use any of the numbing drops they provided because they stated that it would slow the recovery time if I did.  No pain, no gain… Besides having one eye that felt like someone took a blow torch to it, it didn’t really hurt that much.

If you wondering how I rate pain levels.  I’ve been knifed (level 2), shot (level 4, .22 ricochet into my shoulder), thrown off bulls and horses (level 1 or 3, landed on concrete once) and have had a wisdom tooth pulled without novicane (level 3).  I would rate the pain in my eye at a level 3.  I guess it would scale up from 1 to 10, but I’ve never had major trauma or anything like that.

Day 2 – Sunday – I could see but everything near and far was very fuzzy.  I slept a lot.  I do go in for my first post-op checkup.  I noticed in waiting room that the LASIK patients from the prior day were sitting there smiling and looking like everything was A OK, while I was feeling like hammered crap.

Doctor Boyd checked out my eyes and said they were pretty inflamed still and that he wanted to prescribe Combigan to me to reduce the fluid pressure in my eye.  I was worried since I haven’t seen anyone mention that online, but he assured me it was not a big deal.  The steroid eye drops can cause an increased pressure in the eye and the Combigan would help counteract that.  He reduced the steroids to only twice a day and the told me to use the Combigan twice a day.  I still had pain in my right eye (level 2 at this point pain wise), so I used the ice pack trick for a while and slept a lot.

Day 3 – Monday – I had no pain at this point, just discomfort.  It felt like opening your eyes in a swimming pool.  It stung a little, but not to bad.  As far as vision goes, I could make out figures of people and could read my computer screen from about 12 inches away.  Light, both natural and indoor lighting, was an absolute killer.  I had to wear shades and I did ride into work with my wife.

Day 4 – Tuesday – I stayed home.  I was exhausted from trying to work the prior day and my vision had taken a step back I felt.  It was way to blurry for me to even attempt to work.  I literally slept all day, which is very unusual for me.  I usually get 7-8 hours of sleep a night and I’m good.  I had no pain or even discomfort in my eyes after this point.

Day 5 – Wednesday – Much better close vision!  So much so that I was good enough to work on my computer at work.  I did however notice for the first time that I had motion sickness while riding in the car with my wife.  I was not fit to drive myself as my vision did not seem to be very stable.  Near and far vision seemed to go from crisp to hazy at times.

Day 6 – Thursday – My vision way better!  Enough so that I drove into work myself, though I probably shouldn’t have.  I went to lunch with my boss and noticed that I still got motion sickness riding in the car, but I didn’t notice it when I drove myself.  I had my second post-op visit with Doctor Boyd.  He checked my eye out and said that I needed to do a little more healing before he was willing to take the contact out.  He left my eye drop regimen the same and said that I was healing up rather well.  They claim that I was seeing at about 20/40 in each eye, but that my eye still showed signs of astigmatism.  I was a little upset about hearing that, but he assured me it would continue to clear up and get better.

Day 7 – Friday – I woke up and could see like an eagle!  It was the first day that I really felt happy that I had the surgery.  It was awesome, but I did notice in the evening that a haze seemed to be developing.  Colors were starting to lose their luster.  I was a little worried by that, but I remembered one of the nurses mentioned that the contacts get might get hazy because of all the eye drop medicines.

Day 8 – Saturday – I went in for my third post-op visit.  Doctor Boyd checked my eyes by using the charts and indicated that I was able to see 20/20 and that was with the fuzzy contacts still in!  He said my right eye needed to heal more, but he felt comfortable removing the contacts as long as I promised to take it easy on myself.  It did not hurt when he took them out at all.  My eyes felt like they were able to breath again which was very nice.  I did use roughly triple the number of artificial tears today than in any other previous day.  I think I used half a box.  My vision was fine up close but far away distance (120 Foot away) seemed to be blurry.  The haze I noticed the previous day was indeed caused by the contacts.  I was incredibly happy as when I was leaving the Doc said that I will likely end up with 20/15 vision in both eyes once I healed up more!

Day 9 – Sunday – I still used a tons of artificial tear drops.  My close vision was fine but still 120 foot and beyond was not as crisp as I would like.  No more motion sickness when riding in cars with others.

Day 10 – Monday – I used less artificial tear drops and all around my vision was pretty clear!

Day 11 – Tuesday – I had a feeling all day that my far away vision (out past 120 feet) should be better/clearer than it was.  I have also noticed a trend over the last few days that colors in general seem to be a little more vibrant than they used to.  It could be that my vision was dulled a little by the contacts and now that they are out everything is noticeably more vibrant.  I am not sure so I am going to discuss this with Doctor Boyd this next Saturday when I go in for another checkup.  I think that the surgery actually improved my ability to see colors.

Day 12 – Wednesday – I slept on my eye kinda funny and my vision was a little messed up first thing this morning.  Guess I should go back to using those ugly goggles again while my eyes are still healing up.  I noticed that I am little more sensitive to light today than the last couple of days.  Fluorescent lighting is still hard on my eyes and after working all day my eyes are tired.  Natural lighting is not bad at all and I actually prefer to be outside because things tend to clear up when I am outside.  Indoors I feel as though my distance vision still needs to do a lot of clearing up.  Close up vision is good.  I think my eyes still need to heal up quite a bit.  I will try to get a better timeline on Saturday from Doctor Boyd of how long I should expect my vision to continue to correct.

Day 13 – Thursday – Nothing new on this day.

Day 14 – Friday – I noticed today that my far away vision out past 120 foot seemed to be clearing up some.  My eyes seem to be doing better when I am outside.

Day 15 – Saturday – Back to the Doctor today and I am able to see 20/15 in both eyes with the left eye just being a little fuzzier than the right.  Doctor Boyd said that my eye was healing up well and is taking me off of the steroid drops.  I am to continue using the combigan for one more week but only one time a day now instead of two.  I did go out tonight and checked my night vision.  I don’t see halo’s or notice any difference in my night vision like I have read about from others online.  I am still using the preservative free drops about once an hour to lube up my eyes even though there are plenty of times I don’t think I need to, I just do it just in case.