Day 44 - Back at the Golf course

Went to the driving range to hit some balls for the first time of the season and for the first time after my surgery.

Both the golf shots and the vision were good. Could see the ball during the flight and when it landed even with a good drive of 250 meter. Very happy!

I am trying to compare to how I could see with fresh contact lenses before, this is quite difficult as I already forgot how it was to live with lenses and glasses. I could see good in contact lenses. My feeling, although hard to prove, is that I now can see as good as with contact lenses before, or maybe even slightly better. I guess my conclusion is that I am happy with the results so far. 

Day 35 - 1 month checkup and vision test

Day 35 - 1 month checkup and vision test

Doctor said eyes where healing good. Main healing phase now over, but it would take another 2 months for the end result. Have to continue with cortisone drops for another 2 weeks, but only morning and evening. Next checkup the 3 month checkup.

Vision test:

Could see the 20/20 line (1.0) clearly with both eyes.
Binocular I managed to read 4 out of 5 letters on the 20/16 line (1.25).

Day 21 - First day of Alpine Skiing after surgery

First day back in the alps for snowboarding. My clinic recommended to avoid mountain holidays the first 14 days post surgery so day 21 felt safe. We were lucky with the weather and had extremely strong sunshine. I made sure to use gold googles with 100% UV protection. In general all went fine but sometimes the light felt too strong, even through the googles. 

I had the feeling that I could see further then any time earlier in my life, this was awesome !

We went skiing also day 22, but luckily we had a lot of fog so the eyes got to rest a bit. I still made sure to use googles or sunglasses all the time though, well aware that UV rays penetrates both fog and clouds.

Day 19 - Checkup and VISION TEST

Day 19 - Checkup and VISION TEST - I now see 1.0 (20/20) on both eyes

Checkup again with one of the eye laser surgeons that have been taking care of me during the process. Good news! The inflammation was now fully gone on the right eye and he put me back on "normal" medication schedule also on the right eye from day 20. Also did a vision test, results below.

Results vision test

Left eye: 1.0 (20/20) - could see all five letters clear and crisp.
Right eye: 1.0 (20/20)  - could see all five letters clear and crisp.
Together: 1.2 (20/17) - could see four out of five letters, not really crisp though.

Now at day 19 I can with confidence say I more or less see as good as I did before with newly fitted contacts or glasses. Maybe a few more days needed, think I could see the 1.2 (20/17) line a bit clearer with contact lenses, but I don't really remember to be honest.

Got a new appointment for a checkup in two weeks.

Day 15-18

Weekend and holiday. Started with sports again, it felt good as I avoided sports the first two weeks after surgery. Vision got better and better, from time to time I had the feeling it fluctuated a bit, especially in the morning. The eyes where less dry some days and more other days. Towards day 16-17 I had the feeling both eyes had the same vision quality also, more or less.

Day 14 - First time hangover since the surgery

On day 13 we had a big night out with my team from work. I was a bit worried that this would somehow mess up something with my eyes. However, everything was fine this day, except that the eyes where a bit more dry then normally, probably due to fact that I had a few too many drinks the night before.

Day 13

Day 13

Same story as day 10 and 11. Maybe slightly easier with the upper right screen. Still had the feeling that the right eye didn't see as good as the left.

Day 12

Day 12 - back to the doctor

This day I had the feeling of "dirt in the eye" on the right eye again. I got worried, emailed the clinic, they told me to come and see a doctor the same day.

The doctor checked both my eyes again and told me that the inflammation now as gone, but one of the cortisone drops were too strong and that it hurt my healing Epithelium. She changed the medication to only use the milder cortisone medicine, but to stay on "the additional medicine" schedule a bit longer. My new medicine schedule was now:

Left eye (standard): mild cortisone 3 times per day.
Right eye(extra): mild cortisone 4 times per day, antibiotic 2 timer per day, anti-viral 2 times per day.

Day 11

Day 11 

Same story as first day in the office. I think I was slightly easier this day though.

Day 10

Day 10 - First day back in the office

This was my first day back at work after the surgery. I have a very visually demanding jobs where I used two rows of computer screens (5 screens, 3 in eye height, 2 screens on top) with a lot of small numbers and texts. I was able to do my work good, but it was a bit heavy to read small text on the screen in the upper right corner. It worked, but I got a headache towards the afternoon.

Day 7 - follow appointment in the afternoon and VISION TEST

Both of the senior laser surgeons checked my right eye. They agreed that the problem was more or less gone. Medication was cut to half and I got a follow up appointment twelve days later.

Vision test results:

Left eye: I could see 4 of 5 letters on the 1.0 (20/20) line. They were not crisp however, so I would give my left eye at this day 0.8 (20/25).

Right eye: I could see 4 of 5 letters on the 0.8 (20/25) line. Also not crisp here so I give myself a 0.7 (20/28) on the right eye. Right eye was lagging behind due to the inflammation.

Together: Around 0.9 (20/22).

Doctors said my vision had improved very quickly for a PRK operation. Maybe TransPRK has quicker recovery as the advertisement says after-all.

Day 6 - follow up appointment in the morning

This day 3 eye doctors investigated my right eye. Left eye still good. Right eye had got a bit better but still not good. Medication was reduced however.

Day 5 - follow up appointment with eye doctor on right eye

Left eye still good. Right eye had got a bit better but still not good. Got two new medicines, one stronger cortisone drop plus anti-viral pills to take 3 times per day. Reason behind this is that strong cortisone treatments potentially could trigger a latent herpes infection, so anti viral drugs where given as a precaution. Got follow-up appointments scheduled for the two following days.

Very happy I bought a "all in package" with all treatments and medicines required for the first 12 months included.

Day 4 - Checkup and removal of protective contact lenses

Met the Optometrist after lunch to check my eyes and remove my protective contacts. Epithelium had healed enough o remove contacts so he did that.

My right eye still looked worse then my left eye however, so he send me to a eye-doctor and laser surgeon specialized in eye problems. She noticed my left eye looked normal but that my right had an inflammation, it had overreacted to the laser.

She ordered me to follow a special procedure for the right eye; two types of antibiotic drops 3-4 times per day plus cortisone drops every hour. Got a follow up appointment next day.

Did a quick vision test this day, long vision was still bad. We didn't pay attention to this very carefully this day, but I think it was in the 0.3-0.4 range (20/50-20/60) or worse, with a foggy/cloudy vision on the right eye also on near distances. This was due to the inflammation they told me. Before the surgery the right eye was my better eye as it is my dominant eye.

Day 3

Day 3

Could use my iPhone without any problems, could even read email. Computer usage still difficult. Could watch TV, but couldn't read the text.

This day also the right eye could see my eyes in the mirror, my feeling was that the right eye healed one day slower then the left eye. But I had the feeling both eyes improved every day.

Day 2

Day 2 

Could use my phone better. Could also watch TV, but I was not able to read the text.

Could see my eyes in the mirror using my left eye, but the right eye had a big of foggy vision.

Most of the pain was gone, just a slight feeling of "dirt" in the eyes, mainly in the right eye.

The feeling of waking up every day seeing clearly better and better is awesome...