3.5 month update

Today is exactly 3.5 months since my single-step Trans PRK eye laser surgery. Update:

Vision is awesome. I still have to use lubricating eye drops but getting less and less. Now the eyes just feel a little bit dry in the morning, but I still lubricate roughly every 2 hours throughout the day. I hope this will resolve itself over the next couple of months.

Also a quick refresher on the various versions of PRK surgery:

PRK: Epithelium removed with surgical instrument, before the Excimer laser reshapes the Corneal stroma.

LASEK: Epithelium removed with alcohol, before the Excimer laser reshapes the Corneal stroma.

Trans-PRK (no touch) : Epithelium removed by the Excimer laser, before the Excimer laser reshapes the Corneal stroma. In the single-step version which I did the Epithelium is removed and the cornea reshaped in one step which makes the whole procedure very short (35 seconds per eye in my case).

Next update at the 4 months day.

Modern research on PRK recovery

For anyone seriously interested in how the eye recovers after any type of PRK surgery (PRK, LASEK, TransPRK) read this article

http://apps.elsevier.es/watermark/ctl_servlet?_f=10&pident_articulo=0&pident_usuario=0&pcontactid=&pident_revista=310&ty=0&accion=L&origen=optometry&web=www.journalofoptometry.org&lan=en&fichero=S1888-4296(14)00086-7.pdf&eop=1&early=si

I don't mean to put anyone off with this, but you will learn very interesting things, like that nobody really understands the healing process that follows eye laser surgery. That's why individual results always are a bit unpredictable. It for example takes up to 2 years for all the nerves to grow back in the eye after PRK and up to 5 years after LASIK. I guess this means that's how long you can have post surgery dry eyes in worst case. The research also shows that sometimes regression occurs also after 1 year post surgery - for example due to that the epithelium sometimes grows thicker after the PRK surgery then it was before. Anyhow, if you are really interested, start by reading the article above. The language is quite advanced so you might need google and Wikipedia as support while reading.

3 months checkup

Hi all
Today I had my three months checkup. Everything with my eyes was fine and I got another appointment 3 months later. I still am a bit dry but the doctor thought it would go away in 1-3 months now. Vision was excellent! See below!


Day 1: Very poor. US 20/100, Decimal 0.2
Day 4: Poor. US 20/60, Decimal: 0.35
Day 7: Pretty good. Left 20/25 (0.8), Right: 0.63, Combined: 20/22 (0.9).
Day 35 (~1 month): Left 20/20 (1.0), 100%, Right 20/20 (10), 100%. Combined: Could read 4 out of 5 letters on 20/16 line (1.25), 125%

Day 90 (~3 months): Very good! Left 20/17 (1.2) Right 20/17 (1.2) Combined:  20/16 (1.25)

Left eye: 0

Right eye: +0.25 - so slightly over corrected but well within error margin.

Will post again as my dryness gets better and then at the 6 months check.

Having a cold in the recovery phase after eye laser

Today I have a slight cold. Although in general my dry-eye symptoms start to get less and less noticeable approaching the 3 months check-mark, I really feel a difference when I have a cold. I remember from my contact-lens time that they felt sticky and annoyed the eyes as soon as I got a little bit sick. Now after the surgery I also notice the same effect, I drop far more tear drops in the office when having even a minor cold.

Vision wise I am very happy, looking forward to see the result in the upcoming 3 month vision test, but I have a feeling it will take another 3 months before my eyes are fully restored in terms of self-lubrication.

Vision development first 35 days

To make it easy for the reader, here is a summary of my development so far. Will update again at the 3 month test in a couple of days.

Vision development first 35 days

Before surgery (near sighted): Left -2.75, -0.75 astigmatism. Right: -2.75, -0.75 astigmatism.

After surgery (Day 1 = 1 day after surgery, Day 4 = 4 days after surgery...)
Left = Only left eye open
Right = Only right I open
Combined = Both eyes open

Day 1: Very poor. US 20/100, Decimal 0.2
Day 4: Poor. US 20/60, Decimal: 0.35
Day 7: Pretty good. Left 20/25 (0.8), Right: 0.63, Combined: 20/22 (0.9).
Day 35 (~1 month): Left 20/20 (1.0), 100%, Right 20/20 (10), 100%. Combined: Could read 4 out of 5 letters on 20/16 line (1.25), 125%

First night run after PRK

Dear reader

Went for a evening run today after some rainfall. Halfway through the run I get into a dark forest section. I had a feeling something was very different running in the dark now after laser compared to be sure, but I am not 100% sure as I don't really remember how my night vision used to be. Anyhow my experience was that the running path and the tree leaves glowed white somehow. Maybe this has something to do with the water on the leaves, not sure. Will observe how this develops in future night runs.

Other then this I don't really see any problems with night vision, no "Halos" or Starbursts to talk about. I had Starbursts the first 3 days after surgery, but it quickly disappeared.

Time to sleep here