21 months update

11 days late with this one and now it's Christmas Eve so I make it quick. Nothing much changed since last month, only thing is that I drop a bit less lubrication drops, but I am still using that. Still hoping it will all be fine at 24 months. Merry Christmas !

20 months update

Now at 20 months, still nothing really new to report. Same story as at 19, still seeing very good, and still dropping some lubricating drop. Winter is coming here now, generally with drier air, will be interesting to compare my drop frequency this winter compared to a year ago, expect it to be lower. More on this in my 21-24 months reports.

19 months

At 19 months now - no real news to report. Dropping a bit less artificial tear drops versus at 18 months, otherwise all the same. 

18 months - 1.5 years

Today is a big day! It's 1.5 years since I did my TransPRK eye laser surgery. This means that on average it's only 6 months left until my corneal nerve endings are fully recovered. At the moment I would be on 40 + 0.75 * 60 = 85% of my original nerve count, assuming linear recovery.

So how are my eyes and my sight ? Actually very good. Vision is still excellent, didn't do any test since the 1 year day but I would say it's unchanged - around 1.25 on the decimal scale and 20/16 on the scale used in the US. So far all good.

How about the dryness ? This month I can actually report a significant improvement over 15m day. I drop much much less. I think soon I will not need lubricating drops anymore. Since I drop much less I have also decided to switch from the expensive preservative free drops (first picture) to the much cheaper version of the same drop with preservatives (second picture).

Ok good folks ! Until 17 months 

17 months update

So now is 17 months and 3 days since I did my TransPRK eye laser surgery ! Actually not much to report today, will report more on the 1.5 year (18 months update). The only thing I can report today is that I still see very good and that I drop less lubricating drops compared to the 16 months day. In kind of naturally declines, sometimes I even find myself forcing myself to drop Ayer realizing I didn't drop for a couple of hours, better one drop too much then one too little I would say. I am still waiting for the day I just "forgot to drop" as a result of feeling zero dryness over the whole office day , let's see when and if it comes .

16 months update

Wow already 16 months since I did my TransPRK refractive eye laser surgery! These updates are starting to get repetitive ! I guess that's a good thing though, no dramas after so many months.

So how are my eyes ? Basically same story as at 15 months. I see very good and I still have slighlty dry eyes, especially when sitting in the office with my 6 high resolution screens all day. That said, I am already down to 3-4 of these small single use bottles per day (picture below) which is pretty good since I was at over 10 per day one year ago. It might sound a lot to some of you, but I drop more then I really need, I like to keep my eyes fully moisturized  all days to maximize my vision and avoid any future dry eyes related problems.

I would say at 16 months I start to get 100% sure I did the right choice when I decided to do eye laser. The dry eyes will soon be gone (latest at 24 months according to my own research) and vision is super. I see better then most people around me. The extra vision I have gained compared to when I had contacts and glasses for example helps me when I play Golf, I can follow the ball all the way, even when hitting a 250 meter drive. Another positive side effect is that my eye whites are starting to get whiter. Less small blood vessels in there competed to how it looked after 20 years of contact lenses. 

Ok readers ! Until next time !

New hope for eye laser patients with prolonged dry eye syndrome!

Today FRA approved a new drug against dry eyes! Good news for all of us with post refractive eye laser surgery dry eyes! Seems to the first of its kind !

Check the following links to read more!

FDA approves new medication for dry eye disease

FDA Approves Shire’s Xiidra™ (lifitegrast ophthalmic solution) 5% – The Only Treatment Indicated for the Signs and Symptoms of Dry Eye Disease

15 months update

Today is exactly 15 months since I did my trans-PRK eye laser surgery in Switzerland. 

Vision is great, a few days I ago I even got a live confirmation on this fact. Was waiting for a tramway with a few friends and when I could see the right train coming  I said "great nr 4 is arriving soon", my friend then said "wow, you see good, I can't see the number of that team yet". Small thing, but felt good. This friend of mine did LASIK, but 10 years ago.

I also often compare to my girlfriend who always had great vision, I always see things slightly before her, confirming that while she is around 20/20 (1.0) I am slightly better (20/17-16, 1.20-1.25).

Dryness is getting much better. Not sure if it's my eyes that healed or if its just the higher humidity during the summer that helps.

14 months update

Friday 13th of May was my 14th months since surgery day. Nothing new to say really, I still see good and I still use lubricating eye drops, slightly less of that then one month ago I giving. 

One thing I do notice happens over time though is that I accept my new vision more and more. First year I constantly reflected on what I could see and not see, and if that was normal or not. On top of that I had a constant fear of that things would get worse, and a constant hope that things would get even better. Now at 14 months, I have kind of accepted the new reality. Thinking less and less about my eyes (but still more then before surgery).

13 months update

Hi readers, today its 13 months and 3 days since I did my TransPRK surgery. Not much news to reports versus 12 months. I have a very good and stable vision. I still drop a bit of lubricating drops, but much less then before!

PRK Vision recovery timeline

During my own research I did before deciding to do eye laser surgery I noticed that many people are wondering how long time it takes for the vision to recover after a PRK surgery. The recovery time varies of course a great deal between individuals, but to share some light on the question I will share my own recovery line below. I did the single TransPRK (single step, no-cut)  version but its more or less the same surgery as LASEK and normal PRK so the information below should shed some light for all people thinking about any of the three versions.

Vision recovery timeline

T = Surgery day

• T+1 day: Very poor vision. Binocular: 20/100, Decimal 0.2
• T+4 days: Poor.  Binocular: 20/60, Decimal 0.35
• T+7 days: Okay. Left: 20/25, Decimal 0.8, Right: 0.63. Binocular: 20/22, 0.9
• T+35 days: Good. Left 20/20, 1.0. Right 20/20, 1.0. Binocular: 20/17, 1.20.
• 3 months: Excellent. Left 20/17, 1.2. Right 20/17, 1.2. Binocular: 20/16, 1.25.
• 6 months: Excellent. Left 20/17, 1.2. Right 20/17, 1.2. Binocular: 20/16, 1.25.
• 12 months: Excellent. Left 20/17, 1.2. Right 20/17, 1.2. Binocular: 20/16, 1.25.

In terms of refractive power I ended up: 

Left: 0.0 = Perfect
Right: +0.125 = slightly slightly over-corrected but well within the errormargin of +/- 0.5 diopter.

Conclusion: I reached my final vision after 3 months. From month 3 to 12 vision didn't change despite the fact that my right eye epithelium grew 20 micro meter thicker from month 3 to 6.

LASEK vs TRANSPRK and a note on Corneal Wound healing after EYE laser surgery

Hi readers

Since a good friend of mine just did LASEK surgery at the same clinic I did my TransPRK surgery last year I googled a bit on how these operations compare. Different researchers say different things, since I am not a eye researcher I will not try to form my own opinion, instead I will just summarize a few things I read.

Uncorrected Visual Acuity and Residual refractive error  - or how good will you see and how fast

I found  an interesting and recent study comparing LASEK and TransPRK recovery and results. Summary:

After 1 month 58% of TransPRK and 75% of LASEK patients could see 20/20 or better.
After 3 months 83% of TransPRK and 83% of LASEK patients could see 20/20 or better.
At 6 and 12 months 92% of TransPRK and 92% of LASEK patients could see 20/20 or better.

20/20 = Snellen 1.0.

So according to this study the end result is the same, but LASEK patients seems to recover a bit faster on average. The same study also says that the epithelium heels a bit faster in TransPRK (3 days) vs LASEK (4 days). The initial pain was also higher after TransPRK according to this study.

Residual refractive error also declined slightly faster in LASEK vs TransPRK, after 1 month 83% of TransPRK patients and 92% of LASEK patients was within +/-0.5 Dioptre but already from 3 months and forward 92% of patients are within +/-0.5 Dioptre for both types of surgeries.

Then I also found another similar study. Here the results were slightly different as you can see here. This study indicates that TransPRK patients recover there vision slightly faster then LASEK patients (in this study TransPRK = ASLA, LASEK = Alcohol PRK).

Regarding wound healing an interesting aspect is the dry eye symptoms often felt after eye laser surgery. The reason is likely that a lot of the Corneal nerves are also removed when doing the eye laser. Some interesting numbers from this study :

After PRK based surgeries (including LASEK and TransPRK) the nerve density was 59% of preoperative level at 1 year, and near 100% after 2 years. After LASIK based surgeries, the preoperative level is firstly reached after 5 years.

So according to this study I would now be on around 59% of my preoperative nerve density. Maybe this can explain why I still have slightly dry eyes around 1 year after TransPRK. I symptoms are slowly disappearing however, but maybe it will take the full 24 months until I am complete free or lubricating eye drops. Will keep you posted here on my blog.


My friend will soon post a more in depth article about the healing process, follow him here Ongoing LASEK recovery.

12 months / 1 year checkup

Had the 12 months checkup today. To be exact it is 11 months and 20 days since I did my TransPRK/notouch eye laser surgery.

Vision test result - unchanged since the 6 month checkup which is positive!

Left eye: 1.2 

Right eye: 1.2 

Binocular: 1.25

The thickness of my residual cornea and epithelium was also unchanged.

I still have slightly dry eyes but also this is improving. Doctor said this is likely due to the fact that I work 12 hours a day in front of 8 screens. For the eyes this is comparable to running a marathon every day he said.

All in all the conclusion was my results are as good as it's gets. 

For people interested in the details:

The precision of eye laser is +/-0.5 diopter. My result is:

Left eye: 0.0 - perfect

Right eye: +0.125 - so a tiny tiny bit overcorrected.

Eyes looked fully healthy and no more checkups requires for 2-3 years now. Nice !!!

Custom Wavefront LASEK story

A good friend of mine just did Custom Wavefront LASEK at the same laser clinic I did my TransPRK at, follow his story here:

http://wonderswondersmighthavehad.tumblr.com/

11 months update

Dear readers

Today is exactly 11 months since I did my  Trans PRK eye laser surgery.

On the vision quality and acuity side everything is still good. I good, better then many people around me and have no glares or halos.

On the dryness side the 11 month have been good. After shortly after the 10 months day I suddenly has to drop much less frequent. I still use drops, especially early mornings or late evenings but I feel a significant improvement. There is light in the tunnel finally, I might be able to live without lubricating eye drops soon.

I also did a interesting discovery. For a while I used drops with preservatives, roughly month 8-10, then I switched back to preservative free again, and my eyes directly felt much better overall. Worth keeping in mind. The preservative free drops are more expensive, but better for your eyes.

Next update after the 12 month checkup which I have after 11 months and 21 days roughly.

10 months day

It's now 10 months since I did my "nocut" TransPRK eye laser surgery with the Schwind Amaris laser system.

Not much news to report since the 9 months day. I still see good and I still experience a bit of the dry eye symptom, especially when in the office with my 8 screens. Sometimes I wonder if this really is a side effect of the surgery or a consequent of working 9-12 hours a day in from of 8 old screens at various heights and with different contrast and illumination properties. Maybe my eyes simple get tired. Not sure. I have read that the dry eyes symptoms are generally gone within 3-12 months following PRK so I still have two months left in the normal period. However, according to my own studies of scientific reports on the topic the nerve endings are firstly fully back 24 months after PRK so I guess that would be worst case. For LASIK the extreme case would be 5 years according to the same study. 

My vision is still sharp. I am curious to see if I still see 125% at my 12 months checkup. You never know, as the epithelium takes a full year or more to heal following PRK, and if too much grows back, so it becomes much thicker then pre surgery, that could cause the vision to regress slightly.

Next update at 11 months.