Day 13 (Right), Day 3 (Left)

My eye stopped watering this morning and the swelling has gone away. Day 3 is so much easier than day 2 after surgery. Day 2 is the worst. I went out to dinner last night with friends even though my eye was red, swollen, and watering. Interestingly, one of them, who just retired from the military, had PRK in the military. He said it was the best thing that the army did for him. Interestingly, the military only does PRK on personnel. LASIK isn't allowed since the corneal flap weakens the cornea. He was a tank mechanic. His wife had had LASIK and was thrilled with the outcome.

My vision in my right eye is very crisp today. I'm feeling like it's approaching 20/20 for distance, but reading is still blurry.

My post-surgery follow-up appointment for my left eye is Wednesday at 4:00. The bandage contact lens will be removed at this appointment. I haven't exercised for two days and have one more day to wait before I can exercise. I have been sleeping as much as possible and wearing sunglasses most of the time to speed up healing.

Day 12 (Right), Day 2 (Left)

Today, I'm staying in a dark room with sunglsses on as much as possible to rest my eye. Day 2 is the most painful day. It's actually not that bad, but my eye is red, swellen, watering, and stings. I'll sleep as much as possible today and avoid attempting to read or work on the computer because it's very straining on my surgery eye. My eye feels strained after a few minutes of close work. I can't read well. My distance and intermediate vision is very good, but my close vision is blurry. I took Vicodin last night and will take it today. For my right eye, I needed Vicodin only the first night and the day after surgery and I'm expecting it to be the same for my left eye. I now have a better idea of what to expecxt and know that my eye will feel much better on the third day after surgery.

Day 11 (Right), Day 1 (Left)

I went ahead with surgery on my left eye Friday, June 27, 2014. The surgery was very fast like the first time. The laser was on my eye for 14 seconds or so. I could feel the instrument that holds the eyelids open more than the last time and mentioned it to the surgeon and he made it a little less tight. The music was Pink Floyd once again: Wish You Were Here followed by Breathe. My vision was very clear immediately following the surgery (before any corneal healing starts) and it went smoothly. My eye started to sting and water a few hours after surgery, presumably when the numbing drops wore off. I kept my sunglasses on and listened to an audiobook. I slept 12 hours the first night after surgery. I think I heal much faster when I'm asleep. I'm doing all the various drops for my eyes on schedule and sleeping with a protective plastic disc over my eye so that I don't risk rubbing it at night. I know the second day after day surgery is the most painful and that it gets much easier after that. It's really nice to have my vision more balanced between my two eyes. My right eye feels like 20/40 and my left eye like 20/100. Just a wild guess.

Day 9 (Right)

My vision continues to improve and I'm reading more easily, so I'll go ahead with surgery in my left eye tomorrow. I tested several monovision contact lenses (-5.75, -6.0, and -6.5) in my left (non-dominant) eye before having surgery in my right eye. One benefit of doing surgery in my right eye first is that it gave me more time to contemplate whether to do monovision in my left eye. My left eye is a -7.0 and the -5.75 and -6.0 contact lenses felt too undercorrected. I was aware of the imbalance between my eyes at this level of undercorrection. A -0.5 undercorrection (the -6.5 lens) was comfortable, though. At this level of undercorrection, I didn't perceive an imbalance in my vision or the undercorrection. Although this is a small level of monovision ("mini-monovision"), it will likely mean at least an additional five years without wearing reading glasses. I'm excited to get surgery for my left eye tomorrow.

The vision in my right eye gets a little clearer each day. It's not quite as clear as my left eye with glasses, but it's getting very close. I do have the sensation of a bit of roughness in my right eye and it seems to be gradually diminishing.

Day 7 (Right)

Today was my first follow-up appointment for my right eye and also my tentatively scheduled appointment for surgery on my left eye. The surgeon's assistant put a numbing drop in my right eye and then removed the bandage contact lens. Removing the contact lens was painful because the outer membrane of the cornea adheres a bit to the contact lens bandage. The past two days, I've had some discomfort in my eye most likely caused by the bandage contact lens itself after a week in my eye. The surgeon's assistant said that it's common to feel the edges of the contact lens after it's in the eye more than five days.

My vision in my surgery eye has improved quite a bit, but is blurry. In today's vision test, I was able to read some letters on the 20/20 line and got some of them wrong. The surgeon looked at my eye with a microscope and said it's healing well and that my ability to already read some letters on the 20/20 line means that my vision is on a good trajectory. I was actually surprised that I was able to read some letters on the 20/20 line. My guesstimate was that my vision would be about 20/100, but apparently it's considerably better than this. I'm beginning to be able to read with my surgery eye, but small letters are blurry.

I decided not to go forward with surgery on my left eye today. I scheduled a tentative surgery appointment for Friday instead. If by Friday, I'm able to read reasonably well with my right eye and I'm confident that my right eye can carry the load while my left eye heals, then I'll go forward with surgery on Friday. I decided I wasn't comfortable going ahead with the surgery until I'm able to read consistently with my right eye.

The surgeon was very understanding and flexible about when I do the surgery on my left eye. He and his staff have been excellent!

I did a spinning class and a yoga class today (in a non-heated room) and had no issue with exercise. I was careful to keep sweat away from my right eye.

Day 5 (Right)

Last night, I did a night vision test. My better half drove me around for 10 minutes at night so that I could look at lights. One concern I've had about the surgery is whether it would create night vision issues (halos and starbursts). I'm happy to say that my night vision last night in my right (surgery) eye was fine. My night vision behaved the same in my right (surgery) eye as in my left eye wearing glasses. I'll continue to test my night vision over the next couple of nights. Given how my vision in my right eye is improving, I'm feeling comfortable about going forward with surgery in my left eye next week. Today, I'm starting to be able to read with my right eye, although text is blurry. I stopped taking Ibuprofen today.

I exercised again today and did a body pump class. I also went to a yoga class. I left the yoga class after 15 minutes of sun salutations, though, because it was in a heated room and I felt like the heat might dry out my eye and the bandage contact lens. The surgeon's office indicated that I'm not supposed to be in a steam room or sauna for two weeks and the heated yoga room felt a bit too much like a sauna.

Tomorrow, I'll be going on a 7-mile hike at Mount Tamalpias. It will be my first post-surgery hike. I'll be careful to avoid getting dust in my eye and wear sunglasses the entire time.

Day 4 (Right)

The pain in my right eye is minimal today. Every once and awhile I feel like there may be something in my eye like a bit of dust or the bandage contact lens itself. My distance vision in my right eye is very good today. I would guess that it's about a -1.5 or -2.0. My intermediate vision is also good, but my near vision is blurry. I can't read with my right eye. The surgeon's office instructed me not to exercise for the first three days so today will be my first day of exercise post-surgery. I'll do a body pump class in half an hour and try not to sweat into my eye. :-) I'll either rely on my surgery eye only or wear my glasses with one lens removed. I'm feeling very optimistic about the progress with my vision in my right eye. I'm continuing to sleep with a plastic protective shield taped over my right eye so that I don't inadvertently put any pressure on my eye while I sleep. I highly recommend using an eye shield, especially if you tend to sleep on your stomach or side. My vision is not yet good enough to drive.

Day 3 (Right)

The swelling has gone down quite a bit in my eyelid and the pain is much less than yesterday. My epithelium must be growing back. :-) My vision in my right eye continues to be blurry, but much better than it was before surgery. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say the vision is about -3.0 and fluctuating. It was -6.5 before surgery. I'm still primarily resting my eyes today. I took Vicodin the first night and during day 2, but haven't needed it since then. The Ibuprofen seems to be doing the trick.

Day 2 (Right)

From everything I've heard, day 2 is supposed to be the most uncomfortable, which gives me hope because it's not that bad. My right eyelid is swollen today, my eye has a burning sensation (similar to what you feel chopping onions), and periodically waters. It is painful, but tolerable.

I took Vicodin last night, wore a protective plastic shield over my eye during the night, and slept reasonably well.

I'm light sensitive, so am wearing sunglasses today and staying indoors. I'm keeping my eyes shut as much as possible to rest them. I'm taking the various eye drops when needed and also 800 mg of Ibuprofen/day and 1000 mg of Vitamin C/day.

My vision in my right eye is blurry, but continues to be much better than what it was before surgery.

I am sleeping more than usual. This could be the Vicodin or my body needing more sleep while it mends my eye.

Day 1 - Surgery (Right)

I'm typing with one eye closed. :-) I had epi-LASIK (custom Wavefront PRK) on my right eye Tuesday, June 17, 2013. I decided to take a conservative approach and do my right eye first (correcting it for distance), assess the outcome, and then do the left eye.

Epi-LASIK (PRK) is similar to LASIK, but recommended for people who have a thinner cornea. In regular LASIK, a flap is cut in the cornea, folded back during laser surgery, and then put back in place after surgery. In Epi-LASIK, no flap is cut in the cornea. Instead, the top few layers of cornea membrane are removed by polishing them off, laser surgery is completed, the eye is flushed with liquid, and a bandage contact lens is placed on the cornea while it heals. The healing time for epi-LASIK is much longer than it is for LASIK because the outer membrane of the cornea needs to grow back. In regular LASIK, the result is immediate and there is virtually no healing time (other than the flap resealing). 

Epi-LASIK, like LASIK, is done using Wavefront, which means the laser treatment is customized to your particular eye. A "topographical map" is taken of your cornea and this information is programmed into the laser. The laser reshapes your cornea based on this information.

The epi-LASIK surgery itself was very quick. It took about 10 seconds. I was given half a Valium beforehand and they played Pink Floyd during the surgery. I think the song was "Breathe." The surgeon talked through all the steps as he performed them and put a "bandage" contact lens on my eye that will stay on for a week. It wasn't painful. I was given sunglasses to wear afterward and my better half drove me home. I'll be light sensitive for about a week and my eye will hurt for about three days while the outer membrane (epithelium) of my cornea grows back. 

As I left the surgeon's office, I asked one of the assistants to remove the right lens from my glasses so that I have them available to wear once the vision in my right eye improves. 

My vision in my right eye will be blurry for 1-2 weeks before it starts to stabilize. Right after the surgery, however, my vision in my right eye was much clearer than it had been before the surgery. It was blurry, but much less blurry than before. I'm not supposed to exercise or get dust in my eye for the first few days.

I'll go in for a post-surgery check up in a week. They'll remove the bandage contact lens then. I have a tentative appointment to do epi-LASIK on my left eye after the check up.

I'm excited to see where my vision in my right eye lands once my eye has healed and my vision has stabilized.