Bottom Line: My experience getting a kind of vision correction surgery called PRK, part 6.

Please read my disclaimer. Basically, none of this is intended as medical advice, just a description of my experience and the thought process behind my decisions. To find other posts in this series, scroll to the top and hit the PRK tag under the post title.

Days 7-19

Well, I haven’t updated in a while, mostly because there isn’t a whole lot else to report. Everything has been pretty consistent for a while now.

My vision seems stable and very good. I had a checkup yesterday (POD 18) and tested at 20/15 in both eyes. Interestingly, I frequently don’t feel like I’m seeing quite as well as I used to with my glasses or contacts, but I’ve consistently tested at 20/20 or better. I brought this up, and my ophthalmologist reminded me that I’ll likely have decreased contrast sensitivity for up to three months post-op, which is something that won’t be reflected in a very high-contrast test like a Snellen chart, but would make things more difficult to distinguish in real life. He also confirmed that some intra-day variability in visual acuity is entirely normal at this stage, which I’ve noticed especially when I’m fatigued.

He also asked about “halos” at night, which is a common complaint in both LASIK and PRK. To be honest, I haven’t noticed much. I think I probably do see some halos, but even before PRK, half of the time I’m looking through smudged glasses or a dirty windshield, which looks about the same. Or maybe I just don’t see halos — others have told me they were very bothersome, and I was told that my pupils at night are nice and small (large pupil size is a risk for halos, IIRC), so perhaps I just am not experiencing them. Either way, I’m very happy to report that they aren’t bothering me.

As far as pain, I’ve had hardly any. My eyes occasionally sting a bit for a few minutes without a clear reason why, but it’s usually mild and short-lived. I’m still using my steroid drops four times daily, lubricant drops frequently, and taking Vitamin C, cod liver oil (high in Vitamin A), fish oil, and vitamin E.

I still try to adjust my glasses all the time, especially when doing things where adjusting my glasses was part of the “routine.” Yesterday, for example, I was doing deadlifts at the gym, which require leaning over to grab the bar. When I deadlift, I get ready for the lift with a little routine of pushing my feet to the outsides of my shoes (getting ready to “spread the floor,” which is supposed to help stabilize and activate stabilizing musculature), and pulling up my pants slightly at the knee (to make room for the deep knee bend to folllow). The next step will involve lots of neck flexion as I adjust my grip and my stance, followed by moderate neck extension during the lift itself. In preparation, I always pull up on my headphone cable to make a little slack, or else my earbuds get pulled out of my ears when I extend my neck, and I push my glasses up so they don’t fall off my face during the flexion phase (when I’m looking down to adjust my grip and stance). Seriously, I did 6 or so sets of deadlifts (counting warmups), and adjusted my invisible glasses during every one.

Anyway, I’ll end today’s post with some good news: in the last two weeks, I’ve enjoyed my first time mountain biking and caught my first couple trout without visual correction in about 15 years. It feels wonderful.