Bottom Line: My experience getting a kind of vision correction surgery called PRK, part 7.

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.

Weeks 3-8

I had my two month followup yesterday, so I thought a quick update was in order. After a 3 week taper, I finished my steroid eyedrops a little under 2 weeks ago. Currently my only “medication” related to the PRK is lubricant eyedrops as needed.

Currently my vision is very good. My right eye seems not quite perfect, while my left is perfect. I say “seems” because both eyes are testing very well; yesterday I again tested at 20/15 OD, 20/15 OS, 20/10 OU. Additionally, I underwent a little further investigation with a refractor capable of 1/8 diopter adjustments, and both eyes tested at exactly plano. My right eye by all objective measures is seeing perfectly, even though it seems blurry at times to me. My ophthalmologist was unconcerned, told me it was still early in the game, and that we’d investigate further if it was not resolved at the four month mark. He’s entirely correct; much of the PRK literature uses 6 month and 1 year timepoints, so I probably still have some slight changes ahead.

My comfort level is excellent overall. I went camping for a few days and noticed that the smoke from our campfire bothered my right eye, which is not something I’d previously experienced (the same irritated feeling that my contacts had been giving it). It still stung a bit the day after we had the campfire, but resolved after that with no problems.

I may have noticed a bit of “halo” at night but it was hard to tell. It certainly doesn’t bother me; it’s no different than when I wore glasses (which were probably always a little smudged).

I do not have any problems with dry eyes. I have been using drops with decreasing frequency over the last weeks, to where I use them probably 0-2 times per day now. I have only been using them when I remember, and seldom due to any discomfort.

As a final note, I’ve been doing lots of work on my new house over the last few weeks, and it has been wonderful to be glasses-free. I can hardly imagine how much of a hassle it would have been to have glasses, slick and smudged with sweat, sliding all over and falling off, covered in dust and grime… the PRK has made the process much, much easier!

Unless there are any major changes, I’ll probably update next in a couple of months at my next checkup.