Just so I have this tracked somewhere.

Pre-Surgery and Surgery)
I went for my initial testing almost 2 months before my surgery. This free consultation was to see if I was a candidate for the surgery. They put me through about 5 different machnes that check the shape of your eye and more. They also checked the prescription on my current glasses and also re-tested my eyes for the required prescription. I was a candidate and set my surgery date with a down payment of 300 dollars. The total cost to do both eyes was 1800 dollars. I chose to get PRK over LASIK as I did not want to have a flap cut into my eye, due to the sports that I still play.

Day of Surgery)
I went in an hour early to fill out some paperwork. I was concerned about the speed in which they checked my prescription in the consultation, but the lady said they they will actually check my eyes 3 more times before I go under the machine. They did do this. 2 different people came in and checked my prescription before the surgeon came in and did it a 3rd time. Then it was off to the surgery room.

They lay you down under the machine. Your head rests in a bit of a concave but otherwise it is not strapped down in any way. They put numbing drops in my eyes and then waited a few minutes. There are 3 lights on the machine above you, a red one, a blinking red one, and a green one. They tell you to focus on the blinking red one the entire time. They put a device on your eye so you cannot blink, and then lay a metal circle over your eye which is the size of your iris. The doctor then rubs your eye with a chemical to remove the corneal epithelium so the laser can get through to do what i needs to do. Then it got strange.

Up until that point there was no problem focusing on the blinking red light, and it was not uncomfortable having your eye forced open. Once the laser started firing my vision went a mess of red and green plaid patterns and I could no longer see a specific blinking red light. I just tried to continue to look where I was already looking. It seems to work out alright. During the laser I could also smell a burning smell, but I had read about this, and the doctor warned me about this just before the laser started firing. The laser did 2 sets of firing, which I'm guessing was for my Myopia, and the other for my Astigmatism.

After the laser stopped firing, they dumped a bunch of cold liquid into my eye -- so much that it flowed down the side of my face and neck. After that they put 3 or 4 different types of drops into my eyes. These were probably the same ones that you have to use for a week afterwards. Then they slid the machine over and repeated the same process on my other eye. I was probably laying under the machine for a total of 6-7 minutes.

In the recovery room I was told to close my eyes for 10 minutes and then put in drops that I was given . I did this and found no discomfort immediately afterwards, and my vision wasn't that bad. One interesting thing about this office, is in the recovery room they have a camera on the laser machine so you can actually watch the next person get their eyes done from an overhead view, or just look through the glass wall to see them in person. The person after me had much more of the laser firing so I imagine they had much worse vision than I had.

They corrected me for this prescription:
Right Eye: -1.5 -1.25 x171
Left Eye: -1.5 -1.75 x7

Day 1 - Dec 27th 2012)
Immediately after surgery my distance viewing was better than it was without glasses before hand. For the first 3 or 4 hours my eyes were still numb from the numbing drops they give you during surgery, so there was no discomfort. After the 4 hours my eyes started to feel like they had scratches on them, but it wasn't unbearable. I was able to sit at the computer and watch TV a little bit, though both were somewhat blurry. I napped too much after the surgery which made it difficult to sleep at night. I think this was a mistake as it would have been better to be able to get to bed and sleep all the way through the night.

Day 2)
I went in for my 24 hour checkup the morning of the 28th. It was very quick -- they just checked for any signs of infection and did a very quick test to make sure I could see at 20/40 vision. I was in and out of there in 10 minutes.

My eyes definitley felt more scratchy the 2nd day. I was still able to watch TV and sit at the computer with not much problem -- just a little bit of bluriness which caused me to bump the internet browser's size to 150%. Once in awhile it would feel like the eyes would flare up and give me a burst of mild pain, which I think was mostly due to overusing them at the computer. My eyes are also a bit light sensitive. I took no naps during the day and had no problem falling and staying asleep throughout the evening.

Day3)
The scratchiness feeling is still there but a lot more mild today. My reading/closup vision seems a bit worse today. Distance vision is OK, but sometimes it also seems to be good before reverting back to just "OK". It's still much better than it was without glasses before the surgery. I've watched a bunch of hockey on TV this morning, and sat at the computer for awhile and it hasn't bothered me yet. The light hasn't bothered me yet today also. I actually think I could drive already, but I dont need to so I'll continue to wait a few days and see how things progress.

Day 4)
I don't really notice any improvement over yesterday. The sun is out today which is making them seem more light sensitive, but I think it's just due to the fact that there is actually sunshine today. Closeup vision seems a little bit worse, and distance vision is about the same. There is still some sandpaper in the eyes today -- I was hoping that would be gone today after such a good day yesterday. The right eye definitely feels that more than the left eye.

As day 4 has gone on, my vision has gotten a lot worse. This is the worst it has been since the surgery for sure. Lights don't focus properly and they end up looking like a starburst. Close up vision is terrible and it's hard to use a computer. Distance vision is not great either. I am getting ghosting effects like so many people get with this surgery. All of this is due to the epithelium growing back over the eye, I am sure.

Day 5)
Day 5 was pretty much the same as the last half of day 4. My vision is not that good. I would say it is comparable to what my vision was without glasses before the surgery. Ghosting is very bad and lights just look like an explosion of fireworks. There is no way I would attempt to drive like this. The scratchiness is all but gone though.

Day 6)
This was very similar to day 5 except that my vision seemed to be getting better near the end of the day.

Day 7
This morning my vision was pretty good. I felt comfortable enough to drive to my 1 week appointment at 11:20am. Once at the office, the receptionist quickly checked my eyes. I believe I could see 20/40 out of my left eye and 20/30 out of my right. After that test, another lady took me into another room to check my eyes and remove the protective contact lenses. She surprised me by putting some stinging drops in my eyes first. I'm still not sure what these were, but they made blinking feel sticky. I suppose these could have been numbing drops or antibiotics, but I'm not sure. She then removed the lenses, checked the healing and sent me on my way. (note: see day 28 for more info on what these drops are)

I decided to go to work today, but on the drive from the eye appointment to the office, my vision steadily declined. By the time I was at work I could barely see at all and was pretty much useless, and only able to see the screen by leaning way up to it. I drove home from work in the dark, and probably shouldn't have. Even now at 9pm at night my vision is terrible. This is the worst my vision has been since the surgery, and I think it is even worse than it was without glasses prior to surgery. I bet I would be around 20/80 vision or worse. I have my browser size increased to 200 percent and I cannot make out what I'm typing now. I have to lean way forward with my nose almost against the screen to check for typos. I was hoping to play a hockoey game in 2 days, but I think that would be a miracle at this point. I'll see what the morning brings -- hopefully I'll see some improvement over what I have right now.

Day 8
The morning of day 8 was definitely an improvement over how day 7 ended. The vision still wasn't that great though. Due to my experience the day before, I just stayed home from work. I ad a task I needed to finish so I did work from home in the morning, but after a few hours of work the vision was pretty bad again. The only good news was that there were moments again where it seemed like my vision would be pretty good for a few seconds. The info sheet the office gave me on during the 1 week checkup talked about how this might happen, particularly after you put some drops in your eyes.

I noticed during the late evening that I started closing my left eye to look at anything. It seems that my right eye is quite a bit better than my left.

Day 9
My vision was again much improved by the morning. Obviously resting your eyes helps a tremendous amount. It was so good that I decided to drive to work. Work even went pretty well. I could see well enough to mostly function normal, but as usual, the eyes got worse as the day went on. I ended up leaving work after 6 hours as that's about all I could take. The vision was just getting too poor to be useful. Driving home wasn't too bad. There was still some light outside, and my distance vision was significantly better than my close up vision.

There were definitely more moments throughout day 9 where my vision was good, and was a brief preview of what I could look forwad to.

Day 10
The morning of day 10 and my vision is actually pretty good right now. I can see the computer screen without leaning forward, and the ghosting on this text as a type is pretty minimal. My distance vision seems pretty good also. Based on my experience from the last few days, I do think that the vision will get worse throughout the day as the eyes get more tired. I do noticed that my right eye is much better than my left eye again, and it makes me close my left eye without even giving it conscious thought.

By the early morning the vision was already getting pretty bad, and by the evening I could barely do anything. I definitely had a tough time seeing the computer.

Day 11 and 12
Not much to report. I guess the vision has gotten slightly better as far as not being completely useless by the end of the day, but this hasn't been much different than Day 10. This vision is good in the morning, briefly, and gets worse as the day goes by. It's definitely a slower process than I expected. I ended up missing a 2nd hockey game the night of the 12th day. I really thought I'd feel comfortable enough to resume sports by now.

Day 15
This was the first day where I noticed something more than very small improvement. By the end of the work day I could still see pretty well, and was even able to use the computer at home in the evening without too much trouble. My vision was sometimes better than what my vision was with glasses, before the surgery. I feel like I'm on the tail end of getting over this ghosting/bluriness.

Day 28 - 4 week checkup
My vision continued to improve a little bit each day between day 15 and now. Today I went back for my 4 week checkup, and I was feeling pretty good about my vision going into it. I would say that my vision is better now than it was with glasses prior to the surgery. I was able to see 20/20 in my right eye, and maybe even better but that was the smallest chart on the screen, and 20/25 in my left eye. I could almost see the 20/20 line but I still have a little bit of ghosting which was making a few of the letters hard to differentiate. My vision is still expected to improve for a few months, so things are looking good at this point (pun completey intended).

He also checked my eye pressure so I asked about these stinging drops, as on day 7 I associated these with making my vision worse. These are anaesthetic drops they put in before they do the pressure test. However, despite the stinging and making your eyes feel sticky, it did not make my vision any worse. I would recommend rinsing your eyes as soon as you can though, so you can get that stickiness feeling out of them. Rinsing your eyes is safe on week 4, but please don't try this when they do it at Day 6 or 7. On day 6/7 or I would just recommend using a lot of eye drops to get that feeling out of your eyes. Here's an article with some more info about the stinging anaesthetic:
http://www.tribune.com.ng/index.php/you-a-eye/42159-its-peppery-it-stings (looks like this link is broken now. This article talked about how this anaesthetic burns and makes your eyes feel really sticky).

Day 90ish- 3 month checkup
I had my 3 month checkup on March 28th 2013. Each eye by itself could see the 20/20 row no problem. With both eyes open I can read the 20/15 row. My eyes rarely feel dry now and I am no longer on any types of drops except for pure moisturizing drops, whenever I feel the need for them, which is rare. I think my very close up vision is a little worse than before the surgery -- but I'm talking real close up, like 3 inches from my eye or less. Otherwise, I have nothing to complain about.

Day 180ish- 6 month checkup
Both eyes tested 20/15.

General Notes)
People I work with who have had this done said the first few days would be miserable and that I wouldn't be capable of anything except listening to music or audio books. I never had that type of experience. It really hasn't been bad at all.

I had this done in Vancouver at Coal Harbor Eye Center by Dr Kirzner. I chose this place because it was recommended by my optometrist, by several people I work with, and by the fact that he had done the same procedure on several Vancouver Canuck players.
http://seewell.ca/

One small thing to note is some of the drops taste terrible, and if you weren't aware you will quickly learn that your tear ducts are connected to your mouth. Sometimes you get the bitter taste of the FML eye drops.

Last edited by Axolotl on Tue Nov 19, 2013 1:49 pm; edited 27 times in total

smoke some weed
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http://phoenixtears.ca/

how much$?

nice axo
i've been thinking of doing this myself

khb it's around 5k here but I'd imagine you're probably looking at a bit more in cali
edit: just looked at the price and he got it done for 1k per eyeball, damn

I updated the post with lots more info. FYI it was 1800 total and work will cover 800 of it for me via a Health Spending Account (HSA).

wow cheaper than i owuld have thought
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i zero bagged your mother

quote:

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Originally posted by Fast Luck
hassan-i-asher: majorin in takin pictures
dreamin bout wayne from catalina wine mixers
listen little friend stay outta the deep end
cuz you're less street than vampire weekend

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ever hear of Retinitispigmentosa? (sp?) My mom has this. No fix. She has over the past 30 years went fromabout 80% day vision/40% night vision to today has 50% day vision/0% night vision.
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GoldHP -
how about this dude, he makes retarded posts all the time..

Last edited by aesop rocks on Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:42 pm; edited 1 time in total

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is an inherited, degenerative eye disease that causes severe vision impairment and often blindness.[1] Sufferers will experience one or more of the following symptoms:
Night blindness or nyctalopia;
Tunnel vision (no peripheral vision);
Peripheral vision (no central vision);
Latticework vision;
Aversion to glare;
Slow adjustment from dark to light environments and vice versa;
Blurring of vision;
Poor color separation; and
Extreme tiredness.

The progress of RP is not consistent. Some people will exhibit symptoms from infancy, others may not notice symptoms until later in life.[2] Generally, the later the onset, the more rapid is the deterioration in sight. Also notice that people who do not have RP have 90 degree peripheral vision, while some people that have RP have less than 90 degree.

A form of retinal dystrophy, RP is caused by abnormalities of the photoreceptors (rods and cones) or the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) of the retina leading to progressive sight loss. Affected individuals may experience defective light to dark, dark to light adaptation or nyctalopia (night blindness), as the result of the degeneration of the peripheral visual field (known as tunnel vision). Sometimes, central vision is lost first causing the person to look sidelong at objects.

The effect of RP is best illustrated by comparison to a television or computer screen. The pixels of light that form the image on the screen equate to the millions of light receptors on the retina of the eye. The fewer pixels on a screen, the less distinct will be the images it will display. Fewer than 10 percent of the light receptors in the eye receive the colored, high intensity light seen in bright light or daylight conditions. These receptors are located in the center of the circular retina. The remaining 90 percent of light receptors receive gray-scale, low intensity light used for low light and night vision and are located around the periphery of the retina. RP destroys light receptors from the outside inward, from the center outward, or in sporadic patches with a corresponding reduction in the efficiency of the eye to detect light. This degeneration is progressive and has no known cure as of June 2012.

The most challenging aspect of RP is that it is not stable. Sufferers must continually adapt to less and less sight and how that impacts their life, career and relationships. Another aspect is that RP sufferers do not look different. RP does not result in any outward effect on the eyes and so people with RP "do not look blind". Furthermore, though legally blind because of reduced field of vision or acuity, they may be able to see things that hold in their line of sight long enough (if bright enough) to comprehend e.g. see large or bright objects albeit indistinctly.
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GoldHP -
how about this dude, he makes retarded posts all the time..

id do like smurf says,also tv watching and computer is not the kinda treatment you want to give your eyes,just me.

go out side and do some bird watching or some kinda hunting when they heal to make yourself more keen.

also eye exercises helped me its not that hard to do and it does help improve vision and over all healthy feeling eyes.

thx for the post! i wear glasses also.

these thing called pinhole glasses help also,if you ever lose your glasses in an emergency!you can mccgyver one of these with some cheap sun glasses.

20/40 is pretty nice man id be happy with that!!

sorry for the mombo jumbo lol but what a dream it would be not to have glasses!

but there was a time that i had my glasses on when i would of wore my contacts at work and they saved my sight from a screw. i have been thankful for them ever since and quit wearing contacts.just a reminder if you do something wear safety glasses!

Hey, man sorry to hear that. Don't get too discouraged, I hear recovery time can be up to a year with this procedure. They don't recommend strenuous activity for at least a month, not sure how good the computer screen is when your eyes are still that delicate. If you can't take time off work, at the very least maybe put one of those radiation filters on your screen. After they remove the contact sounds like you should be taking steroid drops and anti biotics in case of infection. Drops should be used for 4 months i'm hearing. I hear hazy fluctuations or blocked up vision can be normal. Strongly stick to the guidelines given, especially the first month. Pound lots of carrots and vitamins which can help your vision. Above all else, I stress patience and caution. Try not to panic, it is a longer recovery time than the Lasic. If for whatever reason in a year if you aren't satisfied with your recovery I highly suggest you look into Jules Stein Eye Institute, it's the best and most prestigious eye facility in the world. It wont be cheap but when it comes to your vision you never want to take chances. How is the progress going now? Is it messing with your emotional well being?

bump -- probably the last edit I'll do the journal, so there it is for anyone curious in doing this. My vision is pretty darn good now -- 20/15-20/16 range. I would defnitely recommend it if you are not a fan of glasses or contacts.

quote:

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Originally posted by Paper_Boy
Hey, man sorry to hear that. Don't get too discouraged, I hear recovery time can be up to a year with this procedure. They don't recommend strenuous activity for at least a month, not sure how good the computer screen is when your eyes are still that delicate. If you can't take time off work, at the very least maybe put one of those radiation filters on your screen. After they remove the contact sounds like you should be taking steroid drops and anti biotics in case of infection. Drops should be used for 4 months i'm hearing. I hear hazy fluctuations or blocked up vision can be normal. Strongly stick to the guidelines given, especially the first month. Pound lots of carrots and vitamins which can help your vision. Above all else, I stress patience and caution. Try not to panic, it is a longer recovery time than the Lasic. If for whatever reason in a year if you aren't satisfied with your recovery I highly suggest you look into Jules Stein Eye Institute, it's the best and most prestigious eye facility in the world. It wont be cheap but when it comes to your vision you never want to take chances. How is the progress going now? Is it messing with your emotional well being?

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U left out pimp and playa!

Damn completely forgot about this forum

My wife is scheduled to get PRK August 7th. She went in for the screening for Lasik but they recommened PRK due to some issue with her cornea being low or some crap. She's got 7 days off after surgery so hopefully that's enough time so she can heal and go back to work.

Hopefully it goes pretty well, I've heard horror stories about sandpaper feeling in your eye, etc. I think it's like $3600 total for her to get it done. That's with 20% off from insurance.

scientists just discovered a new layer of the eye last month. it's a layer of the cornea that was found. i'm not sure what impacts this could have for future laser surgeries but it's interesting that we're discovering new things about the human body despite the fact we've been studying it for centuries.
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"i don't have pet peeves, i have major psychotic fucking hatreds"

probably a pretty worthless layer, imo.
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i zero bagged your mother

quote:

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Originally posted by Fast Luck
hassan-i-asher: majorin in takin pictures
dreamin bout wayne from catalina wine mixers
listen little friend stay outta the deep end
cuz you're less street than vampire weekend

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jon;
scientists just discovered a new layer of the eye last month. it's a layer of the cornea that was found. i'm not sure what impacts this could have for future laser surgeries but it's interesting that we're discovering new things about the human body despite the fact we've been studying it for centuries.

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quote:

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Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jon;
...i'm not sure what impacts this could have for future laser surgeries but ....

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The New Eye Layer
By Jon Goldstein

Scientists just discovered a new layer of the eye last month. It's a layer of the cornea that was found. What impacts could this have for future laser surgeries? This author is not sure, but whatever it is, it will probably be good, for the people who need the surgery as well as for Science. It's interesting that we are discovering new things about the body despite the fact that we've been studying it for centuries. Overall I think this new layer of the eye in the cornea that was discovered is very good and interesting, much like the article in the popular science magazine I read it in and which I am writing about now. I hope scientists keep discovering new layers of the eye, and other layers of the human body as well, far into the future.
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quote:

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Originally posted by turtleman
A normal person wouldn't say that in real life because it's ridiculous and insulting. Yet here you are spouting the most hateful garbage that your demons can muster out of your darkened soul. All because of the internet.

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heres a little more information about the layer, called dua's layer after the scientist who discovered the previously unknown layer in the cornea:
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/06/14/cornea-research-reveals-unseen-layer
_________________
i zero bagged your mother

quote:

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Originally posted by Fast Luck
hassan-i-asher: majorin in takin pictures
dreamin bout wayne from catalina wine mixers
listen little friend stay outta the deep end
cuz you're less street than vampire weekend

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quote:

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Originally posted by Fast Luck
probably a pretty worthless layer, imo.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Fast Luck
heres a little more information about the layer, called dua's layer after the scientist who discovered the previously unknown layer in the cornea:
http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/06/14/cornea-research-reveals-unseen-layer

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yeah maybe it's that shit that builds up in old people's eyes to give them a glassy, milky look, like they're half-dead already. that's what this layer is
_________________
i zero bagged your mother

quote:

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Originally posted by Fast Luck
hassan-i-asher: majorin in takin pictures
dreamin bout wayne from catalina wine mixers
listen little friend stay outta the deep end
cuz you're less street than vampire weekend

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thanks dr. blid
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quote:

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Originally posted by smurf_king

i rather be a pedophile than a homo

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quote:

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Originally posted by Fast Luck
yeah maybe it's that shit that builds up in old people's eyes to give them a glassy, milky look, like they're half-dead already. that's what this layer is

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no, dua's layer.
_________________
i zero bagged your mother

quote:

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Originally posted by Fast Luck
hassan-i-asher: majorin in takin pictures
dreamin bout wayne from catalina wine mixers
listen little friend stay outta the deep end
cuz you're less street than vampire weekend

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