My Experience

I started wearing glasses at seven, wore hard contacts at 18, then gas permeable lens for 25 years. At the age of 40 I switched to soft lenses. Having a very high prescription —13.0 & -10.0 and at age 53 with dry eyes — I went back to glasses after having a detached retina and a sclera buckle. I then considered photorefractive keratectomy (PRK). I knew it was a potentially risky procedure, and after much consideration and research I decided to have it done because I hated wearing thick glasses. I also have mild blepharitis and astigmatism.

Two weeks before the procedure I was told to stop wearing contacts and keep my eyelashes clean. I also took 1,000 mg of vitamin C daily.

I arrived at the office at 3 pm, signed lots of paperwork and paid. I was led to an area with a comfortable chair. I was given 15 mg of Valium, some Demerol and numbing drops. I asked for another 5 mg of Valium. I was walked to the excimer laser area with the doctor waiting, and I lay down.

I was very relaxed. The doctor described everything he did. He put something on my eye to soften the epithelium then scraped it off. There was absolutely no pain. It just felt kind of weird. I stared at a green light. The doctor started lasering one eye for 17 seconds but then told his assistant to shut the machine off because there was a piece of epithelium on my eye. Then he said “the miracles of lasers is that you can finish where you left off.” He finished lasering.

He then flushed my eye with water, sponged it with something to help corneal hazing, and then put in the clear contact bandage. The next eye took 20 seconds. After the first eye I made a comment that I could see the ceiling lights clearly! The whole procedure was fast. I got up and was walked to another room and was given instructions. I could actually see my watch for the first time without reading glasses.

Afterwards, I had no pain, just sensitivity to light and was a little groggy. I kept my eyes closed and fell asleep en route home. The local was wearing off so I took another Demerol.

The next day and the day after were painful and I pretty much stayed in bed for two days taking medication for pain and slept. I couldn’t open my eyes much, and my eyelids were swollen and watery. It felt like I had an eyelash in my eye.

I used Vigamox drops (moxifoxacin hydrochloride ophthalmic solution) and steroid drops. By day three there was no more pain and I could open my eyes and move about. My eyes were blurry and my reading vision was worse than before. Fifteen days past surgery, my eyesight was amazingly better than it was with glasses and almost as good as contacts. I drove five days after surgery.