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My experience going through with PRK

speedroller

Rangers
Hello fellow AWs,

I wanted to share my experience with undergoing PRK eye surgery. It all began back in June 10, when I first consulted with my local eye care doctor and inquired about PRK. My local doctor office is affiliated with TLC Laser Eye Center. So I called them, scheduled a free consultation and got a quote. Prior to my initial consultation I was out of contacts for about two weeks, this helps the eyes to stabilize and return to their natural shape.

July 30 came along, I showed up at the TLC place in Annapolis, MD. They ran a few tests, measured my eyes with some scan tools and told me I was a bare minimum candidate. Made me feel nervous. My prescription before surgery was -1.0 in both eyes with a slight astigmatism in my right eye. And that translated into 20/30L and 20/40R.

Fast forward, surgery day comes, I show up to TLC, more scans, measuring. T – 1H until surgery, the doctor comes in the room and says that I cannot get the surgery today. Reason why is that a statistical scan showed a possibility of complications afterwards, no set time. What it indicated was that I could possibly develop an eye issue called “keratoconus”, which would weaken my cornea and cause it to bulge out, distorting my vision etc. The numbers were borderline, so I went to get a second opinion from three other doctors.

Fast forward again, I ended up at TLC Rockville, MD center, for some more scans and evals. The doctor there said he as seen in develop twice in the 6K+ patients he has done surgery on, and the indicating numbers were worse.

So there I was on 10/30, more scans, eye drops, etc. 1300 hrs I had my surgery. The experience was very relaxing and super quick. Not even kidding, the laser was applied for 4 and 5 seconds on each of the eyes. The entire procedure took about 10 min all together.

Day 1:
The day of the surgery was uneventful, no pain or discomfort. Went home and straight to bed.

Day 2:
Woke up and got ready for my first follow-up visit, I was able to see 20/20 pretty clearly, I had no prescription and my epithelium was healed to about 80%. I was impressed. That day I was a little sensitive to light, not too bad.

Day 3:
My vision was not 20/20, more like 20/40 or so, I had some halos at night and eyes were pretty sensitive to light. I was watching TV with sunglasses on. The epithelium layer was about 90% there and was centering off, which caused my vision to suck. My normal eye drop regiment did not change, I was using about 3 kinds of drops along with one discomfort pill, regularly.

Day 4:
My eye sight was still not 20/20, which was OK. The epithelium layer was almost 100%, with some spots still showing up as open. They give you this yellow die and under a cool blue light it shows up as little spots right in the center of your eye. Halos were almost gone, the glare from headlights was a little annoying, but not too bad. So far I was impressed with the healing, no pain or major discomfort.

Day 5:
I can see a little clearer now, light sensitivity is gone. Overall pretty good. My contact bandage lens is still on, should have mentioned this before, the put on a clear contact while the epithelium grows back. I will go for my post op later in the evening. But I was able to start
driving and thus I am back to work.

Will keep you posted on the progress, overall really pleased with the results and the staff at TLC. A little costly out the door, but the long term product is worth it. TLC offers a lifetime guarantee, which in an event the eyes degrade in performance over time, a second corrective surgery is free, and the first year post op visits are free as well.

Thanks for reading and FLY NAVY!
 
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