So it took me a while to figure out what paperwork I need concerning PRK, but after doing lots of research on airwarriors and through my OSO, I made a checklist that I kind of wish i had before getting PRK back in December.
1. Before surgery (for me, it was a few weeks prior to surgery) you will have what is called an orb scan. It will probably be two pages (one for each eye). Keep it.
2. Make sure you ask your doctor before the surgery to make an "op report" during the procedure. Ask him to record all the anesthesia, eye pressure levels, times, equiptment used, and everything else used during the procedure.
3. You must get a 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 month, and 6 month post-op checkup. Keep records of these checkups. I was told by my OSO that if an individual eye is corrected to better than 20/20, this could be disqualifying. Ask the doctor to write down 20/20 for your eye, even if it is 20/15. It is not a problem if both eyes combined are better than 20/20. For example, I had a post op recently and I was told my right eye was 20/15, but I asked the doctor to write down 20/20. Combined, my vision is better than 20/20 but that is not a problem.
As a side note, I really did not do enough research before I got PRK. I am an air contract and have completed juniors Marine OCS and am supposed to go back for seniors on 4, July this summer. I had my surgery in December, meaning my 6 month post op should be in the middle of June, however after talking to my OSO I realized this is not enough time to get the paperwork through to clear me for training, so I was forced to get a 5 month post op instead. Another issue is that during the procedure, the doctor did not record my eye pressure, which I have heard can be a problem when it comes to BUMED. Does anybody have any gouge on whether or not either of these issues will be a problem?
Thanks for the insight.
1. Before surgery (for me, it was a few weeks prior to surgery) you will have what is called an orb scan. It will probably be two pages (one for each eye). Keep it.
2. Make sure you ask your doctor before the surgery to make an "op report" during the procedure. Ask him to record all the anesthesia, eye pressure levels, times, equiptment used, and everything else used during the procedure.
3. You must get a 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 month, and 6 month post-op checkup. Keep records of these checkups. I was told by my OSO that if an individual eye is corrected to better than 20/20, this could be disqualifying. Ask the doctor to write down 20/20 for your eye, even if it is 20/15. It is not a problem if both eyes combined are better than 20/20. For example, I had a post op recently and I was told my right eye was 20/15, but I asked the doctor to write down 20/20. Combined, my vision is better than 20/20 but that is not a problem.
As a side note, I really did not do enough research before I got PRK. I am an air contract and have completed juniors Marine OCS and am supposed to go back for seniors on 4, July this summer. I had my surgery in December, meaning my 6 month post op should be in the middle of June, however after talking to my OSO I realized this is not enough time to get the paperwork through to clear me for training, so I was forced to get a 5 month post op instead. Another issue is that during the procedure, the doctor did not record my eye pressure, which I have heard can be a problem when it comes to BUMED. Does anybody have any gouge on whether or not either of these issues will be a problem?
Thanks for the insight.