Just got PRK after RK

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Day 4: Not as blurry today. It's sort of decent vision but blurry like the contact is dirty which is similar to my last PRK so all hopefully is good. Contact comes out in less than 2 days.

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Week 1: Got the bandage contact out on Tuesday, eye was blurry as expected. two days later I am getting the feeling that my eye is over-corrected (hyperopic) even though the surgeon backed off by 50% on the correction. I can see distance greater than 8-10 ft slightly hazy but no ghosting or double vision. Close up is blurry. I notice that tonight after a long day at work I can see distance ok and with my reading glasses (1.75 drugstore glasses) I can read at arms length with my left & about 6" closer with my right eye. It's only 1 week so I'm not panicking yet. I stopped the antibiotic drops today & backed off from 4x / day to 3x for the steroids. My surgeon said it's typical for a normal cornea to swell slightly during the course of the day resulting in"tired eyes" and that effect is more pronounced for those of us with RK weakened corneas, which I have noticed for many years. I hope this eye doesn't continue hyperopic as time progresses but only time will tell.

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LasikExpert,

Question for you, I know that the cornea experiences swelling after PRK & the steroids are meant to reduce this but how much do the steroids reduce it? Reason I ask is that my left eye is overcorrected (hyperopic) right now almost 2 weeks post-op. In fact I would say extremely hyperopic so could the steroids reduce the swelling to the point of thinning or flattening the cornea causing this? My doctor said he cut the "numbers" as far as settings in half due to my right eye over reacting before, so I wouldn't expect my eye to go from -1.00 to +2.00 (just a guess on the +2). I reduced the steroid to 3x / day last week and I am to reduce to just twice a day Thursday. I know I'm VERY early into healing but just curious on the actual effect of the steroids.

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Week 2: Well, granted I'm only 2 weeks post-op but I know I'm over corrected. I have drugstore readers, 1.75, for reading with my right eye and I can see great at distance with them on with my left. from about 5 ft on I can see great with the readers.That is where I was 2 years ago with the first surgery on my right eye. Unless my left regresses A LOT I will probably get an enhancement in about a year.

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Week3: I'm down to 1 steroid drop / day. No change in my eye so as I reported before, I will probably have an enhancement later on in the year assuming no change. I knew this on day 2. My right eye on the last enhancement was myopic just after getting the lens out to the point that I could read with it at 6 inches away. At first I panicked but as I weened the drops and the weeks went on I was better than 20/20 which is where it settled at. So when I couldn't read without reading glasses with my left a week after surgery, I knew it was hyperopic. Oh well, only time will tell. In the mean time, I have much bigger problems than my eye to deal with, but that's a completely different story.

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Week 4: last steroid drop was Wednesday, eye is pretty much the same, now all I can hope for is regression. I have a checkup on the 14th (valentines day). Hopefully the doctor will have some positive news for me, well if not, then maybe a box of chocolates

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Week 5: 1 week after last steroid drop, my eye all of a sudden has started to regress to the point of seeing road signs and objects farther than about 30 feet VERY clearly, maybe this will turn out ok after all without an enhancement.

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Week 6: My eye has REALLY improved, still hyperopic according to the doc on Tuesday ~ +0.5. I hope it stays about where it is.

So lets look (excuse the pun) at the differences left to right:

I have 2 corneas, they live about 2 inches apart in my head. At the start of this (back in '09) they were both similar prescription about -1, they both had similar lens thickness and both had 8 radial incisions from the RK back in '83 and they reacted differently to PRK. I would have expected them to be very similar.

Right eye:
1.) 1st PRK, 3 days after surgery eye was perfect (with bandage contact), then over reacted and went from ~ -1 before PRK to about +2 and settled about there after about 1 year.
2.) 2nd PRK (enhancement) to get back to plano, overreacted again & went to ~ -0.5 and settled about there after about 1 year.
3.) 3rd PRK very blurry after surgery until after contact removed. Then was able to read print 6 inches from my face and LOUSY distant vision, very myopic. I got worried, thought they screwed up. Eventually after weeks it progressed to slightly hyperopic to where I couldn't see clearly any closer than 10 feet. Then it eventually regressed to plano.

Left eye:

1.) had 1st PRK 6 weeks ago, initially somewhat decent at distance (> 300 ft) but couldn't see anything close. Then got progressively more hyperopic until I couldn't see anything at any distance clear, just like the right eye initially did. Stayed lousy until 1 week after steroids done and now regressed to pretty good at anything past 30 ft in the morning to 10 - 12 ft at night.

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Week 8: Well so far so good. My eye is fairly stable, distance vision excellent, close up I need readers but that's fine with me. At this point I think I will need my right eye tweaked since it is not good at distance. I definitely want both eyes the same. Of course I will wait and see where the left eye settles out by years end. I wouldn't want the world to end (according to the Mayans) and not see it clearly.

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Week11: So far so good, my eye is still great at distance. slightly farsighted but good enough that by the end of a long day I can still see great with tired eyes. I hope it stays this way.

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Week 13: I had some irritation in my left eye & some to a lesser extent in the right, getting very red & scratchy & itchy at the same time. Went to doctor & they said no infection IN the eye but there was some ON the eyelid. He said to use eyelid cleaning pads which I am doing but it remained. Went back & they gave me a prescription for a thick antibiotic drop which is applied to the eyelid. That has helped, they feel much better. Left eye still good at distance throughout the day, Still hoping this is it for healing and will look to do a final trim on the right eye.

[LasikExpert]

Your continued follow up posts have been very helpful for potential PRK patients and patients who have endured the same recovery process. Thanks!

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Your continued follow up posts have been very helpful for potential PRK patients and patients who have endured the same recovery process. Thanks!

Hopefully it does help. I hope that others don't have to endure 3 (and soon to be 4) surgeries on the same eye as I have but that seems to be the curse of RK. The weakened cornea tends to wreak havoc on the computer program that calculates the needed correction. My surgeon has had do add guestimates to the calculation throughout this process. I'm glad he got the left eye first shot.

Week 20: So far all is good, my eye remains excellent throughout the day and as expected I do need readers. I will go in for the 6 month checkup this summer and discuss having the right eye touched up.

[davidsarmstrong]

Thank you for your posts. Your reports were very helpful to me.

Best of luck!