PRK on 1 Dec 2010 - HELP

[globetruck]

So far, this has exceeded my wildest expectations - unfortunately in a negative way. I'll appreciate any advice.

Pre-op: stable Rx, approx -2.25 sph and .25 cyl in left eye, -2.5 sph and .50 in right eye, correctable to 20/10. Cornea thicknesses were both right around 500 um and a scheduled 50um ablation depth.

Post Op Meds: FML taper for 2 months (4 drops/day x 4 weeks, 3 drops x 1 week, 2 drops x 1 week, 1 drop x 1 week, then 1 drop every other day for 1 week). Vigimox for about a week, lots of rewetting drops, and Restasis 2x per day. Also taking fish oil and vitamin C.

Surgery went fine (never saw "crisp" vision any time after surgery - everything immediately after surgery was about as blurry as it is today 6 weeks later). At my 1 day post op, they wrote me down for 20/20 vision even though everything was incredibly blurry and I had double vision. But apparently I saw enough of the 20/20 line for them to call it 20/20. Other than my bandage contact lens getting stuck to my eye (ouch), I didn't have any complications and the surgeon removed my bandage lenses after day 5. My vision wasn't anywhere near 20/40 so they told me not to drive for a while.

I had a corneal erosion at about day 7 or 8 - doc scraped it and it seemed to heal within about a day. By about Week 2, I felt OK driving during the day and I could slowly start to focus on close things - reading and computer screens. I still had double vision / ghosting, but noticed that in each eye, the "dominant" image seemed fairly crisp. I felt like I'd see 20/20 if only I could get rid of that pesky ghost image.

Week 3: no progress, still about 20/50 to 20/60 but decent near vision. Dry eyes started kicking in and I started increasing drops to every few minutes. Eyes seemed to see better immediately after the drops, but would quickly blur back up.

Week 4: started Systane drops, which seemed to have more "staying" power, and also started using more Genteal ointment throughout the day. Eyes felt glued to my eyelids and I developed a morning ritual of slowly opening my eyes and using lots of drops. Eyes tended to burn/sting more throughout the day. Vision still about 20/60.

Week 5: vision seemed to decrease to about 20/80ish. Incredibly frustrated, angry, disappointed, and even jealous of all my coworkers who all bragged about seeing 20/20 within a month. Doc started me on Muro128 drops and Muro ointment. The Muro is awesome - the ointment literally eliminated my morning dry eye issues almost immediately. The Muro drops sting like hell, but my eyes actually feel awesome after them. Vision came back to about 20/50.

Week 6: still about 20/50. Dry eyes don't feel quite as bad. I need glasses to see and I can't work or drive without them. At this point, I will be absolutely THRILLED to get to 20/40. 20/20 would be an absolute miracle. Glasses get me to about 20/30 right now - about -.75 sph and -.5 cyl in each eye. I'm amazed that all of this managed to only cut my Rx by about 60%.

I know that things take time, but man, this is dragging on. The ghost vision is still here, and it's especially bad with traffic lights at night. My left eye has 2 fairly strong immages (main one + ghost at about 7 o'clock), plus about 3-4 other smaller ghost images. My right eye has 2 strong ghost images - one at about 10 o'clock and the other at about 2 o'clock, plus about 2 or 3 other smaller fainter ghost images. Unlike before, my "main" image is nowhere near 20/20.

What questions do I need to ask my doctor? At what point do I need to start worrying about higher order aberrations?

Thanks for listening and letting me vent. I realize that there's not much anyone can do but wait and tell me to be patient.

Week 5:

[globetruck]

Thank you for your overwhelming responses.

[Indept]

Thank you for your overwhelming responses.

Don't get frustrated, most here don't want you straining reading replies, sorry just trying a little humor...
I just got back into the forum having just got an enhancement myself. Don't give up, I know it's frustrating. I had my initial PRK done in 2009 & eyesight was pretty good that first week and through about 1 - 1 1/2 months, then my eye started to get blurry. After about 4 months I was definitely going hyperopic. Instead of plano I went to about +1.5 from -1.0 initial so things take MONTHS not weeks with PRK. Good luck with your progress.

[ScottW]

I had ICL surgery rather than PRK, so I can't really help much other than relay what I've been going through the past few weeks. I'm no expert in eye procedures, so take it as you please.

After my ICL surgery, I saw very clearly in the middle of my vision (like the sweet spot of thick glasses), but everything had a big blur around it. This continued for about 1-2 weeks, then finally got better. I think (think being a very important term here) it was from the inflammation and cuts to the cornea healing (ICL surgery involves doing 2 cuts in the cornea to inser the lens). After those issues cleared up, I experienced some bluriness and halos in the dark. My bluriness caused me to be around 20/30 vision (though the doctor put me at 20/20 - I could tell about what the letters were, but they were not crisp and clear). The halos were a quarter circle. I also had a little bit of glare in low light situations.

Fast forward a few weeks (which started about 2 weeks ago), and I started experiencing double vision and glare in low light situations. Halos expanded to be half circles in the dark. I'm not sure why it got worse, but it did. I'm guessing at this, but it could be caused by:

(a) the inflammation went down enough that my pupil can dilate more, which then causes these effects,

(b) the drugs I'm still on for my eyes are causing or at least contributing to the issue,

(c) my dry eyes are contributing to the issue (my doctor told me about 2-3 weeks ago to start using eye drops)

(d) my eye has not fully healed yet, so the incision lines that are still there are causing the effects, or

(e) a cornea tear (which I got a few days after the surgery) is still healing as is causing the effects.

Or, it could be a combination of these. I see my doctor on Wednesday, and plan to discuss all of this with her.

Anyway, relevant to you, I have recently started to notice that the effects are not quite as bad in the past few days as they were about a week ago. Now, I still have bad days where it is as bad as it was, but some of the effects are lessening. For example, at night time, I still get halos from time to time, but they're not as big and bad as they used to be (if that makes sense). It's been a bit over a month after my surgery, so my hope is that this means that my eyes are just taking longer than others to heal. Or, maybe I'm getting used to it, or another contributing factor is lessening. I'm not sure, but it is getting better though some of the effects are still there.

I say all of this because I was very depressed like you seem to be, and frustrated that I couldn't get much out of anyone (including my doctor) on what's going on. In the past 2 weeks, I've tried to regain my patience and give my eyes some time to completely heal. I've heard people say that eyes take anywhere from a month to 3-6 months to heal, so I've tried to remain calm during this time. It is still frustrating, and I still question my decision to have the eye surgery. But, that decision is past me and I have to look forward with as positive of an attitude as I can muster.

I know your situation is different from mine - we didn't even have the same procedure - but I hope this gives you some comfort and peace of mind. If all else fails, perhaps a second opinion from a doctor may help.

[globetruck]

Thanks guys... it's nice to hear some similar stories and I'm glad to see some new users on the forums. First one of us to hit 20/20 buys a round of beers!!!

[Indept]

First one of us to hit 20/20 buys a round of beers!!!

Sounds good, but isn't that what causes us to see blurry :)

[Indept]

globetruck,

How are your eyes progressing?