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: