Thursday, July 23, 2009

Day 1 - PRK Surgery

Thursday, 16 July 2009 - Day of surgery
I was pretty excited the day of the surgery--I had high hopes that I would have corrected vision without glasses or contact lenses for the first time in 25 years. Consulting with the optomotrist (eye doctor) and opthamologist (surgeon), both strongly recommended the PRK procedure over the more popular and well-known LASIK. With LASIK, a flap is created using the corneal epithelium, folded back to perform the procedure, then folded back where suction keeps it in place and healing begins. Vision results are fairly quick, but there is the potential for complications with the flap. With PRK, the corneal epithelium is removed (ablated). The laser procedure is exactly the same as LASIK. When done, a bandage contact lens is placed over the cornea and the epithelium begins to regrow. Recovery takes longer. But, since the epithelium regrows over the cornea, there is no flap and no possibility of related complications. The vision is more stable over the long-term. So, I opted to go with PRK to get long-term results over short-term gratification.

The day of the surgery, I arrived at the surgery center (in downtown Dallas) at the appointed time. They were short staffed, so it was a full hour before anyone came and started to talk with me. Prior to the procedure, the tech went through all of the medication with me, applied all sorts of eye drops in preparation for the surgery, and collected my money. From there I went into the room where eyes are usually checked, where another tech applied numbing drops. Numbing drops are a good thing. After the numbing drops settled in, I was taken back to the surgery room.

My world in the surgery room consisted of a table on which I rested with my head tilted slightly downward. It was not comfortable. The surgeon came in, taped my left eye shut, and started with my right eye. He pried my eyelids open with a speculum and flushed my eye out with refrigerated saline solution. That was very jarring. My eyelids twitched a lot--wanting to blink--but having nowhere to go due to the speculum. Then there were some more numbing drops and the surgeon applied what looked like something round and purple to my eye. My world went purple for several seconds. When he removed whatever it was that was applied to my eye, my vision looked like a photo negative image. The surgeon then put this instrument on my eye and the darn thing began to vibrate! Like an electronic toothbrush. That was a bit of a surprise. That little thing evidently removed my corneal epithelium. Once removed, he cleaned around the area where the epithelium was excised, and told me to focus on the blinking red light. I did so dutifully, and didn't move. The laser started to make a series of clicks and pops, and during the operation I could smell where my cornea was being reshaped by the laser. Quite something else, to smell your eyeball smoking. That took all of 10-20 seconds. When the laser was done, he cleaned off the dust from the operation, drizzled a lot more drops into my eye, and placed a no-power soft contact lens over the wound.

Lather, rinse, repeat. My right eye was taped shut and the operation was repeated on my left eye.

When the whole surgery was complete, I was led into the eye-checking room, placed in a chair with a blanket, and had both eyes taped shut. I was there for about 30 minutes. The doctor came in and removed the tape from my eyes and did a post-op check. My world was very, very hazy, but noticeably more in focus. I could actually see. That was all there was to the surgery center, so I wore protective eyeglasses all the way home and marveled at how I could actually read street sights and lettering on the buildings. Once home, I popped a sleeping pill and commenced my recovery. In all, the day of surgery was good and positive. The night passed well with the help of said sleeping pill.

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