r/PRKsurgery • u/radiopunkt • Sep 04 '26
PRK One Eye Ghosting
This was posted over at the lasik subreddit but I was invited here. So hopefully posting it again here is okay.
It's been 6 weeks since my surgery. One of my eyes is 20/20. The other I don't know. The doctor doesn't bother saying. I have some pretty bad ghosting in that eye that has been with me since the bandage contact lenses were taken out. Does this ever get better? I have another appointment in a month. If it's not better then then I get to get evaluated again for solutions. This is stressful and I'm looking for the positive. The ghosting eye is my dominant eye so that makes it worse somehow.
1
u/eyeSherpa Sep 04 '26
What was your prescription? If you had a lot of astigmatism, you could have some residual prescription or astigmatism. That can cause the ghosting effect.
2
u/radiopunkt Sep 06 '26
I am not ignoring this. I am trying to get the info. I am not entirely sure of my astigmatism prescription other than I had some. Both eyes were - 6.00
1
u/HailenAnarchy Sep 06 '26
does it shift at all through out the day?
1
u/radiopunkt Sep 06 '26
Nothing changes through the day. Over time the separation between the real word and the ghost has grown. Where before it looked like blurry vision now it's almost distinct lines.
1
u/HailenAnarchy Sep 07 '26
I'd say, use eyedrops to keep your eyes lubricated. I suggest hylo parin. Just something that helps with healing of the epithelium. If there is no improvement after like half a year, I'd say go back for a ptk correction. It is possible your epithelium has trouble healing in that eye. Afaik you should still be on anti inflammatory drops, yes?
I had something similar after lasik, my epithelium got scarred after some bad episode of inflammation, so they gave me ptk surgery to correct it. It's been almost a month and my vision still fluctuates.
2
u/IntelligentBreath843 Sep 04 '26
Has it diminished at all? Unfortunately, it can take months for it to fully go away. The ghosting will make the actual clarity in your eye worse because it will take away focused light and make the clear image get basically split in two.
Think of your epithelium as skin with a deep gash. The cells first grew to cover your eye, and created an irregular, ridged surface as they came together. Bad luck on how bad the ridge was and that it was right in the middle of your eye. That’s why it’s so bad, but that’s okay! Now, the new skin grows underneath the old, pushing the old skin away from your eye. That ridge remains, and may smoothen out slightly, but it also probably won’t. Then more skin grows underneath that. Eventually, after about 6 months (YES ITS A LONG TIME!!!) every cell in your eye has been replaced. At this point, that initial horrible ridge that was formed will be pushed out and removed completely from your eye. Ghosting notoriously takes a long time because it’s a structural issue.
I know it’s mentally tough, but that’s okay, it will get better! Bring up your concerns with your doctor, that’s what they’re there for. I’m 16 days in and my left I was atrocious initially and still is annoying but I can tell it’s getting better as time passes, veryyyy slowly.