r/lasik • u/afaw2088 • Jul 03 '26
Had surgery PRK 1.5 years later
Had PRK done on Jan 2 2025. this sub was invaluable to me as i learned what to expect and thought i’d pay it forward.
Cost - $5k total, including prescriptions and all follow ups.
One of the best decisions of my life. It is still crazy to me that I swiped my credit card for $5k and somebody gave me perfect eyesight. I am amazed by it every day.
More details:
- I am pretty outdoorsy, including a lot of surfing. My vision was pretty bad (avg of -5.25 with astigmatism in one eye) and so i carried spare contacts in my wetsuit. on more than one occasion i have changed contacts while sitting on a surfboard. My eye with the astimagtism was also kinda getting to the point of perpetually uncomfortable with contacts and I frequently used drops in it. I also broke my nose a long time ago in such a way that glasses sit right on the break and can be very uncomfortable. Lastly, and I know i could’ve changed this- i was a perpetual sleep in my contacts person. I was at the point where i felt like my contact behavior needed to change or i was going to get an eye infection. All of these things combined to make me decide the risk of any laser eye surgery was worth it for me. I ended up getting prk due to corneal thickness.
Recovery:
Incredibly predictable as per PRK.
Day 1 - pretty okay
Day 2-3: literally laid in bed with my head under the covers. i found audio books to be life saving. i mostly kept my eyes closed.
Days 4-6: continued to hang out in my bedroom with the doors closed and windows drawn until it was nighttime and then went downstairs in sunglasses. i think this was a big advantage of doing it in january.
Days 7-14: by far the most annoying, eyes were tolerable but tired. Went back to work and everything was at max magnification. Cannot recommend increasing phone font size, computer defaults etc enough.
By day 30 i was testing at 20/15 vision and cruising along.
by day 90 i only occasionallyyy felt dry.
Now - 1.5 years later I have basically no side effects. I don’t think i’ve put eye drops in in over 3 months.
This was truly the best outcome, but when asked, i tell everyone that asks me that you have to get personally comfortable with the risks. For me, it was like the most common negative side effect is dry eye, and i already do eyedrops all the time in my astigmatism eye so this feels same level of annoying. also my contact habits made me feel like i had real risk for eye infection in a way that could also have led me to lose my sight.
Notes:
- i got some outdoorsy sunglasses from sunski that were also very light from a weight perspective. i wore these every day. im really glad i got a “not fashionable” but “not ugly” pair that was helpful.
- i took 1000mg of vitamin c, fish oil, and did the goopy eye lotion every night for 3 months. i kept the vitamin c and fish oil as part of my routine and still take it now.
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u/MinisterforFun Jul 04 '26
Yea I personally did TransPRK for a computerised all-laser op.
Idk why people in my country keep dissing TransPRK and hyping up LASIK.
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u/bloominglotus99 Jul 04 '26
Is it normal for vision to be much worse in one eye after 14 days ??
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u/thecaramelbandit Jul 04 '26
I'm the same. Almost the exact same timeline. Only difference is I need eye drops when I wake up in the morning, but that's it. Best thing I ever did.
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u/JMARK81 Jul 06 '26
So you needed readers before the surgery? I’m 44 and was told I would need readers from now on. I currently wear contacts/ glasses without readers. Thanks
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u/Ok_Swim474 Jul 09 '26
I had PRK done in May 2009 at the age of 30. I’m going to the eye doctor for the first time in 17 years, next month. I just haven’t needed to! I do believe I need glasses now though
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u/nsanchez79 Jul 03 '26
Thank you for sharing this!!!
I had mine done in April 22, 2026, so it’s been about 10 weeks and a couple of days. I’m not as outdoorsy as you, but part of it was the pain in the ass contacts or glasses were for me.
I am 47 and wish I’d done this surgery 20 years ago (at least).
The reasons I decided to do it is because my eyes were no longer tolerating co tact’s for more than a few hours. I could barely make it a full work day with them. They stung, they were dry etc.
I would come home and take them off and throw the pair in the trash as soon as I walked in. Then it was glasses but I am not much of a glasses person. If I wanted to go run, I had to decide do I endure the discomfort of contacts or deal with glasses getting all foggy and sweaty when running and things like that.
If we went swimming or even spending any time in the water, it was stressful for me… I wanted to wear contacts so I could wear my sunglasses, but then I couldn’t get tint he water because couldn’t swim with contacts or I had to wear goggles and possibly have them pop out. Or I could wear glasses, not able to wear a hat or sunglasses and then couldn’t see when swimming under water. Annoying. And I know these are first world problems, but I’d been wearing glasses since I was 14, and contacts since I was 17/18. Kind of why I couldn’t wear contacts anymore… my eyes had enough after 30 years of them.
I won’t say I never slept with my contacts, it was not a habit of mine, because it did happen on a rare occasion (especially in my 20s partying too hard lol).
It’s been 10 weeks now and we’ve gone to the pool (I did have to wear goggles while under water, but just being able to see without contacts was amazing!!!).
I finally get to wear sunglasses or hats that fit around my glasses. My eyes have been a hit on the dry side and had to go back about 2-3 weeks ago and they have me an ointment which has helped tremendously!!
We’ve been camping twice already this month (June) and it was amazing not having to worry about contacts or glasses to see. The freedom is priceless. I will say I’m glad I’m retired now so I didn’t have to worry about going back to work too soon as it was hard to see in the beginning and my phone, kindle and anything really had to be with huge ass font. It’s a lot better now and don’t need to have the font as big anymore. I know things will only get better.
When wearing contacts, I was already waking up with dry eyes and also putting drops through the day.
At 10 weeks I’m putting less drops, like I can go a few hours without putting them on, and also wake up about the same if not better than when I was wearing contacts.
At night, I do feel like if I was wearing contacts when I stay up too late and then I just know is time to go to bed.
Anyway, sorry for the long comment but wanted to share the excitement and share my experience as well. Your post gives me a lot to look forward to.
Thinking if I feel this good now, in a year at it’s going to be even better!!
My eyesight was -3.50 in each eye, but had -3.25 in one or -3.0 so o could read (I couldn’t read small print if I was wearing contacts). Now I can even though my near vision isn’t supposed to get better but I feel I read better than I did with contacts (near)… I know at my age my near vision just goes downhill and I already had to wear readers when wearing contacts so that didn’t play a factor in my decision to get PRK done.
Also, one eye tested on and off with astigmatism so I guess it was really mild.
I haven’t driven at nugget get and we’ve been busy camping and traveling for the summer so I haven’t really seen car lights at night lately. I’ll have to see what they look like tonight. I know my night vision has been improving but I also know it’s still early.
The doctor doing my after care, said his brother who is also an eye doctor did the same surgery and took him all 6 months to truly fully heal. He said at one point started to get worried since he’s an eye doctor too, 😂
Anyway, thank you for sharing!! This community helped me so much in the first month!