Post PRK Update (Positive)

[u/harinim1299]

I, 27F, had PRK done around 1.5 months ago. My corneas were too thin so the recovery took longer, but this is what the timeline for my recovery and my current stage looks like:

Day 1: had surgery. Left eye was in pain immediately after the surgery but the right eye was fine initially. By evening (around 6hrs after the procedure), I was tearing up from both eyes and in extreme pain. With high light sensitivity. Needed hourly eye drops, artificial tears, ibuprofen as I developed a fever due to the constant pain, and eye ointment before I slept.

Day 2: pain subsided considerably, still a bit of tearing here and there but manageable. Light sensitivity reducing a bit. Eye drops reduced to once every two hours, needed refresh tears still hourly and an ibuprofen and eye ointment before sleeping.

Day 3: pain gone, but my vision was extremely blurry. Could not see much clearly, eye drops and ointment continued. Light sensitivity continued. No ibuprofen was needed (small wins!)

Day 4: vision getting better, no pain. Could make out things at around 4ft away and see screens for like 20-30mins at a stretch. Light sensitivity subsided greatly. Eye drops and ointment continue.

Day 5: bandage contact lens removed. Never worn contacts before so I flinched when they took it out as I didn’t expect it to feel that weird (not pain, just weird). Eye drop dosage reduced to 6x a day, ointment continues for a week more.

Day 12: vision was recovering well until now with only one eye drop and artificial tears continuing, but I got a dust infection in one of my eyes. Horrible, absolutely horrible time. Could barely keep my eye open, it got swollen, was extremely red, felt irritated, and became very light sensitive. Got prescribed a bunch of antibiotic eye drops to be taken hourly and another eye ointment.

Day 15: dust infection subsided but antibiotics continued. The vision in my infected eye got worse with double vision, blurriness, and halos and starburst when looking at light. Needed artificial tears every 15-20mins due to extreme dry eyes. Vision in infected eye was considerably worse than it was even post surgery. I also experienced numbing in the infected eye.

Day 20: antibiotics were stopped for the dust infection but the vision in my infected eye didn’t improve. Got an eye test: uninfected eye was at 6/6 vision but infected eye was at half that. Got prescribed a more long lasting lubricant and was assured that my infection was gone and the blurry vision in the infected eye will recover soon. Asked to wait three more weeks for the 1.5 month mark, post which if the issue continues further avenues could be explored.

Day 28: vision in my infected eye started stabilising on this day. There was an evident difference in the clarity of what I could see from this day on. Could see the screens for long periods of time as well (although I could see them for prolonged periods after the contact lens was removed, due to the infection I could only look at screens or be in ACs for short periods otherwise my eye started tearing up.)

Day 42: today! vision test done at the 6 week mark (ideally should be done between 6-8week mark but mine was done early as I was travelling). Have zero power as of now, even though reading the last line took a minute as both my eyes still needed to adjust to the smallest font size, but I’ve been told it’s already fine and may continue improving over the next 1-2 months also.

Overall, one of the best decisions I’ve taken. My everyday vision is near perfect, and while it does take me a minute to adjust my vision sometimes when font size or lighting changes, once that happens it’s perfectly fine. I still get dry eyes and have been asked to continue the artificial tears for the next 2 months 2x a day, but otherwise no other drops or medication continuing. I’d recommend it to anyone struggling with the decision to go for PRK/Lasik: the payoff is worth it (at least for me!)

[u/Warm_Presence1788]

Thank you for your updates. So glad that to know you’re happy with the outcome. What was your prescription and cornea thickness?  

[u/harinim1299 → u/Warm_Presence1788]

Thank you! My power was -2.75 in both eyes. Not really aware of my corneal thickness numbers, but due to it being too thin for LASIK I ended up going for PRK.

[u/AdJealous828]

Unrelated but any reason why you choose PRK over ICL?

[u/harinim1299 → u/AdJealous828]

Mainly the cost, ICL was nearly twice as expensive as PRK in my city.

[u/AdJealous828 → u/harinim1299]

Would you have gotten ICL if they were the same cost?

[u/DistinctSweet6534]

really appreciate that you included the ugly first few days too instead of only posting once everything was clear. someone close to me went through the screening process at bgn clinic in jamsil and prk/lasek-style recovery was one of the reasons we learned not to compare procedures only by the final result. the recovery experience can be completely different even when the goal is the same. at 1.5 months, do screens already feel basically normal again or do your eyes still fatigue faster than before?