PRK vs. Lasik *updated* not for the squeamish!

I just had my consultation at a clinic here in Greater Toronto Area. I am just inside the bounds of being a candidate PRK but due to my craptastically thin cornea (who knew?) it's going to be a one-time thing. Coupled with my very bad prescription, it's not really a question or debate topic since I have only one choice.

I checked out this thread: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/3... and I think I know what I'm getting into. My friend had the Lasik done at the same clinic and has no complaints. Anyone have anything to add or say before I blast my corneas into submission next Tuesday? I'll add to this thread once I have it done too if anyone is interested.

How much is the procedure costing you Scrub in the canadian monies? (I am interested, and might look into it)

Good luck, and I hope the best for your peepers.

PRK is apparently much more pricey than standard Lasik. So I'm looking at just under $4000. I think my buddy got the Lasik for at least a grand less or half. The procedure is newly covered in my medical benefits so that's one reason I'm taking advantage of it!

If I go blind I'll have my wife post here.

I got LASEK PRK done for entrance into the Naval Aviator program, as getting LASIK at the time was disqualifying (and may still be). Best money I ever spent, and I have ridiculously awesome eyesight now. It has a longer recovery time, but still not too bad.

What is the difference between PRK and Lasik? I guess I should just google it.

LeapingGnome wrote:

What is the difference between PRK and Lasik? I guess I should just google it.

As I understand it, LASIK involves creating a corneal flap, which is then folded back and the material underneath is reshaped, after which the flap is replaced in position. With PRK, the epithelium is scraped away, and the front surface of the cornea is reshaped directly using a UV laser. PRK takes longer to heal, but is preferred in some instances. Until recently, for example, the military shied away from LASIK because they were afraid the pilots would have their eyes torn open by wind forces upon ejection due to a weakened area where the flap had been made.

Upshot: Thin corneas and bigger pupils usually dictate PRK, whereas LASIK is the most comfortable and fastest healing for most others.

scrub wrote:

PRK is apparently much more pricey than standard Lasik. So I'm looking at just under $4000. I think my buddy got the Lasik for at least a grand less or half.

The sticker price on mine if I had to pay in full was $3820 for Lasik. My guess is your friend chose the lowest level of options (followup care, guarantees, etc.) or went to a doctor with less experience. I figured with something as important as my ability to see, all the bells and whistles were worth it. Plus, I managed to time mine with leaving my last job in January, so with the federal guidelines of the flexible spending accounts, I ending up getting $4k surgery for only around $350 or so.

It's been over 6 months since surgery and still seeing FABULOUS. Couldn't be happier.

Since you've checked the other thread you know I had the bladeless lasik done. It was done on June 19th and I couldn't be happier. If PRK is even close to as good as Lasik then I would say definitely a good choice (if it's your only). As of last week I was 20/20 in my right eye and 20/15 in my left with a .25 to .50 astigmatism in each eye. Before the surgery I was 20/300 in each eye with a 3.25 astigmastism. (Maybe the # has a - in front of it, I'm not sure).

Overall it's great money spent. Even getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom has become much less of a chore. Not having glasses on after a shower and having them fog up is great. If I sit on the computer for a long amount of time I need to use some eye-drops as I'm not blinking as much as I should. The eyedoctor at last checkup said my eyes are healing great and there's no need for a followup surgery so that's awesome news as well.

No matter what, keep us informed of how things go!!

Just a quick note as I'm currently in my 48 hour "agony" period. I can see pretty well now through the incessant tears and the PRK is, as I was told to expect, bloody painful. More soon....

scrub wrote:

Just a quick note as I'm currently in my 48 hour "agony" period. I can see pretty well now through the incessant tears and the PRK is, as I was told to expect, bloody painful. More soon....

It's painful for just a short while. Keep the lights low, and use your drops. It'll all be worth it, mate, so hang in there.

Hiya Scrub! Glad to hear you made it through and can see! I had the "even low light hurts my eyes" for a week or so. No tears though, just kinda painful when the lights were on. I got a nice pair of sunglasses and wore them everywhere. Even though it's been a month since surgery and I don't need to wear them, I actually prefer the "polarized" look when driving so have gotten used to using them.

Maybe you could tape some kleenex to your face. Or I saw a commercial today for some paper towels that are the "one towel cleans up the huge spill without leaking" type of towels. You might not look cool but it beats trying to wipe away tears without touching your eyes

Well I'm through the tough part. The pain is all gone, the contacts are off, the tears or diminished and only a little blurring is left (so bear with my typos as they come). Here is the full and as complete a tale as any for anyone thinking about PRK or just not squeamish.

THE OP

I spent the night before just a little bit anxious but mostly convinced I did the right thing. I also mowed the lawn one last time because I was pretty sure it wasn't going to get touched for at least a couple of weeks after surgery. My wife accompanied me to the clinic and after a series of two-three tests and paying up ($4000 Canadian) I was put into a waiting room with two other people.

As it turned out I was second in line and after they put a hairnet in place (a little funny as my head is shaved) I spent my last minutes in life with severe myopia reading People magazine. My name was callaed and I went into the antechamber to get some topical numbing drops which very quickly worked to numb my eyes. Then my name was called again and Iwas in the operation room proper.

Was I nervous yet? Still no, not even when I got under the Dr. No-ish lazsr bed thingy. The doctor and nurses were very nice and accomodating -- I had no questions. And the process began...

The first thing was more topical drops for my eye I think. I thought that I'd have a couple more minutes to think but suddenly the doctor had what appeared to be a small electric toothbrush against my open right eye (other eye was taped and open eye was clamped OPEN). Zzzzt zzzzt, first corneal epideral layer gone! No pain but pressure and the bizarre feeling that someone was brushing my eyeball. I was told to look into the red light in the centor of the laser contraption and exposed to gamma radia-- haha just kidding, I was blasted with what seemed to be a preset series of 5-15 second zaps to the cornea. What's that smell? Ah, charred flesh of eyeball. Awesome.

After my right eye was done and they were switching the taping and clamps I had a wonderful moment. I could SEE PERFECTLY from my right eye for a few moments. It was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. Given my level of myopia (-8 to -9!) since I was in grade 4 this was pretty bloody cool. They left eye was done with much less squirmyness from me as I now knew what to expect and it was done.

I just want to reiterate that I felt NO PAIN during this entire process.

I stumbled out, was congratulated by the nurse and doctor who said the operation was very very smooth and in a "teary" moment got to see my wife with unadorned eyes for the first time ever. She says my smile was ear to ear.

THE AFTERMATH

The clinic was super in it's setting of expectations. They told me flat-out, that the pain in the first 48 hours was, for some patients, excruciating. They were not far off. I experienced within an hour of the operation the stabby, scratchy, ouchy, painful eye pain that could only be dexcribed as the worst thing you've ever felt times 10. In your eye. Coupled with it was a most intense migraine and I couldn't get to my prescribed meds quickly enough. In Canada our Tylenol 3s are prescription only and I can tell you tehey went fast. I also got Torividols and dilute topicaldrops and full on numbing drops that were recommended to not be used as they slowed healing.

So for about 48 hours I lay in bed, dropping stuff in my eyes every few hours between the NON-SDTOP tears of my own and opping painkillers like it was candy. I admit that I used the numbing drops ONCE. Then I just troopered on. Very heroic.

On the morning of the third day I was virtually pain free. The bandage contact in my eye was only a little bit annoying and only in my right eye. As it turned out, the left contact had somehow popped out a day earlier we found out today at my second followup. Weird since I was told again, to flatout expect excruciating pain if they fell out early. Well it looks like my Wolverine healing factor was able to overcome this. (My wife has always commented on my healing factor, I must be wolverine).

THE RESULTS

Well, I can barely see the screen as I'm still a bit blurry but I'm told this will dissapate in 2 days or less. For the first time in over 20 years I can see without any aids. Was it worth it? Hell yes.

I can see my family, my wife and two kids (1 and 3 years) and see their facial expressions and smiels and activities and even silly things like the alarm clock, soap if I drop it in the shower or whatever. I'm light sensitive but that goes away too.

Knowing the kind of benefits on the other side definitely helped me through the most painful of moments in the agony period so I never once thought "What have I done?". It was worth it.

I hope this wall of text has been educational. I touchtyped most of it with eyes closed and I think I'll leave the typos as a nice momument to the blind me of the past. Thanks for reading.

LOL one last thing, as a sort of postscript. My wife just read the long post and reminded me that she downloaded the last ten GWJ Conference Calls for me to listen to while recuperating. And yes they helped take the mind off the pain and were uniformly excellent. I have to listen regularly now.

scrub wrote:

The first thing was more topical drops for my eye I think. I thought that I'd have a couple more minutes to think but suddenly the doctor had what appeared to be a small electric toothbrush against my open right eye (other eye was taped and open eye was clamped OPEN). Zzzzt zzzzt, first corneal epideral layer gone! No pain but pressure and the bizarre feeling that someone was brushing my eyeball. I was told to look into the red light in the centor of the laser contraption and exposed to gamma radia-- haha just kidding, I was blasted with what seemed to be a preset series of 5-15 second zaps to the cornea. What's that smell? Ah, charred flesh of eyeball. Awesome.

Okay, that clinches it, no Lasik for me!

Thanks for posting more details Scrub.

Podunk wrote:
scrub wrote:

The first thing was more topical drops for my eye I think. I thought that I'd have a couple more minutes to think but suddenly the doctor had what appeared to be a small electric toothbrush against my open right eye (other eye was taped and open eye was clamped OPEN). Zzzzt zzzzt, first corneal epideral layer gone! No pain but pressure and the bizarre feeling that someone was brushing my eyeball. I was told to look into the red light in the centor of the laser contraption and exposed to gamma radia-- haha just kidding, I was blasted with what seemed to be a preset series of 5-15 second zaps to the cornea. What's that smell? Ah, charred flesh of eyeball. Awesome.

Okay, that clinches it, no Lasik for me!

You mean, no PRK for you. Lasik is the other procedure.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:
Podunk wrote:

Okay, that clinches it, no Lasik for me!

You mean, no PRK for you. Lasik is the other procedure. :)

Yeah. Lasik involves the burning laser PLUS slicing a flap in your eye.

Wow, that makes me really happy I went with lasik. I only had a few hours of pain that I thought was bad enough.

Glad you're pretty much past the pain now!

Yeah. Lasik involves the burning laser PLUS slicing a flap in your eye.

With the Lasik nothing ever sounds like a buzzing. Well, that's with the bladeless Lasik. I felt a huge amount of pressure when they put the suction thing on your eye but as scrub said, no pain what-so-ever. The burning smell was a bit un-nerving

I was blasted with what seemed to be a preset series of 5-15 second zaps to the cornea

Just curious, how long per eye once the zaps started? And do you know the total number of zaps to each eye? Mine turned out to be around 50ish seconds in each eye and around 500 zaps to each.

DeThroned wrote:
Yeah. Lasik involves the burning laser PLUS slicing a flap in your eye.

With the Lasik nothing ever sounds like a buzzing. Well, that's with the bladeless Lasik. I felt a huge amount of pressure when they put the suction thing on your eye but as scrub said, no pain what-so-ever. The burning smell was a bit un-nerving

I had bladeless also, which I remember being quite silent other than the doctor telling me everything was going well. I don't remember any kind of burning smell.

DeThroned wrote:
I was blasted with what seemed to be a preset series of 5-15 second zaps to the cornea

Just curious, how long per eye once the zaps started? And do you know the total number of zaps to each eye? Mine turned out to be around 50ish seconds in each eye and around 500 zaps to each.

Good question, not sure as I was kind of a little freaked out to count. I recall the nurse/aide saying things like "14 seconds", "12 seconds", "22 seconds" things like that. But it never felt that long. I would not be surprised if each eye lasted 5+ minutes but it felt waaay shorter.

scrub wrote:

LOL one last thing, as a sort of postscript. My wife just read the long post and reminded me that she downloaded the last ten GWJ Conference Calls for me to listen to while recuperating. And yes they helped take the mind off the pain and were uniformly excellent. I have to listen regularly now.

The thought of some poor unsuspecting blinded cornea-sniffing MoFo lying on his bed in Canada with tears running down his eyes while his painful family looks on in anguish, listening to ME is a bit more than I can take. Sober that is.

rabbit wrote:
scrub wrote:

LOL one last thing, as a sort of postscript. My wife just read the long post and reminded me that she downloaded the last ten GWJ Conference Calls for me to listen to while recuperating. And yes they helped take the mind off the pain and were uniformly excellent. I have to listen regularly now.

The thought of some poor unsuspecting blinded cornea-sniffing MoFo lying on his bed in Canada with tears running down his eyes while his painful family looks on in anguish, listening to ME is a bit more than I can take. Sober that is.

...
...I did that while recovering from my PRK 9 months ago...

I've always said my droning on and on has magical healing powers.

Certis wrote:

I've always said my droning on and on has magical healing powers.

And the ability to cure insomnia.

Shazam! You know I love you.

Wow, that sounds a lot worse than what my girlfriend went through. She did standard Lasik a few years ago, and recently went in for free "recalibration" -apparently it doesn't always stick the first time. Anyways, excruciating pain was most certainly NOT part of the picture. In fact, the worst part of the entire process was the boredom - no reading, tv, computer, athletics, etc for 24 hours after the procedure. She's a podcast fan too, fortunately, but sticks with Savage Love for the most part.

In fact, the worst part of the entire process was the boredom - no reading, tv, computer, athletics, etc for 24 hours after the procedure.

They told me this too but I didn't listen all-together. I did give it about 12 hours but that was all I could take If only someone had this thread up before surgery I would have downloaded all of the podcasts!

I guess it's all good though, I went to my month checkup yesterday and I am 20/15 in my left eye and better than 20/20 in my right (but not exactly 20/20). He said as it looks now there's no follow-up surgery so far so that's good news

rabbit wrote:
scrub wrote:

LOL one last thing, as a sort of postscript. My wife just read the long post and reminded me that she downloaded the last ten GWJ Conference Calls for me to listen to while recuperating. And yes they helped take the mind off the pain and were uniformly excellent. I have to listen regularly now.

The thought of some poor unsuspecting blinded cornea-sniffing MoFo lying on his bed in Canada with tears running down his eyes while his painful family looks on in anguish, listening to ME is a bit more than I can take. Sober that is.

Sephirotic wrote:
Certis wrote:

I've always said my droning on and on has magical healing powers.

And the ability to cure insomnia.

Shazam! You know I love you. :D

Haha. No comment.

I had my LASIK done back in the day (2001), back before they had the bladeless option and I took it like a MAN. The blade tickled my eyeball, and seeing the doctor lift the flap was a bit disturbing. Also, the valium pill didn't kick in until after the procedure was over. I'm so glad I did it though.

DeThroned wrote:
In fact, the worst part of the entire process was the boredom - no reading, tv, computer, athletics, etc for 24 hours after the procedure.

They told me this too but I didn't listen all-together. I did give it about 12 hours but that was all I could take If only someone had this thread up before surgery I would have downloaded all of the podcasts!

I guess it's all good though, I went to my month checkup yesterday and I am 20/15 in my left eye and better than 20/20 in my right (but not exactly 20/20). He said as it looks now there's no follow-up surgery so far so that's good news

I know it's been 10 years since this post, but wondering how your eyesight is.

Eyesight is still awesome. I go to the eye doctor every year and I'm still better than 20/20. They also take a super hi-resolution photo of both of my eyes to look for anything wacky going on and have never found anything.

HOWEVER, stuff real close is starting to become blurry. I'm 41 now so I guess that's expected. Despite them telling me that when I get older I may still need "cheaters", I refuse to believe I'm older. I just do the "hold it close, hold it further away, come in a little, back out, and there we go! Now I can read it" thing.