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.