I had my six month post op appointment yesterday. On the visual acuity test, I tested 20/20 in both eyes and with both eyes open I could read the 20/15 line without difficulty. In fact, they didn’t test my eyes individually at 20/15, but I believe I could have easily passed. Incredible results – I was actually surprised since my last check-up, several months ago, had me testing at 20/25.

My night vision is crystal clear without halos or other distortions. I haven’t had any other complications like dry eye or floaters. Overall the results are better than I could have imagined. Strangely, I still have intense pain when I get an eyelash stuck on the ablated area of the cornea. My surgeon explained that this is due to the epithelium and it may take up to a year to heal thoroughly. Its a minor issue and I’d say the surgery was worth it.

I have another appointment in 6-months to mark the 1-year check-up. My vision has been stable for three months, and I don’t expect that to change.

Left Eye: post-op day 47
Right Eye: post-op day 33

I had another check-up Monday and it went well. I’m currently -0.25 diopters (20/20) in my left eye and somewhere between -0.25 and -0.5 diopters (20/25) in my right eye. Visual acuity is mostly stable with some (almost imperceptible) fluctuations in my right eye. Both eyes continue to appear healthy with no signs of haze or other complications. While I’m disappointed that my right eye is not 20/20, I understand that I  really need to reevaluate at the 6-month mark, because these subtle changes will continue until then. I’ve also completely discontinued using eyedrops (including steroid drops) and its possible that my right eye is asymptomatically dry, reducing visual acuity.

Still, 20/20 and 20/25 is nothing to complain about. I find myself starting at signs in the distance and expecting to read them no matter how small the text is. When I can’t read the text I start to worry that my vision is deteriorating – fortunately its all in my head.

Left Eye: post-op day 17
Right Eye: post-op day 3

Just a quick update on my right eye. Its going much like the left eye did – the worst day being yesterday accompanied by lots of pain, blurriness, and ghosting. Today its been mostly pain free, but the blurriness still remains. Hopefully if my eye is healed enough, I’ll get the bandage contact lens removed tomorrow and I should be seeing very clearly by the end of this week. I also get to reduce the application of Pred Forte in my left eye to two drops per day tomorrow.

It will be interesting to see if my right eye reaches 20/20. My surgeon had to make a decision on how to treat my right eye because my optical perscription determined with the phoropter differed from wavescan data by 0.34 diopters. He decided to under correct by 0.25 diopters, opting to trust the wavescan machine. Either way, its better to be under corrected than overcorrected and I should know where I stand by the end of the week.

Left Eye: post-op day 15
Right Eye: post-op day 1

After two weeks of suffering monovision, yesterday I finally had a PRK performed on my right eye. The procedure went much as it did for the left eye with the only difference being my immediate post-op vision was blurry and smudged with an almost grayish glow. The staff in the surgery room assured me that every eye is different and my vision would clear up soon. They were right. A few hours after the procedure, the blurred vision was gone. Strangely, the ice-cold eye drops didn’t cause as much pain this time, while my post-operative pain was much greater than the left eye. On my way out of the surgery center yesterday, I threw my crazed, scratched glasses in their trash. You have no idea how good that felt!

This morning I had my day 1 post-op doctor visit while en route to the FIRST Robotics Competition in Portland. Amazingly, my visual acuity was 20/25 and it has remained very sharp throughout the day. My surgeon noted that my epithelium had healed about 30% and again asked me to take the Pred Forte and Zymar four times per day. I also have some Bromday drops for pain, though these drops apparently slow the healing process so they are to be used sparingly. While my right eye vision was excellent throughout the day, I am starting to see my visual acuity worsen significantly, both for distance and near vision. As with the left eye, the healing epithelium causes a sharp but temporary decline in vision as it slowly covers the surface of the cornea.

I had my visual acuity checked for my left eye this morning and it was still at 20/20, though just barely. This is not an unexpected result since my visual will continue to fluctuate for the next few months.

Its been a week and a few days since my PRK surgery, and my eye is healing quickly. I don’t have any near vision blurriness anymore and I’m guessing my distance vision is at least 20/20 since my left eye’s visual acuity is equal to my right eye with the corrective lens. In just 48-hours the initial post-operative farsightedness has resolved itself. In fact, because the vision in my left eye is so superior to my right, I recently became left-eye dominant at all distances. In the past few days, when I was experiencing post-op hyperopia, I had difficulty reading a computer screen with my left eye. Even at that near distance, the text on the screen was almost unreadable, so I resorted to covering my left eye in order to work without a headache. Now that I’m left-eye dominant, my right eye is seeing blurry text, while my left eye is sharp. In order to focus with my right eye, I have to cover my left and then concentrate on focusing with my right. Just crazy. My solution is simply to wear my old glasses with the left lens removed. This way, both eyes have the same prescription.

The optical aberrations seem to have abated as well. I don’t have ghosting issues anymore, in any lighting condition. I still see very faint halos and starbursts in my left eye, but they are significantly less intense than my right eye with corrected vision. My glasses, for some reason, create very large starbursts from bright light sources (e.g. headlights of oncoming traffic). Even without correction, my untreated right eye still produces more visible optical distortions than my left. Perhaps this is due to the wavefront technology of the Visx laser.

I’ll learn my exact visual acuity on Monday. Fortunately, my vision is fluctuating much much less throughout the day. I find that my left eye is at its worst in the evening. This may be due to the steroid drops, as I’ve read that eyesight tends to stabilize once the drops are discontinued. For now, I can’t wait until next Thursday when I have the right eye done. I don’t know how much longer I can stand such lopsided vision!