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Hi everyone. My name’s Mike and I’m 24 years old.
I just wish I would have come across this site BEFORE I had PRK. Clinics should be forced to show a diagram of a healthy cornea with nerves and one that’s been scorched after surgery on the side effects section of their pamphlets.
I’m a little over 3 months post PRK (December 9th…. that was a fun Christmas.) Before surgery I was –1.75 in both eyes and I know I shouldn’t have gone through with it for such a small correction but at the time I really couldn’t find any accounts of dry eye from PRK. Everyone seemed to be saying that there was less risk of side effects with PRK, just that the recovery was worse and boy were they right that the recovery was worse.
In my opinion the first 24 hours after PRK feel like they put alcohol in your eye, scrapped off the surface, burned it with a laser then put a contact lens in just for kicks, because that’s exactly what they do…. worst burning EVER. I can’t stand it when people say it wasn’t that bad and they were driving a week later. I don’t know what planet they’re from but I was basically listening to audiobooks and sitting in a dark room for 2 weeks straight. You sure have a greater appreciation for your eyes after that.
Before surgery I was expecting at least 3 months of fluctuating vision like I had read about in most blogs but for me I could see 20/20 after 2 weeks and not much has changed since. Most likely due to the fact that my correction was fairly small I’m guessing. However when I said that not much had changed since the 2 week mark I also meant that that way my eyes feel hasn’t changed either.
It wasn’t until about a week ago that my right eye started to perk up a little bit and might possibly be making some of it’s own tears now. The left eye is the one that’s been the real problem. The left eye hardly makes anything at all. It takes 6 to 7 yawns to get one drop out of the left eye and that’s in combination with the fact that my left eye suddenly started draining tears at an incredible rate the day after the surgery. My left eye can drain an entire vial of Refresh Plus in about 2 minutes. So every time I put a drop in, my eye only stays wet for a few seconds. Meanwhile my right eye is spilling over and not draining tears hardly at all, but that fluctuates from time to time.
My eyes look pretty normal, some redness at night but not much. My symptoms are mainly just burning and sometimes itching. My left eye also gets a throbbing, aching, swollen feeling around my lacrimal gland and sometimes it feels like it’s inside or behind my left eye. Possibly swollen lacrimal gland ducts causing a lack of tears in the left eye?
I’m currently putting in drops for the left eye around every 15 minutes, the right eye has its good and bad days. Things are usually worse at night so I go to bed as early as possible. I going through 5-6 vials of Refresh Plus and 5-6 Celluvisc per day (mostly for the left eye.) I use Refresh PM at night and wake up 2-3 times to put in drops. I don’t open my eyes until I’ve got a few drop in through the corner of my eye first. I started doing that after I had bad burning for 3 or 4 days after I opened my eyes to fast from a dream.
I’m lucky in the fact that I work at a factory so I can wear enclosed UV resistant goggles all day everyday. I have a humidifier in my room (pretty much worthless), 10 plants in my room (Philodendron, 2 Chinese Evergreens, 5 African Violets, a Snake Plant and a Spider Plant) and a 2x2 plastic bin with water in it for humidity.
I just started Biotears and Viva-Drops. I’ve been taking about a half to whole teaspoon of turmeric daily for about a month with my fish oil and flaxseed oil to help with inflammation. I’ve been taking omega 3’s since a little more than a month before surgery and after my recent burning episode I’ve started running on a treadmill a few miles per week. I also staying away from sugar as much as possible to limit inflammation and drink about a half gallon of water a day.
I'm basically eating plain oatmeal for breakfast with some frozen blueberries. Rice, beans, chicken, turkey, eggs are my main foods with low sugar vegetables and fruit throughout the day. As a side note, I highly recommend Bolthouse: Green Goodness and Blue Goodness or any other high nutrient fruit/veggie drink. Though somewhat high in sugar I feel they’re worth it anyways.
My doctor put in lower collagen plugs on March 2 and the left tear duct swallowed it with 30 minutes and the right one might have helped but it’s hard to tell since it hasn’t been that bad to begin with. I made an appointment for tomorrow to see if he can put in some temporary 90 day plugs and/or try some Restasis.
Right now I’m mainly just concerned with growing back the nerves in my eyes and that’s pretty much all I can come up with for now.
Oh and after surgery while feverishly looking for information on dry eye I stumbled across this helpful paper on post PRK/LASIK healing, Sjogren’s syndrome and dry eye. The most helpful sections for me were Nerve regeneration after PRK and Corneal sensitivity after PRK.
Corneal Nerves in Refractive Surgery and Dry Eye
If this link doesn't work just google "Corneal Nerves in Refractive Surgery and Dry Eye"
I just wish I would have come across this site BEFORE I had PRK. Clinics should be forced to show a diagram of a healthy cornea with nerves and one that’s been scorched after surgery on the side effects section of their pamphlets.
I’m a little over 3 months post PRK (December 9th…. that was a fun Christmas.) Before surgery I was –1.75 in both eyes and I know I shouldn’t have gone through with it for such a small correction but at the time I really couldn’t find any accounts of dry eye from PRK. Everyone seemed to be saying that there was less risk of side effects with PRK, just that the recovery was worse and boy were they right that the recovery was worse.
In my opinion the first 24 hours after PRK feel like they put alcohol in your eye, scrapped off the surface, burned it with a laser then put a contact lens in just for kicks, because that’s exactly what they do…. worst burning EVER. I can’t stand it when people say it wasn’t that bad and they were driving a week later. I don’t know what planet they’re from but I was basically listening to audiobooks and sitting in a dark room for 2 weeks straight. You sure have a greater appreciation for your eyes after that.
Before surgery I was expecting at least 3 months of fluctuating vision like I had read about in most blogs but for me I could see 20/20 after 2 weeks and not much has changed since. Most likely due to the fact that my correction was fairly small I’m guessing. However when I said that not much had changed since the 2 week mark I also meant that that way my eyes feel hasn’t changed either.
It wasn’t until about a week ago that my right eye started to perk up a little bit and might possibly be making some of it’s own tears now. The left eye is the one that’s been the real problem. The left eye hardly makes anything at all. It takes 6 to 7 yawns to get one drop out of the left eye and that’s in combination with the fact that my left eye suddenly started draining tears at an incredible rate the day after the surgery. My left eye can drain an entire vial of Refresh Plus in about 2 minutes. So every time I put a drop in, my eye only stays wet for a few seconds. Meanwhile my right eye is spilling over and not draining tears hardly at all, but that fluctuates from time to time.
My eyes look pretty normal, some redness at night but not much. My symptoms are mainly just burning and sometimes itching. My left eye also gets a throbbing, aching, swollen feeling around my lacrimal gland and sometimes it feels like it’s inside or behind my left eye. Possibly swollen lacrimal gland ducts causing a lack of tears in the left eye?
I’m currently putting in drops for the left eye around every 15 minutes, the right eye has its good and bad days. Things are usually worse at night so I go to bed as early as possible. I going through 5-6 vials of Refresh Plus and 5-6 Celluvisc per day (mostly for the left eye.) I use Refresh PM at night and wake up 2-3 times to put in drops. I don’t open my eyes until I’ve got a few drop in through the corner of my eye first. I started doing that after I had bad burning for 3 or 4 days after I opened my eyes to fast from a dream.
I’m lucky in the fact that I work at a factory so I can wear enclosed UV resistant goggles all day everyday. I have a humidifier in my room (pretty much worthless), 10 plants in my room (Philodendron, 2 Chinese Evergreens, 5 African Violets, a Snake Plant and a Spider Plant) and a 2x2 plastic bin with water in it for humidity.
I just started Biotears and Viva-Drops. I’ve been taking about a half to whole teaspoon of turmeric daily for about a month with my fish oil and flaxseed oil to help with inflammation. I’ve been taking omega 3’s since a little more than a month before surgery and after my recent burning episode I’ve started running on a treadmill a few miles per week. I also staying away from sugar as much as possible to limit inflammation and drink about a half gallon of water a day.
I'm basically eating plain oatmeal for breakfast with some frozen blueberries. Rice, beans, chicken, turkey, eggs are my main foods with low sugar vegetables and fruit throughout the day. As a side note, I highly recommend Bolthouse: Green Goodness and Blue Goodness or any other high nutrient fruit/veggie drink. Though somewhat high in sugar I feel they’re worth it anyways.
My doctor put in lower collagen plugs on March 2 and the left tear duct swallowed it with 30 minutes and the right one might have helped but it’s hard to tell since it hasn’t been that bad to begin with. I made an appointment for tomorrow to see if he can put in some temporary 90 day plugs and/or try some Restasis.
Right now I’m mainly just concerned with growing back the nerves in my eyes and that’s pretty much all I can come up with for now.
Oh and after surgery while feverishly looking for information on dry eye I stumbled across this helpful paper on post PRK/LASIK healing, Sjogren’s syndrome and dry eye. The most helpful sections for me were Nerve regeneration after PRK and Corneal sensitivity after PRK.
Corneal Nerves in Refractive Surgery and Dry Eye
If this link doesn't work just google "Corneal Nerves in Refractive Surgery and Dry Eye"
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