Refractive Eye Surgery - Real Patients: Life After Refractive Surgery

Right after the procedure, I could actually see great. It was amazing.

The doctor who did the procedure told me to stand up and look at the clock and tell him what time it was. I was so excited because I could see the clock clearly. It was 1:41 PM.

I was told by technicians and doctors that there would be some pain after the surgery. But during the surgery I felt no pain at all.

They give you … give you your medications, give you your sunglasses and send you on your way home. And I was quite shocked at how well I could see immediately following the procedure.    

The first day after the surgery, I have to admit, I was in a lot of pain. My eyes hurt really bad. I came back in for my follow up and they said everything was fine. Everything was normal.

To be honest with you, the pain did for me … did get to about an eight on a scale of one to 10. But that quickly went away after the third day of surgery, after surgery.

My first two weeks … six weeks I felt that the surgery hadn’t worked. I was still blurry vision. I couldn’t see anything. Everybody else was having the clear vision for half the day. I’d get five minutes of clear vision and that was it. Just recently — probably about hitting my two-month mark — I woke up one morning and my vision was crystal clear. And it was just unbelievable.

Well, after surgery I did have some, and still do since it’s only been six months. When I’m driving at night, I do have some haloing, hazing problems.

After about a month, the sensitivity started to go away. And the only effect that I really have now is a slight starburst effect on a streetlight at nighttime.

My first day back at work, I had the hardest time focusing on the computer. My eyes dried up. I was putting my artificial tears in every five minutes.

PRK has changed everything for me.

There are times even that I still reach up to push my glasses up. I can’t believe that I’m glasses free.

Our cost for glasses and contact lenses have gone down.

I don’t have to carry spare glasses. I don’t have to have gas mask inserts.

And especially with my sports. I play ice hockey. And before the procedure, I wore the toric lenses to correct my astigmatism and those lenses rotate on your eye constantly … and trying to see the puck moving all around. It’s made a huge difference.

Here’s a surgery that I myself can have and change my whole lifestyle.

It has changed my life. It has made me see clearer. It has made my work great. I would recommend it to anybody.