Ask around in your community! Happy patients will refer you to their surgeon and be able to give you great insight into what the support team is like, how long wait times were, pricing, etc. There are also many online review sites like yelp and healthgrades where patients can rate their surgeons. I also recommend that you find a Fellowship trained surgeons. The most qualified refractive surgeons usually did a Fellowship in Cornea and Refractive Surgery. Hope that helps!
Both LASIK and PRK can cause dryness after surgery. However, many believe including myself that PRK may have less of a drying effect. This is due to the fact that without a flap in PRK, the ablation is not as deep into the stromal bed of the cornea and may affect less of the corneal nerves. In patients associated solely with contacts, I think LASIK is OK. In patients with dryness requiring frequent lubrication or medicated eye drops I will often recommend PRK. Patients with severe dryness are likely not good candidates for anything. In your case having a thinner cornea and some dryness, I would definitely go with PRK over LASIK.
Reasonable running and exercise is not a problem the next day after LASIK. I usually tell patients to make sure to keep their eyes lubricated with frequent artificial tears and protected from the wind. Also if you are running or working out in a gym, avoid fans as they can exacerbate dryness. Dryness is something that can negatively impact your recovery process. I do have my patients refrain from swimming for a week after LASIK
When patients come to my practice to be evaluated for LASIK and report that they are pregnant, I recommend that they wait until they are 3 months post-partum before having LASIK. Pregnant women tend to retain fluid and this can be true of pregnant women's eyes as well. With more fluid, the shape of the eye may change causing a chance in your prescription. As far as breast-feeding is concerned, I did my Fellowship in Utah and many of my female patients nursed their children for a year or longer. Some surgeons may not feel comfortable performing surgery on this population, but I frequently performed LASIK on these women without any problems. Hope that helps!
The laser that is used to treat your nearsightedness or farsightedness is the same laser that treats your astigmatism, whether you have PRK or LASIK. There are maximum amounts of nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism that the FDA has approved these laser for, but assuming you fall within the range, you should have no problem have your astigmatism treated during your PRK procedure. Thanks, Dr. Kang
