32 Years Old, PRK for Mild Nearsightedness -Lewiston, ID

I started having more problems with dry eyes, mainly in the morning while waking up. Sometimes I wold unconsciously open my eyes, only to tear my epithelium in the process (super painful)! After hearing good reviews about them, I decided to go back to PLCI to get eye plugs inserted in my punctae (tear duct openings), a surefire way to moisturize the surface of the eye. A week before getting permanent ones, my doctor inserted temporary plugs into my punctae that were meant to fall out or dissolve on their own. I knew they’d done one of the two because I woke up to experience epithelial tearing again at the end of the week! The permanent plugs went in the same way, only they were made from collagen. The doctor struggled to get them inserted however, and I needed multiple servings of numbing eye drops to make the experience less unnerving. I think by the time they got them in, I had turned the Kleenex I was gripping into a small white bullet! Nevertheless, they remain in my eyes, the initial irritation is gone and I am enjoying much wetter eyeballs that don’t get torn up by my eye lids in the morning anymore. Highly recommended for those out there so have used up all other options for keeping your eyeballs moist after laser surgery. And yes, for those wondering, you still produce tears and don’t have to give up crying.

5, 6, and 7 months after my surgery, my life has changed. My vision is beautiful, and the issues I had with epithelial tearing is a thing of the past, although I still feel I have to be careful when I open my eyes in the morning, just in case. I wondered for a while if I had done the right thing, but after time had passed and I went to my last optometry appointment, my doctor told me that my eyes were as close to perfect as they possibly could be without being perfect. I only showed the very slightest astigmatism in my right eye and 20/20 vision in both. I no longer regret my procedure and feel that it was a good decision, even for my relatively slight correction. For those of my friends who have much worse vision, I couldn't recommend the procedure more. It's a wonderful thing to not need glasses or contact lenses, although if my original vision was particularly bad and I ended up with vision where I only needed light glasses afterwards, that would be a victory too.

It's been a while now since my PRK surgery and I am quite happy with the results. My eyes are not perfect but I can see sharply. The last time I had a check up with my doctor, he said that my eyes were as close to perfect as they can be without being perfect. I have very mild astigmatism in both eyes and my left eye is just a tiny tiny bit nearsighted. The world is clear to me and I still have to remind myself not to try and remove contact lenses at the end of the day! The only downside I can report is that some nights my eyes become very dry and I have to be mindful not to open them too quickly otherwise I still experience recurrent epithelial erosion. I hope that I will not experience this forever.