My PRK Experience - Toronto, ON

Just wanted to change my review to "Worth It" and give a quick update!
After 2 years, my eyesight is pretty much 20/20. My optometrist (who is independent - not the ones provided by the laser eye clinic) mentioned that many of the patients she sees post laser eye hover around 20/20 but most do not have perfectly 20/20 vision. My left eye is perfect (that is the one that was revised) but my right eye is a tad weaker. No big deal.

I still on occasion feel like my eyes are quite dry but after 1 year I stopped having painful dry eyes in the middle of the night.

I don't think my night vision is perfect. Not that I get a lot of halos but I would say that night driving is not as easy as it used to be (with contacts).

All in all, this surgery was worth it to me and I'm really glad I did it. I would do it all again - it's great not to have to wear glasses.

Hi all,
Sorry this update has taken some time for me to post.

I had my enhancement surgery in July 2013, about 5 months after my initial surgery. I want to reiterate that requiring enhancement appears to be quite rare, so I hope this doesn't scare anyone off.

For me, the worst part of the experience was that nobody could tell me WHY there was a regression. What went wrong the first time? Was it my eye not healing correctly? Were the initial measurements taken incorrect? Did something go wrong during my surgery? I asked these questions and was not given a straight answer. Not knowing was the most stressful part for me, because in my mind, if it were my own eye that did not heal, who was to say it wouldn't happen the second time around?!

Another thing that truly angered me was that my enhancement surgery was rescheduled the week that I was supposed to have the surgery. It was inconvenient, as I had arranged for my sister to take a day off work to drive me home. They were able to squeeze me in 2 weeks later, and I was lucky that my work is flexible, but this is not the case for everyone. I was especially angry b/c my initial surgery had been rescheduled as well, so it seems that maybe this kind of stuff happens at Herzig regularly.

ANYWAY. That is all done with now. The enhancement surgery went well. It was quick as there was much less correction needed than my first surgery. The doctor said if I needed a prescription, my eye would be at -2.00 plus my astigmatism needed to be corrected. I was literally under the laser for about 5 seconds (vs 17 seconds or so the first time around).

I also felt like my eye healed a lot faster this time. There was less dryness compared to the first time around, and I was able to rely on my good (right) eye to return to work. I needed less time post surgery to be able to safely drive. I even went on vacation shortly after my surgery (2 weeks post surgery).

In October I had my last appointment w/ an optometrist at Herzig, who told me I now have 20/20 vision. From now on I will see my own optometrist for regular checkups. I still do not think my night vision is 20/20, sometimes I feel like highway signs are blurry. I also don't feel like my vision is as crisp as I would imagine it should be. When you go for eye exams, they will consider you to have 20/20 even if the letters are a bit blurry.

So, while I am glad I no longer require contacts/glasses, I am not 100% happy w/ the results of my treatment. Perhaps I have unrealistic expectations of how crisp and clear 20/20 vision should be. I still get dry eyes but do not use eye drops all the time. It is rare but on occasion I will wake up in the middle of the night and my eye is so dry there are shooting pains and then my eyes water like crazy.

To be honest, due to the scheduling issues and the lack of answers on WHY my eye regressed, I would no longer recommend Herzig Eye Institute to my friends. I know a lot of my friends went there and had no issues w/ their treatment being on schedule and eyes healing, but due to my personal experience, I would not encourage my friends to go there, I would tell them to do their research and ask around for others' experiences.

So...long story short...I booked an enhancement surgery this morning for a month and a half from now. It's been approximately 3 months since my surgery. My left eye has seen no improvement since my 1.5 month post surgery appointment - in fact based on some tests, it appears to have gotten a bit worse. Definitely not the kind of results that are expected at the 3 month mark. My right eye continues to improve and hopefully will get to 20/20 at some point.

I am extremely disappointed that my left eye has regressed. I don't know what went wrong but apparently this CAN happen, it's rare compared to the number of successful first time cases. I've gone to a reputable clinic and had a reputable surgeon perform the surgery - perhaps my eyes just didn't heal right.