When I did PRK, I chose to NOT take the codine pills every 4 hours during the first day or two, to see what it would feel like. Only my left eye had serious discomfort, and I believe that was because I blinked my left eye many times after the zapping but before the contact lens went in, unlike my right eye, thus causing more irritation to the exposed nerve endings, I suppose. It was an instinctive reaction, though I had no need to blink since my eye was still numb from the pre-op drops.
After about 12 hours, I gave in and took my first two codine pills, and within 30 minutes, my discomfort level plummeted by 80-90%, so I'm sure my post-op experience would have been much better had I taken the codine as directed...but I wanted to experiment for the sake of advising my friends and relatives who are considering PRK (not LASIK).
In my opinion, although the likelihood of a LASIK complication is minor, I feel it's even LOWER with PRK, if you're willing to be uncomfortable for a day or two.
This market will top out far below its potential if incisional procedures are promoted to the exclusion of non-incisional LVC (PRK). Why do you think VISX worked so hard to get a smoother ablation and "no-touch" approval? They're working to make PRK so good, that LVC will eventually shift back away from LASIK, which will make it more widely accepted by the masses, and easier to market.
My modern (super smooth and multi-pass) PRK resulted in no haze at one month, no haze at 3 months, and my astigmatism dropped from -1.5/-4.0 to -0.50 or less in each eye, they zapped away virtually all my nearsightedness dropping me from 20/400 to 20/25 and 20/20. I'm referring all my friends and relatives to the PRK center (not LASIK) where I went, since they're all totally unwilling to get the flap cut. |
