Post PRK Days 4 and 5

Yesterday was day 4. It was probably one of the worst days so far.

I had read about this in several blogs that day 4 is probably one of the worst days. I couldn't see anything. I couldn't read anything. I couldn't make out faces on the television. Anything with any sort of bright light was like a laser beam to my eyes. I ended up wearing my sunglasses most of the time yesterday. Besides that, I had to have a follow up appointment with the doctor.

It was a very discouraging day.

So what did I do? I slept. I don't think I have slept so much in my entire life as I have the last four days. It doesn't seem like it would take that much out of you, but when you add the stress, the minimal discomfort this surgery gives off, and the sitting around waiting for things to get clearer, there really isn't much to do but sleep. I did manage to make it back in one piece from the drug store, because I was in dire need of refreshing moisturizing drops for my eyes. They seemed to help some, but when you can't see anything, a cool relief is a minor solace in comparison.

I think the biggest concern that went through my mind was whether or not I would be able to see again, or whether or not my vision was going to be like this forever. I kept telling myself that it wouldn't. But, the problem was, I was not very convincing to myself.

I went to the doctor. The nurse, who had asked me to read the eye chart, told me to cover one eye and read the letters on the screen. I couldn't. The letters got larger. I still couldn't. The letters got larger again, and I could barely read them. It didn't help much when the nurse exclaimed, "wow, your eyesight is worse than the last time we checked it."

I wasn't very amused.

The doctor then checked my eyes again. The corneas were not yet healed completely, which meant that I needed to continue my antibiotic drops and my anti-inflammatory drops for another two days, in addition to keeping the contact lense "bandages" on my eyes. For those of you that have worn soft contact lenses, imagine wearing your contacts in your eyes for 4 days straight, sleeping in them and all. Yes, that's what my eyes felt like.

I went home, very disconcerted, hoping that my eyesight would improve, which the doctor assured me it would. So I sat, again, in the dark, waiting for my eyes to improve once more, and fell asleep early in the evening, not awakening until 5 am this morning.

Today, by contrast, I actually notice a big change. Things are a little clearer, although my left eye seems to lag about 1 day behind my right eye. Though, today, I am able to read, read street signs, and the haze is for the most part gone. I am able to actually read text messages from friends on my phone (not that I get many of them, since I really don't text a whole lot). In fact, the first thing that I was able to do this morning, was to read the crawling news items at the bottom of the news channel I typically watch. This was quite encouraging. In addition, I was able to see the street signs on my street a bit clearer, as well as see individual blades of grass and the buds on the trees. Refreshing eye drops seem to help quite a bit, as they make my eyes feel less dry, in addition to helping bring clarity to some things that I see.

So on all, today was a much better day. Again, I am waiting for my left eye to catch up. I'm hoping that everything will be well for day 6, tomorrow, as I have another doctor's appointment to check my eyes again. Apparently I happen to be one of the 25% of the cases where the cornea takes a bit longer to heal.

Lucky me.

I will say that I feel a bit more confident that I am going to get through this thing. I'm certain that the end result will be more than I could expect. I guess when it comes to healing, I'm not a very patient person.

I need to learn patience.