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I just had CustomVue (Wavefront) PRK done on my left eye this past Friday and I'm going in for my right eye a week later on this coming Friday. I just has the bandage contact removed today and my eye is healing very well. The cost was $4800 but they gave me a 20% discount for working at a biotech company so it came to $3840. A bit expensive but it didn't seem too bad with a $500 eye insurance reimbursement from my company. It seemed like they would have just given me the discount for almost anything though, I'm guessing business is slow with the economy. All of the eyedrop medications were included in the price of that, as are post-op checkups for the next year. Re-op enhancement would be an extra $250 if needed but that is supposed to be very rare if your vision isn't that bad to begin with. This was a pretty posh private practice and the ophthalmologist had very good credentials: summa cum laude yale, harvard med, tens of thousands of surgeries. He said that while I was a perfect candidate for LASIK (I have mild myopia, about 3 diopters) he always recommends PRK for all of his patients as long as they could deal with the longer recovery time. There are fewer potential complications and he finds the results tend to be slightly better in the long-term as well. The thought of having a flap cut in my eye really creeped me out too. The doc also preferred doing one eye at a time with PRK unless the patient would be okay with not driving for a week or more (I need to drive!). I went in two days before for a pre-op where they did all the computer measurements and went over the entire procedure. The day of the surgery went pretty smoothly, they hop you up on valium and an assortment of eye numbing drops. The machine goes over you, you concentrate on staring at a blinking light then a very bright light comes on around it. The doctor scrapes away your epithelim for about 30 seconds (you don't feel a thing), and then the laser comes on for 30 seconds (its about 10 seconds per diopter). The laser had a weird smoky smell. They put a contact bandage in and you need to put in three different eye drops four times a day for a week, and they also give you prescription pain killers. Apparently the pain level is different for everyone but it wasn't bad for me at all. I didn't feel anything the day of the op because I was so drugged up, and the pain was only bad waking up the next day. The pain level was maybe a 3 on a scale of 1-10 at the worst. After the the second day there was really no pain at all and only very slight discomfort. I was very sensitive to light which is normal. Even the day after the procedure I could already see much better out of my left eye than my right eye with my glasses off. My eye has been getting more comfortable each day, and my vision has been gradually getting better too, although I go through periods of clarity and blurriness. It can take anywhere between 7-14 days before your vision really gets good, and up to 8 weeks to get your optimal vision with PRK. Edit: It's now 3 weeks since my left (dominant) eye and 2 weeks since my right eye was done. I'm 20/15 left & 20/20 right, and 20/15 in both. The right eye will probably get better as it's a week behind and both eyes still seem to be gradually improving. It's awesome how much better I can see textures and fine detail from a greater distance than I could with my glasses before. I have no discomfort or complications; I had some night halos at first but those have gone away completely in my left eye and almost gone in my right. I couldn't be happier with my results. Cele fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Nov 21, 2009 |
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Nov 4, 2009 04:05
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