Pre-Surgery Visit

I actually had the free consult at Cleveland Clinic about a year ago, April 2011, when I thought I should at least find out whether I'm a candidate for Lasik.  In my mind, I was only thinking about Lasik and didn't really think about other options.  The visit and exam were pretty thorough, took about 2 hours.  They checked my prescriptions and checked my cornea thickness with some form of mapping.  The results were that my left cornea was just under the limit for lasik and was about 10 microns too thin for it. My right cornea was ok.  Dr Kruger, my ophthalmologist, recommended PRK especially with my prescriptions and that in the long run, it might even be better.  I don't know much about PRK but understood from the appointment that it's longer process (takes at least 3 months to heal completely and up to 1 yr), may be more painful, scraping of cornea epithlieum instead of flap, but still done with customized wavefront laser and still will have dry eyes.  The total cost would be $3200 with the employee discount and I could use flex spending for it.

I did my own research on and off since.  In the beginning, I was kind of freaked out by other people's personal accounts on the internet.  There were lots of bad experiences especially people who had theirs done early 2000s.  They really put me off for for couple of months then researched again and found that it was not as scary.  So I finally decided that I'm going to do it and the question becomes when would be a good time with my residency rotation. I found a couple more recent personal accounts that were more helpful, in particular post op care. Through all the readings, I understand that my vision will not be absolutely perfect but I know that I can't wear glasses because it gives me headache from my nose up.  Contact lens were fine and I see starburst at night with them anyway since I don't have the astigmatism in them, so I'm used to the starburst look.  The only thing about contacts were that when I'm on call, I can't wear them and I have to look all over the place for my glasses if I get called when I'm napping.  I really just want to not wear glasses anymore.

Blog #1

Blog #2

I asked around as well, a couple people in my program has gotten PRK and their experiences were pretty similar to what I've read, a little painful, long time to clear vision and took up to a week off for recovery.  So I took 3 weekdays + weekend off before going back to work and just pray for the best that I will be able to function normal by day 6.

Surgery set for 3/6 and today was my official pre-op visit to finalize my cornea mapping and prescriptions.   It was more the similar exam as last year my prescriptions did not changed and had my eyes dilated for the laser wavefront mapping.  Got the scripts for valium and percocet and instructions.  I'm all set for surgery.

PRK Experience

I finally got my butt in gear and not be freaked out by the process (especially after scouring the internet for personal accounts) to have PRK done and get rid of my glasses.  I have decided to blog about my experience which I'm sure that it would be different from others as well.  So please take the post/ experience with a grain of salt.  No 2 people have the same experience.

A little background, I have been wearing glasses since I was 5yrs old and contact lens since 12yrs old.  I have worn RGP and then switched to soft, but I never liked the idea of wearing contacts overnight.  So by the time I was in college, my prescriptions were -7.5 right eye and -6.5 left with about +1 -1.5 astigmatism.  My prescriptions would vary about 0.25-0.5 every year but really about the same for good 10 yrs.  I have always said that I will have my eyes corrected after all my schooling were done; therefore not while in college or in med school.  Now I'm in my second year of residency and my hospital give a decent discount for it and the only issue is just making sure that the service I'm scheduled for won't be something that strain my eyes for the first month out. I've scheduled the surgery for 3/6 which is the last week of my general anesthesia service and then I'll start back up on PACU (recovery room) service, which uses less eye strain.

Pre-surgery consult
Surgery
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5/6
Week 1 (Day 7)
Month 1
Month 3
Month 6

Hospitalist ... Again

This month totally reminds me why I chose anesthesia again.  It was definitely a torture for me with chronic patients with never ending problems that don't get better.  Also non compliant patients and patients that couldn't find answers to their problems and expected Cleveland Clinic to wave its magic wand.  Patient load ranges from 12-14 daily with multiple discharges on most days.  It's never ending busy work and totally an intern rotation.  Literally for me I was counting down the days from the first day I started, with working 6 days a week.  So not like the first time around.  Oh, well.