LASIK/PRK, part 3. (recovery)
I shouldn’t have taken Percocet after the surgery - as it is, I really can’t say how painful it was right afterwards. By the time I got home, I was functional, but if I didn’t put effort into moving, my head dropped and I’d just fall asleep. The sunglasses were on, the windows were (mostly) closed, and once I took the dogs out, I just laid down and went to sleep.
Jen got home some time later and I got up briefly, but from what she says, I wasn’t really that coherent. Got me. I did notice some sensitivity to light, but there still wasn’t any pain. By about 6pm, the Percocet was worn off, but I was still in a hangover state. The eyes were the least of my issues, and keeping them closed wasn’t hard at all.
By 9pm, they did start to hurt. It wasn’t that bad, all told - I’ve felt far worse. But it’s made worse by the fact that nothing can be done about the pain - no touching the wound, or applying pressure. (I was told not to rub my eyes for 2 months, which is really a tough mental task for someone who stares at a screen all day and fights software.)
Jen started administering drops, which were 4 times a day - morning, noon, evening, night. One drop of an antiseptic (Vigamox) and a anti-inflammatory (Econopred+) in each eye. At this point, we did the night drops, and she also added a ‘comfort drop’ which was some kind of local anesthetic. My worry was that if it did get worse, I wouldn’t be able to open my eye properly. The drops did help, though. (There are some neat docs online at the FDA regarding Econopred+ if you search for them. Looks like some internal docuementation that wasn’t supposed to get online, complete with NDA references.)
I also took another Perc, simply because I had slept most of the day and didn’t think I’d sleep all night. It put me right out, even with the stupid eye goggles I had to wear at night for 10 days. At 3AM, right on schedule, it wore off, and Jen gave me another set of comfort drops and another Perc pill. I slept right through to morning. That was the last time I’ll ever take Percocet, unless I’m really in a lot of pain. This was also the end of the comfort drops.
At this point, my vision was still fuzzy, maybe 20/500, so I could get around, but only inside. Lights were tolerable, but computer screens were a bit much, and I spent most of the day with my eyes closed again, even with sunglasses on. Saturday consisted of a lot of laying around and sleeping, while listening to TV or music. Sunday was more of the same.
Monday I ventured outside, with a hat and sunglasses, but it was pretty painful. An attempt at a walk was aborted early, and while in the car I had my jacket pulled over my head. I was almost functioning, though.
Tuesday I went to work and did some odds and ends - it was slow, being a holiday (I only figured this out afterwards), and I could putz along, with extremely large fonts for everything. By leaving early, before the sun was really up, I avoided any bright lights.
Most of the week went by normally, with only minor disruptions and slowdowns. My eyes didn’t mind light, but seemed to want change - a half hour of looking at the screen would feel tiresome, but putting the sunglasses on helped. After a half hour of that, taking them off helped. Weird. The eyedrop regimen continued, and at this point, while really bright lights were a distraction, they weren’t painful. No dry eyes, either.
Thursday I went in for my first checkup, when the temporary contact lenses would come out. At this point, I could navigate the busses and BART without any trouble, but I wouldn’t have been comfortable driving - everything was still too blurry to do more than 25MPH. Everything looked fine, and my contacts came out.
A side effect of losing the contacts is that my vision degraded for a day or so. This must be because the wound is exposed and gets a bit roughed up, but I don’t know this for sure. The drops continued, but only Econopred+, with a ‘Tears Again’ ointment at night, which appears to have the same makeup as sty medication - it’s oily, and gives me really blurry vision.
Clear sailing so far - I still can’t see that well, but I can get around, and things are improving. The hardest thing at this point is avoiding impacts and rubbing of the eye. After years of having automatic shields up, I’m used to letting things (like dogs) hit me in the face, and it’s hard to get used to not doing that for now.
There hasn’t been an a-ha moment like with normal LASIK, where suddenly everything’s 20/20 and pain-free. It’s been fuzzy, and not the nicest recovery period, but at least it’s getting better!