PRK adventures

POD1: Feeling good. I drove to my post op check with my nervous mother in the passenger seat. Dr Koch asked how I was feeling? "Good." I said, and he said, "The pain will probably begin tomorrow, so party today" so I raised the roof. He liked this and raised the roof with me. This reaffirms my observation that roof raising unites people and strengthens the therapeutic alliance. In the afternoon I went shopping and blew my budget on jeans and a pair of cool shoes.

POD2: worst. day. ever.
They had already warned me that this would be the worst day. For some reason I hadn't really believed that it would happen to me. As soon as I woke up, I slid up the dimmer switch on my bedside floor lamp and felt immediately like someone had punched me in both eyeballs. I started tearing profusely. My photophobia was so bad that I could not force my eyelids to open. My father had to pry my eyelids apart for my qid steroids and abx. I lay in the dark literally all day. I couldnt' watch TV or use the computer. I lay there exchanging 2 ice packs between my face and the freezer for hours. The light from the closed blinds bothered me so much that I considered hanging out in the pantry. I took 3 naps on this day and was stir crazy. I visited my dog outside at night and the moonlight was just enough light for me to see comfortably, so I spent 1 hr playing with him. The headlights of the passing cars and lights of the neighboring houses were uncomfortable to look directly at. When I was getting ready for bed, I turned the closet light on so that I could use the filtered light to see in my room. This was relatively successful but when I went to turn the closet light off I accidentally looked at the light bulb. MISTAKE. Severe pain ensued for 30 minutes and I finally decided to break open my toradol eye drops. They didn't help at all. Luckily, I fell asleep shortly thereafter.

POD3: vision is blurry today. I had been warned about this as my corneal epithelial cells grow back together and meet together in the middle, forming an uneven ridge, which should flatten out significantly over the next 2 weeks and continue to improve x 3 months. Pain and photophobia resolved. Typing on computer today! Put in my own eye drops at breakfast and lunch. Took the day off school yesterday as I couldn't forsee how I could possibly go to school if my eyelids were swollen shut, but seems to be back to normal today. No school + no pain = PARTY (per ophtho consult).