PRK, POD#0

I got PRK today. I was slightly apprehensive due to people's PRK disaster stories on the internet, but I knew that I should probably not be worrying since there is something like a 99.9% satisfaction rate.

pre-op
I arrived at 10am with my mom and was brought back at about 10:30 for the nurse to go over my meds with me. Dr Koch came and asked if I had questions - no. He told me I could go ahead and take the alprazolam if I brought it with me. I was not feeling anxiety but took the xanax just to see (in the spirit of experimentation & b/c I'd never have an excuse to use it recreationally). They cleaned my eyelids and brought me back into the room. I lay down on the bed and we did the time out. Never been on the patient side of a time out before.

op
When the laser was brought above me, I knew the xanax was NOT working. My left eye was covered with an eye patch and my right eye was held open by a tegaderm x2 + some sort of wire retracting device (not painful). The epithelium was debrided with some sort of rotating sander which was painful at first because I was inadequately numbed. More tetracaine was applied. The cells were scraped away with a spatula and sponge. I was instructed to stare at the laser - a ring of light with a blinking orange light in the center. Continual encouragement was voiced by Dr Koch while I fixated on the blinking red light and my corneal stroma was lasered x 2 minutes. It smelled like they were bovie-ing my eye. The laser was removed and I saw Dr Koch's face above me. My eye was irrigated and a soft contact lens was placed on the cornea to protect it. They repeated the procedure with the other eye.

post op
The fellow came in the room to check my eyes post op and was not communicating well with me in lay terms - I could see how it could be confusing for a regular person. I told her I was an MS4 and she could speak in clinical terms with me. She was relieved and said, "Omg thanks. I am glad you told me I could talk normally." Then Koch checked my eyes. Then we paid and peaced out. My family went to Fadi's where I had a beef shwarma and a celebratory baklava + 100 complimentary pita breads.

post op goals:
vision: I would compare my current vision to when you are wearing contact lenses but you fell asleep in them and now they are sticking to your eyes, so fine print is fuzzy. My vision improves to perfectly clear when I put lubricating eye drops in my eyes . I don't know if it is my vision, or the fact that I'm wearing this protective contact lens that is causing this issue. I don't know how long this will take to resolve.

pain: Slight discomfort, like a feeling of grittiness in both eyes. Discomfort resolves with lubricating eye drops. I hear that POD#1-3 are the worst. I am dreading tomorrow.

other: They gave me gatifloxacin eye drops to use 4x/day x 5 days. It goes down my nasolacrimal duct and tastes fucking gross. I hate it. Other things I hate - vitamin C bid x 1 year <-- can I remember to take something 2x/d for a year?!? and wearing sunglasses outside x 1 year <-- I hate sunglasses because they make the world look dark... but I don't think that I'll have too much of an opportunity to be outside in residency.

Something that is really bothering me is that I really hate sunglasses and I'm going to China for vacation, and I'm going to have to wear sunglasses. I won't be able to see all the colors on all the tourist attractions! I guess I'll bring that up tomorrow at my post op check.