People's Republic of Keratotomy

PRK. Tomorrow's the day. I've had these glasses on for exactly a month now. Surprisingly, several people have suggested that I keep them. Sorry to disappoint my fans, but these specs are going the way of the horse and buggy. First thing in the morning, I'm going under the knife.

Well, the laser, actually. It should only take about a minute to do each eye, but I'm told to expect 3-5 days of pain and discomfort. The main bummer about PRK is that one's vision takes several days to a month or longer to fully correct. So I'll start off seeing blurry and gradually gain better vision over the next couple of weeks.

If I never see you again, it's because I went blind during the procedure. I've thought a lot about it, and I've decided that I don't want to go blind. Going blind would be worse than continuing to wear these glasses. I think I probably won't go blind; that's why I'm going forward with the surgery.

So that's all for now. See you later, hopefully.

No Lasik For Me

I've been wearing these Drew Carey glasses for over two weeks now, so you can imagine my dismay when I showed up at my Lasik surgery appointment today and learned that the doctor was recommending that I not have the surgery.

Apparently, despite having already completed two different pre-operative visits to perform testing and eye measurements, today was the day that I found out that my corneas are too thin to safely undertake the procedure.


I'm all for caution when it comes to shooting powerful lasers into one's eyes, but still it is disappointing to go away uncured. Especially when it turns out that my option is now to have PRK surgery instead.


PRK is basically a better surgery. No flaps have to be cut into the corneas, so thickness of the cornea isn't an issue. Long-term testing shows that PRK offers clearer, longer-lasting vision correction than even the best Lasik procedures (currently Intralase is the rage in the Lasik field). Fighter pilots are authorized to have PRK, but not Lasik.


The downside is that the recovery time is 3-5 days of intense pain and suffering. I will be covered head to toe in bandages. I will be on pain medication, and I won't be able to go to work (or help out around the house at all - drag).


Compared to the 3-5 hours of recovery time with typical Lasik surgery, the PRK gig doesn't sound very appealing. But I'm getting it in two weeks.


And I get to keep wearing the Drew Carey specs in the meantime.