My PTK Experience...

For the past few years I have had some trouble with my left eye off and on. I would wake up and it would be sore, hurt and really light sensitive. I finally went to the regular eye doctor who sent me immediately out of her office and straight into one of the best cornea specialists in the city. I was diagnosed with Recurrent Corneal Erosion. "Recurrent corneal erosion is a painful eye condition, although your eye heals after a few hours or days. It is caused by a scratch on the surface of the eye in the previous months. Although the first injury heals, the healing is not perfect and the 'scratch' returns over the next months for no apparent reason". Long & short I injured my eye sometime most likely as a kid and it never healed right. We tried a number of things like a clear contact and different eye drops but it would always flare back up. I knew the next step would be surgery but I knew I couldn't do it while pregnant and then things were a little crazy after the babies came but I knew I needed to get it done so I made the appointment and went in to see Dr K. He said enough was enough it was time for surgery. He told be that it is essentially a type of lasik called PTK (Vince had PRK when he got Lasik). The only difference between PTK & PRK is that PTK is covered by insurance since its medically necessary. That's when I got a bit freaked out-I remember how absolutely horrible PRK was for Vince. And I told them that and I was assured that it wouldn't be that bad and that advances had been made even in the past 4 years. So we set the date! I'm not going to lie...I was nervous and I took the valium they offered! The procedure its self sucked. It hurt. Bad. The doctor scraped away at my eye getting the ripped tissue off my cornea. Vince actually got to see the procedure and recorded part of it-I made the mistake of watching it. Eeeeek. The video shows Dr K using what looks like a mini golf club scrapping away at my eye. Ugh! It lasted about 10 minutes which seemed like an eternity. But then it was over. I was patched and sent on my merry way. 

We stopped and grabbed a late breakfast per the doctors order and then I was off to bed. They said sleeping is the best thing you can do. After a nap I woke up and my eye felt sore but ok. The next day I had to go see Dr K who said all looked well. But then that night came and it started to hurt and hurt bad. The next morning I woke up and it was almost unbearable. We called Dr K and he met us at his office (it was a Saturday), He took the contact out and put some drops in and said it would was going to hurt the next day or so. Ok I thought I can handle that-ha no I was wrong. I seriously would have rather gone through my 5 hour epidural free labor and delivery of Ben then experience what I was feeling. Both eyes were so sensitive to the light that I literally spend all day laying in our master closet in tears (it was the darkest place I could get to). I couldn't even manage to look at my phone yet alone the tv or iPad for a distraction. It was AWFUL. Sunday came and it was a bit better not great but I came out of the closet and into our bed. Monday came and I noticed a big change-it hurt but not unbearable. Each day it got better and better. Now I am a month out and its still sore in the morning and very sensitive to light at times but I can't complain. It should be done healing in the next 8 weeks and then hopefully the problem will be gone for good! I can't even imagine subjecting myself to that hell again.