last night, after a particularly disturbing nightmare, i awoke at 3:38am to find my right eye sealed shut!

it was as if i had a "dry eye socket" and had to gently pry open my eyelids with my fingers.

not knowing what had happened, i stumbled into the 200 watt lighted bathroom to look in the mirror - right eye was very red and painful.

after a few seconds, tears started to flow, but i cannot for the LIFE of me figure out what happened?

could i have slept with my eyelid open?!

it wasn't that there was little tearflow, there was NO tearflow!

after about 2 minutes, the eye felt less "scratchy" and i lay back in bed, periodically opening it to look around and make sure it was still wet.

it was at that point that i realized i am only 4 or so months out of my PRK (February)...

i guess i'm still healing - and especially so on my problematic right eye...

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Muddy,

Don't you just hate it when you think that your eyes are fairly stable and your kinda getting used to your vision and then ... WHAM ...something else goes wrong !

I sure hope it gets better! It just has to!

Hang in there,

Leslie

Thanks to Muddy, Richard, and other posters to this thread. After worrying, procrastinating, waiting, waiting, and always doing nothing, I finally got the courage to move out and get proactive on my RKed eyes, based on the esperiences of those who blazed a trail. I went to see Dr. Nordan and had PRK. I initally have had my right eye -- hyperopic, fluxuating vision, astigmatism, treated. I experienced no pain with the procedure and only low scale pain like dry eye discomfort in my one week postop period. On the other hand, I confess that I still have only very poor vision, some haze, and double vision problems. However, all who have posted have talked about these early limitations, and I do see some improvement daily, so I remain hopeful. I say thanks for all your input because I feel good about my decision to make a move and do something. Even if I need more care, followup, and additional procedures, I feel that I have taken that most important first step. I also feel that I am on the right track. Had it not been for this site, I surely would have gone with a surgeon who recommended lasik over the RKed eyes. Instead, I went with PRK and Dr Nordan, which is without doubt, the superior decision. Like all of you who post, I hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Enjoy the 4th.

Lakejerome,

I like your cautious approach - one eye at a time, the worse eye first.

I am still considering PRK-over_RK but somehow stuck in the "worrying, procrastinating, waiting, waiting, and always doing nothing" mode.

Thought about LASIK-OVER-RK for more than a year, but it is just too risky and makes no sense to me. Also, I haven't heard from any patient having good outcome from it. There is no way I would attempt LASIK-OVER-RK.

I wish you a speedy recovery and a good satisfying final outcome.

Have a nice 4th of July.

wow - someone else went?

listen, i am NOT regretful of my decision, and while i may not have super-perfect vision after the Nordan visit, i still have BETTER than what i had before Nordan.

i can close my right eye and read - i can close my left eye and read - i could not do that before Nordan.

nevertheless, i still need some improvement, and my right eye is experiencing "dryness" several months out of the procedure, which has kept me from visiting Greg Gemoules in Dallas for a contact lens fitting.

lakejerome, was it a conservative or liberal ablation in your eye?

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Muddy, glad to hear that, in the final analysis, you are still of the opinion that your PRK by Dr. Nordan was the right decision. I feel the same way. I still can't read with the eye I had done but am getting some distance vision and even now am in better shape than I was before the surgery where I had neither close nor distance vision. More importantly, a week plus postop and I continue to improve. Discomfort is very minimal with just a slight feeling of dry eye. In response to your question...what was the extent of the procedure which I had done. Well, on this I am a little fuzzy since I had already asked Dr. Nordan about 3000 questions before I got to question him about the extent of the ablation. I decided to just let that question pass and go with him on faith, particularly since I had no other alternatives. I can tell you I got 29 seconds of laser time on that eye so I suspect that it would be considered a fairly conservative approached since others on the net talk of being lasered for one to two minutes. Dr. Nordan did state that I could never get optimal results because three of my eight previous radial cuts were actually inside the 2MM OZ. (Don't you just love it when there is always something else wrong to further compromise your vision?) Consequently, only a PK to the eye could ever give real quality vision because of GASH. Never-the-less, Dr. Nordan was convinced that I might be so happy with just getting both eyes on the same planet (slightly myopic as opposed to anisometropia) that I could live with the other visual distortions. We left it at that, recognizing that a reassessement in a couple months is necessary to see where we are and where we go. I had some other thoughts on this subject but have gotten kind of long winded so I'll sign off. Bottom line - I'm very glad I did it. Keep me in your thoughts on Greg Germoules and as to the help he can provide since I intend to follow you through life. Regards.

Steve, I understand the feelings you go through on whether to do something else with your eyes. After bad initial results, the thought of going ahead and commiting further damage is really quite unthinkable. I suspect, like me, you will ultimately decide what is right for you and will proceed accordingly. My thoughts, if you asked, would be to try the conservative approach first(such as RGPs) that we read about if it will work for you. For me, after three years and about 25 trys without success in that arena, the local optometrists literally gave up on me. Could I have gone the Greg Gemoules route or other highly recommended individuals and kept trying? Yes, but I wore out and just decided to step up to the next risker option on the chart of things to do. Did I make the right decision. Today, yes. Momorrow, we shall see. Good luck with your decision. Drop me a note if there is anything I can add. Regards

hey, just a quick note to say that i'm back in contacts now, but that i enjoy my sharper day vision without them still.

PRK was not the "magic" that i thought it would be, but then again i have the damage from the RK that was very difficult to correct even with RGPs...

nevertheless, once again, i am still content that i had the PRK since it gave me my day vision back (and the ability to read up-close in my left eye).

just need that extra clarity from RGP's at night.

ok, back into obscurity : )

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DT I'm interested in your experience. How are you doing now?

lakejerome: Please inform me as to your current situation. Your history sounds very similar to mine and I am new to this site and alternatives I'm now reading about. I've been looking for a lasik correction over my RK. Now I see why I'm not a good candidate. HELP anyone!

Guys, thank you for the thoughful feedback. This is one of the better post RK help information threads. I really hope it stays alive. I too am considering PRK over RK. Not sure how much the wavefront aspect will help and also not sure how much longer I should wait for the latest and greatest. They say Nordan is retired but I am hopeful he might be back to help some other difficult cases. Salz and Durrie are also being talked about in this BB as good choices for post RKers. Any others thinking of having PRK over RK?