I had refractive surgery in August of 1997, on both eyes. The specific procedure performed was PRK. It cost a total of $4000, for both eyes. Prior to that, I had been a content contact lens wearer for 15 years. But sometime in 1996 I began having difficulty with my contacts. I tried different kinds of contacts, but didn't like any of them. I didn't want to revert to glasses. My lenses were so thick that they bothered my nose and ears to wear them. Also, I'm fairly active and loved the idea of being free of any corrective lenses. I had a friend who had a successful surgery, which convinced me it was worth it.
Six months after my surgery I was having some vision problems in both eyes, but particularly my left. It was like looking out a dirty, smeared window. My original eye surgeon referred me to another for this problem. This eye surgeon called my problem "hazing". He performed a procedure called a "PTK". It definitely helped.

But 10 months later, I still I wasn't happy. I was experiencing glare in both eyes. This is especially troublesome at night, but it also noticeably affected the quality of my vision in daytime. My eye surgeon said he could see what was wrong in my left eye, and offered to operate on it again to fix it. He couldn't see anything wrong with my right eye. Well, I figured I'd take what I could get and told him to go ahead with the operation–another PTK.

Well, it's 2 months later, and I'm seeing worse than before the operation. I'm seeing "ghost" images, similar to what you see sometimes on a TV with poor reception. When I look at something, I see a second translucent image about an inch off from the real object. This phenomenon occurs both day and night.

In my right eye, I'm still experiencing glare. At night, it's very difficult to see objects near a light source. For instance, when I'm driving at night, looking for a street signs, I simply can't see them. They are completed obliterated by the scattered light from the street light. This is quite annoying. Where I should a pinprick of light, I see a scattering of light. ("Halos" would be another way to describe what I see around lights, but a "scattering of light" is more accurate.) This glare problem also affects my daytime vision. For instance, when I look down the hallway at someone in the office, and there is a window behind them, the glare from the window is so great that it partially obscures the person.

Between the "ghosting" with my left eye, and the glare in the right, I am not satisfied with my vision. Yet, when I look at the eye charts, I see 20/25 in my right and about 20/30 in my left. These measurements do not indicate the total quality of my vision.

I think my eye surgeons are trying, but I don't know if they really grasp what I'm going through. I have another appointment next week with my eye surgeon. I hope to be able to articulate my vision problems to them so they understand my distress. But these trips to the eye doctor are getting tiresome, and I'm just really frustrated with my vision.

Mike Evering
evering@dcn.att.com

I feel inspired now to talk more forcefully with my eye surgeons. They seem like fine people, but I am tired of having them concentrate on my vision measurement (the 20/25 number) while not taking seriously my complaint about the other aspects of my vision that have suffered.