I went to coal harbour about 3 years ago and did the PRK. I recommend it. Sometimes I do wake up with my eyes a bit dry but overall I have no issues

Funny story when I was in school, I had corneal ulcer from the lab and they brought me into the medical center at Maggie Benston at SFU. They do not inject anesthesia but they just put a whole bunch of it. I literally have a pool of anesthesia on my face.

I moved a bit and it dripped down the side of my face and the side of my face was all numb and I was drooling out the side of my mouth. I doubt they will inject you with it.

I asked again, my uncle had cataract, maybe different surgery.

My cousin had PRK no touch and said right after it was the most fuckin painful thing ever he wanted to go into the emergency room it was so bad,he took the eyedrops and they weren't helping.

anyone else have this experience?

It hurt like hell for me too, I mean they cut open your eye after all, so I used the numbing drops they gave me and took two Gravol and slept for a few more hours. I'm not sure if the numbing drops helped but my best advice to everyone is to take a full dose of Gravol as soon as you get home so you're knocked out before the freezing wears off.

it was pretty uncomfortable. first day was the worst, but by day four the pain went away

I did PRK and I had no real noticeable pain until the 3rd day. It was absolutely excruciating no matter how much I opened my eyes it would tear up and hurt. Ended up spending the day just lying in bed. Besides that one time, it was pretty normal. My eyes were dry and tired and my eyes felt like there was sand in it.

seriously considering it now... but scuured.

my eyes. my beautiful woman viewing eyes.

it seems like the healing time is different for everyone.

But that pain eh...hmm. No pain no gain eh.

So don't be a pussy and go balls to the walls with LASIK?

There's absolutely nothing to be scared of. I went to Coal Harbour and Dr. Kirzner took great care of me during the surgery. He had a very calm voice and would tell you exactly what he's doing and he'd count down the time you had left for that stage of the surgery. I was in and out of there in 5-10 minutes or so.

Healing time and pain levels will be different for each person. I took ~3 weeks to fully heal because I rubbed one of my eyes during the first week and that caused a micro tear. I thought I had dust in my eye, but turns out that's just my eyes being really dry. It's a very normal feeling during the healing process and all you need to do is continue to add eye drops and avoid rubbing or causing any friction between the eye and eyelids.

There's nothing "pussy" about using PRK over LASIK. The treatment methods are different so the healing time is varied. If you do any contact sports then they usually recommend against doing LASIK.

ok. where does it say that?

^ it's due to the flap not being 100% healed down for the first year. From what I researched, after a year it's as solid as before.

any recent stories?

I'm going to go to some consultations. Prob either London eye or Pacific laser

Just had prk on my left eye done last month at Pacific laser with Dr. David lin.

He's a boss, it was very smooth and professional. No pain during and while healing.

One night playing poker it got really irritated for a few minutes. As long as you stay on top of ur eye drop regime it's all good. Dont rub ur eyes!

How did you figure you paid all in? Including appts with your optometrist?

The PRK with Pacific Laser was $2050.00, I not only had PRK but corneal cross linking procedure done as well as I have Keratoconus.
The follow up appointments with my optometrist (Dr. Sherman Tung) was about $500.00

Everybody that i talked to before doing it, said the same thing. "Best money i've ever spent"

I agree.

wow, that's a great price. Your prescription must have not been that bad.

If a place is quoting or charging you based on your eye prescription strength then they're trying to take advantage of people. That shouldn't factor into the price of the procedure since it is all the same procedure regardless of prescription.
One of the many reasons I went to London Eye, and hear good things about Coal Harbor all the time as well.

Pacific quotes based on Prescription, but they are pretty much the best I believe.

Took the bite and got laser just under 4 weeks ago - PRK @ London Eye.
Eyes were about -6.5/-6.75

PRK itself was nothing really, something like 40seconds each eye. One patch on one eye, laser the other, vice versa. Look at the orange blinking light until it's done.

Doc then irrigates the eyes and that's pretty much it. He puts a contact lense in both eyes to aid the healing process. Pain-wise? There wasn't really much pain on the first day. I mostly kept them closed and listened to a bunch of podcasts.

That very night, the pain hit me like a ton of bricks. I expected it and should have used the pred forte (pain med) they gave. I slept it off.

At the end of Week 1 is where I experienced a chunk of the change. Unfortunately, from the end of week 1 to where I am now, I haven't really noticed much visible changes. I am still putting in tears roughly every hour (I use either refresh celluvisic/ bion tears/ or sometimes the preservative ones)

Driving is tricky. On day 5, the contacts were taken out and things were still blurry as shit. I struggled to read the biggest letters. Crazy enough, doc says' I'm still legally allowed to drive - i think that's insane.

Even at the moment, I could probably see maybe 10-15ft for a license plate in front of me. Long distance is still blurry. I have absolutely no problems for near sight things. Granted, this browser is at 150x zoom still. I'd call this vision, "functional blurry"

I'm not worrying just yet. PRK is incredibly varied among patients. I've read almost every story/blog out there. I will start panicking around the 2 to 3 month mark (Knowing that it can take up to 6 months).

Conclusion? Too early to say if I regret it or not. I'll update if I need a touch up or not. The sheer amount of time PRK is taking to resume my normal life is frustrating. At times, I wonder if I should have done Lasik instead.

P.S. London eye puzzles me a bit. Other clinics advise their patients about taking Fish Oil, Flax Seed, & Vitamin C before and after surgery to aid in healing. They never really informed me too nor was it in their phamplets.

2. London eye doesn't differentiate between preservative and preservative-free drops. The Opto said either was fine. Other clinics (googling) advise only preservative-free drops for the first couple of weeks and you can switch to cheaper preservative ones but ones without is recommended.

I had PRK done at London Eye Care in 2011. It was easily the best investment I've made. Like you, I had my issues for the first several weeks and the irritation in each eye almost made me regret getting it done but I was at 100% around 3 months after the procedure. My most recent eye exam, I was told I have perfect vision - better than 20/20.

Be patient with the healing process. In time you'll realize it was worth it

Pacific Laser constantly reminded me that I had to continue taking fish oil and only use Refresh plus preservative free lubricating drops fyi

I finally got my license renewed and got restriction 21 removed. The test was stupidly easy, I probably could've passed that with no glasses before the surgery (-6/-4.75 w/-1.25 astigmatism in both).

That's the scary thing.

Puts in perspective when you hear someone elderly go "I didn't see him/her"

Or when that Coquitlam senior ran over that 16 year old girl. The vision test needs to be more strict.