Pioneer on the Internet – Sean Gursky

Sometime in December I noticed that my vision was not as sharp as it used to be. I thought it was because of different lighting conditions at work or the darker days, but I found text was not as clear as it had been. Maybe it had always been a little fuzzy following my PRK surgery, or maybe something else changed. When I compare my vision from the left eye to the right eye there is definitely a difference and the right eye is noticeably blurry.

At the last appointment in 2009 with my ophthalmologist noted the pressure in my eye was a little high and to stop using the Flarex eye drops. Was it because of the pressure that my right eye started to lose focus? Or was it all unrelated? I was on track to have an appointment in spring of 2010 but I was concerned with my vision so I scheduled for an appointment for early February.

The pressure in my eye had decreased and was no longer a concern but the vision in my right eye was a 20/25 and the left eye was 20/20. The chances of the right eye improving were doubtful, but there may be no benefit in having surgery again on the eye. I can function day to day without an issue. Driving, playing hockey and other activities are fine; but when I am required to read text on a screen, especially at an angle, I have to get in closer to read it. Some days I feel I can see a little better in the right eye but after I do a quick left eye versus right eye comparison I’m reminded of how far from perfect 20/25 is.

I cannot do much about this for the time being, my anniversary is in two months and I wonder how my eye sight will be then. Will I need to get a pair of reading glasses soon? Should I consider surgery again? If so, would I go for PRK or Lasik? For now CanSeanSeeYet.com will be partially updated and may stay that way for the remaining two months on the domain registration.

For all other PRK surgery recovery posts see here.

It has been over four months since my surgery, and yesterday I had my final appointment of 2009. I have not noticed any improvements or discomfort over the last few months, it has felt natural; almost like I never had glasses at all. I was seeing 20/20 in July, but I had to guess on some letters. Yesterday I was still rated at 20/20 and some of the letters did not seem as fuzzy before, or maybe I exaggerated how fuzzy they were originally; either way my score remained the same. I do wish my eye sight was a little stronger, but 20/20 is the optimum eye sight so I shouldn’t be too upset over being normal.

The doctor has recommended I stop taking Flarex as part of my daily regime as there was no scaring or haze on the eye. He did note that my pressure was high and told me that about 10% of patients who use Flarex have increased pressure in the eye because of it. When I go for my next appointment in six months my pressure will be re-evaluated then and we can see if not using Flarex helped, or if it was related to something else all together.

With a clean bill of sight I feel good about my decision. The weeks following the surgery were difficult, but not having to travel with glasses, contacts and appropriate solution is amazing and worth the frustration I had in June. If I play hockey I can just get my gear and go. I don’t have to plan my day around when I put contacts in or if they need to go through another round of solution to make sure they are sufficiently lubricated.

I am not sure what to do with my glasses. I have some frames I like a lot, but I will never wear them again. When I need to wear glasses again it would cost more to get the new prescription put into the frames than to order a new pair online, but throwing them out is like Kerry Weaver walking for the first time without her cane. I will think on this further and hold onto the frames…for now.

In the mean time, can Sean see yet? Yes!

It has been fifty two days since my eye surgery and things have been fairly consistent for the last few weeks. I am at a point now where my vision is strong enough that I do not have ‘functional fuzzy’, I can do my job without issue and do not have problems reading most text. The changes to my eyes have been subtle, and if there are improvements I may not notice it right away.

I was in a world of blur for several weeks and I thought I would notice the day where everything came into focus but it was so gradual that I barely noticed a change. It was like I woke up one morning and I realized that the problems I had from a week ago were gone. Things came into focus. I could see the building across the road, the font on my computer screen and the fine print text from a poster at work.

I have noticed that in low light situations reading is a little difficult, but that is the exception. I have not done night driving in a few weeks so I do not know if I will have halo’s, shadowing, or difficulty reading street signs. My distance vision is strong during daylight so I would hope that would help during darkness.

I was dependent on glasses for so many years I am surprised that I have not instinctively reached for the glasses in the morning to put them on. To that, I have never caught myself moving my index finger up to my nose to adjust the position of my frames, it is almost like I forgot all muscle memory related to when I wore glasses.

My one month follow up with the surgeon was the beginning of July and my next appointment is in October. I was told to decrease the frequency of the drops every month. For July I am use Flarex and Systane Ultra three times a day and then August would be two drops and then September is one. I have not noticed a problem going from four drops a day to three. The lack of the fourth drop does not lead to dry or blurry eyes and I can only hope that the same can be said for subsequent months.

However, the last few days I have noticed a bit more ‘gunk’ in my left eye, which is not the usual type of hard ‘crusties’ you get in the morning. The few theories I have are is that the eye is getting dried out with fans on in the bedroom, it is build up from my round of drops before bed or something else is going on, in any case it is only the left eye that experiences this and it does not happen every night.

It has been a fast fifty two days but not without its frustrations. For those who are recovering from PRK eye surgery my biggest recommendation is to have patience. It really is several months of recovery because not every eye will heal the same or as fast as you want. My recovery process has been longer than someone I know who had the surgery around the same time, and eventually it does get better.

Three weeks after PRK eye surgery I am pleased to say that things are getting better, albeit it is slow process. The differences I am noticing are not day-to-day improvements but I recognize the changes when I see something clearly now that was a blur last week.

I have returned my monitors to their original resolution and moved my work laptop from darkness to light. While it is great to have detail on things several feet from me I am still experiencing blurriness on distant objects. Driving is less of a risk, vehicles seem clear and I can see street signs as I approach them in daylight.

I find my vision is blurry in the morning and after a few hours the text on my monitors sharpen up. I return to the doctor the first week of July for a follow up and I hope that these small improvements continue so I can feel better about my decision for eye surgery.

Until I can see distant objects with detail I will have to leave CanSeanSeeYet.com as a blurry “No”. Even though I can partially see I want to wait until I can see everything as well as I could with glasses. And to have that condition written out under “Yes” would be quite cumbersome.

This is my third installment about my recovery from PRK surgery on June 3rd, which was two weeks ago today.

A common question I get when I tell people my vision is still blurred is “How long is it supposed to take until it gets better?”. They ask exactly the same question I ask myself several times a day. I have seen recovery times of one to three weeks, or even as long as several months but the common theme is: have patience, it gets better.

I am currently in a stage referred to as ‘functional fuzzy’, where I can see objects, distinguish what they are but not see them in any detail. Some days the objects are clearer than others, and other times they have squiggles for text.

I am taking Flarex drops four times daily and Systane Ultra drops about six times a day. I do not find that my eyes get dry but I do not want to take any chances. In fact I notice the more time that passes after I blink the more clearly I can see. I blink and things go fuzzy before slowly sharpening up.

In addition to the drops I have started taking Vitaminc C supplements (500mg twice a day) as a forum I visited on recovery times suggested that it would help the recovery process. At the very least I have a little more Vitaminc C in my diet.

Still, two weeks after the surgery and things have been fairly consistent with their blurriness for the last nine days. My eye sight could be getting better, but it would be so subtle of a change day to day that I may not notice until it is all done. I find I am sitting further away from the computer than I was a week ago, but I am still on a larger 1024×768 resolution so it is no cause for celebration yet.

I am driving a vehicle and playing hockey with no problems. Night driving is a little more tricky since I am unable to read street signs if it is not a well lit area but I get by fine in daylight. This is a slow process, a little tedious at times, but I have to remind myself that I am two weeks into something that may take several months.

The days following my PRK eye surgery have been very frustrating. I knew that after the surgery my eye sight would come and go, there would be waves of pain and discomfort but I never imagined I would be without clear vision for several days in a row.

Even though you know that this is ‘how it is supposed to be’ there is still something aggravating about not having any vision improvements. I have started writing this four days after the surgery and even though the resolution on the laptop has been set to “Grandparent” I can see what I am typing, which is a big improvement and the first time I could accomplish this since the surgery.

Now that I have a chance to share my word, where do I begin? The surgery part was over in a matter of minutes. Every person had talked about how fast it would be, but I had no idea it would be that fast. I will back it up a step however.

Surgery Day
With the PRK procedure the cornea is removed prior to the laser and during this I could see the doctor scrape and brush my cornea away. It was like looking through saran wrap with someone using a paint brush with milky paint to obstruct your vision. It was a good thing I was sedated with Ativan, Tylenol 3 and several rounds of numbing eye drops because that would have been very uncomfortable to sit through otherwise.

The laser part of the surgery was not as strange but still intense. For something so advanced and high tech I expected it to last longer or require a little more effort but I guess that would defeat the purpose of it being advanced.

It took me longer to read my post op sheet given to be me before the procedure than my time in the reclining chair under the laser. The next few days were a blur, both literal and figurative. I slept a lot. It was not uncommon for me to have a several hour nap during the day and then sleep for nine or ten hours at night. I could not watch TV so I would listen to music in a dark room or progress through my Harry Potter audio book.

Recovery Process
The pain was never outrageous, but a Tylenol 3 and a cold pack of peas were always able to sort things out. Friday (two days after the surgery) was supposed to be the most painful day but I found that I was most blind on this day. Things held inches away from my face were still blurry and I had to squint, tilt my head or obstruct my vision with fingers to make letters out.

I would wake up most mornings able to see a photo on the dresser across the room clearly and think that everything was back to normal. Then as I went into a well lit room I was brought down to reality with a world of haze and blur.

Protective Lenses
The day I was to have my protective lenses removed I woke with a sharp and fierce pain in my left eye. No amount of blinking could make it stop. I did my regime of eye drops and the pain eventually subsided. I imagine the contact lens was out of place or sticking to something it shouldn’t.

In any case my appointment to remove the protective lenses later that day showed my cornea was healed fine and the lenses were no longer needed. The bliss I had on Sunday with good vision was brought down a notch as my world was blurry and fuzzy.

One Week Later
It has now been one week since the surgery and there have been mild improvements but they feel few and far between. I have been going through a fuzzy and out of focus world for four days since the protective lenses were removed and any time I think my vision is improving something else is out of focus.

I was cleared to drive a vehicle, but street signs from a distance would not be distinguishable. Until I feel a little more comfortable behind the wheel I will bike to work and get some exercise while I am at it.

As the recovery process goes on I shall post updates and hopefully be able to confidently stand by my decision for eye surgery.

Other posts about my PRK surgery and recovery can be found under the ‘eye surgery’ post tag here.

I remember the night well. It was a warm evening in Millet and I went for a walk with some friends to honor the final day before I was equipped with glasses. As a Junior High student in a small school I thought I was doomed by wearing glasses. They took a long time to become comfortable with them but after a while they were natural and felt they were always there.

I bent my first set of frames more than I can remember. It seemed that glasses had the magical presence to attract a soccer ball, volleyball or basketball to the face. This would usually lead to a bend in the bridge, warping the nose piece or damaging the arm. I became quite adept at fixing glasses on the go, and to my surprise they never broke.

Contacts came in High School and it was an experience to be liberated from the glasses but they did not come without consequence. My eyes were dry, a little red, and never completely comfortable with them in. I used them gladly over glasses when it came to playing a sport that involved a helmet.

Years passed and glasses became a way of life, just something I had to take care of every day. The dry weather of Alberta forced me to rely on glasses more than contacts. When it came time to buy new frames I discovered the goldmine of buying frames/lenses from online stores. I enjoyed fashion and diversity at a cost of $10 to $30 for new frames compared to insanely priced $200+ ones at Lenscrafters or other locations.

All of this will be a distant memory after today as I have laser corrective surgery done on my eyes. I have thought about laser eye surgery for years. It was always some notion in the back of my head and in May I decided it was time to investigate for myself and see what my options were. Things moved at a faster rate than I expected and the week following my initial consultation with the doctor I selected I was booked for the surgery.

I opted for Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and my healing process will put me out of commission for a few days. I will try and document the next few days as best I can but I am not expecting much computer use in that time so we will see what happens.

Always one for tradition, I made sure that the final night, and morning, before my surgery was memorable. I played hockey with the Ice Dragons netting a goal and an assist (sadly in a loss). Then in the morning I awoke before the sun in the morning and watched its rise on the deck with a cup of coffee, my thoughts, birds chirping and the sound of commuters going to work early.

I guess I will see you around Internet, stay classy.