Bryan's Eye Surgery Update

Bryan has had his LASIK appointment scheduled for months now, and today was finally the day. We had to be in Edina at 8am for some pre-surgery stuff, scans, etc. They hadn't officially determined what type of surgery Bryan would be having until then. We knew going into it that there was a possibility to have to do PRK (no idea what it stands for) instead of LASIK but were obviously hoping for LASIK. LASIK typically has a shorter recovery time (ie could have been back and work, driving tomorrow I think) and PRK is about 4 days recovery and more painful. Of course, Bryan ended up having to do PRK. He had some scars on his eye that made the doctor uncomfortable to do LASIK.

So, here is my incredibly basic description of the two procedures.

For LASIK, they actually create a flap out of the cells that are on the top of your eye, peel it back, let the laser do it's thing, and replace the flap. Sounds like these cells are able to self-heal very quickly as no sutures are needed in most cases. Because of Bryan's scars, had they done this procedure, there may have been holes in this flap where the scars were, depending on how deep the scars were, and that wouldn't have been good.

With PRK they actually scrape off and remove the cells, let the laser do it's thing, place a temporary contact on the eye to act as a shield/protective lens to the eye (since there are no longer any cells to do this) and let the cells regrow and recover the eye. This is where the longer recovery and pain come in, and actually the worst of it is supposed to be around day 3-4 when the cells are making their way to the center of the eye, they collide...(seriously how it was explained to us :)), which creates a little ridge (painful) and then smooth back out to complete the process.

I watched the entire procedure.
(and may not ever have it done, ha.)

I wanted to take a picture of Bryan in the operating room, but they wouldn't let me and then since they knew I was wanting to take a picture, they stood by me the entire time...ha.

Here he is in his cool shades post surgery, making his little bed in the car for the ride home. He's now resting in the nursery (only room in the house with blinds/shades/curtains) and may remain there for the next 4 days. Hopefully everything goes well and his vision turns out to be great! We know that with PRK it will take longer than LASIK to get his vision to 20/20 or 20/40, which is a bummer, but obviously was the better procedure for him in the long run. The doctor said about 25% of his patients end up with PRK.