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By the end of week 3, Summer break was over.  Back to work.

I realized that my eyes became overwhelmed throughout the day.  The mornings were passable (still not great vision, bad ghosting, and distance is only slightly better than last week), but by the end of the work day, all I wanted to do was close my eyes and rest.

Eye drops and closing my eyes for a bit is very helpful.

By the end of week 4, I realized that my vision was slowly, consistently getting better.  Less ghosting.  Less exhausting.  Less blurry.  All in all, I am pleased with my sight.

I got lazy with the artificial tears for a while.   I know now that I really need to keep up with them.  My sight is much better with them, and my eyes feel more comfortable.

This week was disappointing. My eye sight got worse for distance, and I did have to bump up the font size on all screens.  While I did make some short driving trips, it seemed like a bad idea mid trip.  Ghosting got worse.  Well… I didn’t always have ghosting, but when I did, it wasn’t just a small ghost to the right.  It was a full ghost on top of the object.

Mornings were better then the evening.

I also went back to the optometrist, who used the usual eye exam, lens flipping device.  Not only did she confirm that my eyes got worse, but I now have an astigmatism.  (Something I never had before).  She offered to make me a pair of eye glasses to tide me over until they get better.  Ug.   I felt it was two steps backwards.

These days were wonderful days.  No pain.  Little light sensitivity. Vision is almost as good as if I was wearing glasses.

I have gone back to the optometrist every day, and my vision has gotten better each day.

On day 7, I got the bandage contacts removed.  I learned that there have been studies done on the long term effects based upon when the bandage contact lens was removed.  Having it removed on day 7 versus day 4 resulted in “faster visual rehabilitation and lower rate of total complications are obtained.”  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245223251630066X  So that’s comforting and justified the daily visits to the optometrist.

Also, on day 7, I went to renew my license.  When I learned that I needed to do an eye exam, I was a bit nervous.  But I passed!  And now my license says that I do not need corrective lenses!

I did not sleep well again.  Too much pain.   I think I fell asleep around 3am, but then woke up at 7:30am.  I didn’t get out of bed until after 11am.  The small amount of light getting through the edges of my thermal curtains was blinding.  My eyes were strained to remain open.  So, I simply laid in bed, listening to an audio book.   The pain was still present, but less so than yesterday.

After getting up for lunch, I noticed that today my right eye’s vision is worse than yesterday.  It is the worst so far.  While my left eye’s vision is better than yesterday, but still worse than day 0-1.

After going back for another check up, the optometrist says that things are looking good, and as expected for PRK.

I am writing this around 5pm.  I’ve noticed that my vision has gotten better throughout the day, but still worse than day 0-1.  I miss those days.  I have not increased the font size of the computer, I don’t think it would help any, as I have so much ghosting/double vision.

The evening is lovely, with a cool breeze. Very little pain.  Not very light sensitive.   I think the back porch would be a nice place to have dinner tonight.