Resuming Activities
Your surgeon will place very few restrictions on your activities after your surgery. Activities such as exercising, television watching, driving, and flying are all acceptable when you feel up to them. Heavy workouts should be curtailed for 5 days. Use common sense and listen to your body to decide which activities are right for you and when you should begin them again.
Follow-up Appointments
Your surgeon will request that you come into the office the day after your procedure. Later, once your corneal surface heals, your surgeon will remove the bandage contact lens in the office. This healing usually take 3-5 days. Then the visits to your eye doctor will decrease in frequency to once a week, then once a month, and then every 3-4 months, to ensure that healing is occurring properly.
Results of Your PRK
Although most PRK patients are already doing quite well at their 1 month examination, it may take several months before the entire extent of your vision correction is apparent. Often, patients who are severely nearsighted or farsighted must wait longest for their full results. Your final vision outcome may not be known for certain for a few months, or more, after your procedure. The surface of the eye needs to heal fully before the doctor can actually determine the final results.
PRK Statistics
Published studies demonstrate no difference in the final results between PRK and LASIK at 1 year after the procedure. As with LASIK, your personal statistics depend on your degree of correction. The small your correction, the better the chance of perfect vision. However, even patients with severe nearsightedness report positive results with PRK.
When Retreatment is Needed
In approximately 5-10 percent of PRK cases, a retreatment, or enhancement, may be necessary to achieve the optimal level of vision correction you and your surgeon hoped for. During PRK retreatment, surface cells are removed, and you will experience another 1-2 days of mild to moderate discomfort. Again, though, you will be prescribed the medication to ease any discomfort. A minimum wait of 6 months after the original PRK is required for the eyes to become sufficiently stable for laser enhancement.