Post-op days 3, 4 & 5

Back down to normal font size :)

Day 3:

Today was nothing like yesterday, thankfully! I didn't have that overwhelmed feeling/ gushing tears that made my eyelids slam shut involuntarily ... my vision is back to what it was the first day after surgery. Some blurriness, pretty hazy, but I can tell that my distance vision is about as clear and in focus as close-up. Occasionally my eyes have been a little watery, but nothing on the scale of things yesterday. I hardly had to use any artificial tears yesterday because I was making plenty of my own, but today I'm back to using them about every hour. Still no pain. I'm looking forward to my post-op appointment tomorrow - I think I'm making progress, but it'll be nice to see what the Dr says.


Day 4:

I woke up with pretty dry eyes from the bandage contact lenses ... had to use artificial tears as soon as I got up. It feels just like when I would leave my contacts in for too long - but definitely not as bad as when I every slept in them accidentally.
I had my follow-up post-op appointment today, and he was really surprised at how fast I've been healing. My epithelium has already completely regenerated! From reading other blogs on PRK recovery, I didn't expect to be there till the end of the first week. Dr Clary said this is an easier and faster recovery than is typical, but that's what several people have been praying for, so I'm not extremely surprised :) He also said that I'm unlikely to have much more pain/ discomfort in the recovery process; what you have on that second/third day pretty well indicates how the rest of the recovery will be.
My vision on day 1 was 20:80 (R) and 20:125 (L) - today it had improved to 20:40 (R) and 20:70 (L). I'm getting there..! He is leaving the bandage contacts in until my next appointment at the end of the week, because it can cause discomfort to take them out and he wants my corneas to have as long as possible to 'smoothen out' before taking the lenses out and having my eyelids blinking back and forth against my corneas. I was a little disappointed that they're staying in for the rest of the week because they're starting to feel dry ... but the drops help a lot, so I guess I'll make it. And I'm not light sensitive any more, so that helps too.
I asked about driving - he said yes at first, and then backed out and said wait another day or two and if I feel up to it then go ahead. We went out for dinner tonight (Mark drove!) and I could read the menu without having to bring it up to my face - sweet :) Fine print is still giving me trouble, but I can read the computer monitor pretty easily without enlarging the font size.


Day 5:

I had to get up a couple times last night for the kids, and both times I had to squeeze drops in under my eyelids before I could even open my eyes to go see what the kids needed. But once I'd put a couple rounds of drops in this morning, my eyes stopped feeling irritated. I can definitely tell that my vision has improved this morning over what it was last night. I have a persistent 'haze' though, which Dr Clary said was from the build-up on the contact lenses. The blurriness and double vision is steadily improving, but everything looks just a little 'misty'. Like looking out of the car windscreen when it needs de-fogging.
I realised after going out for dinner last night that I don't have any significant halos or 'starbursts' encroaching on my night vision. I've read that this can be a problem for a while, but I didn't notice anything different from before surgery. (Which actually means - I had very slight halos around lights at night before, and still have them. I'm assuming this is normal night vision!)
So all in all ... almost a week out, and my only post-operative issue is dry eyes, with almost perfect vision already. I am counting my blessings!