RK, PRK, or LASIK: My Experience with One of These Eye Surgeries

Eyeglasses were for me when I was ten. Every year thereafter, my father would take me to New York City, where a pair of eye glasses were cheaper than any in New Jersey. And, the frames were fashionable. (Yes, I worried about that when I was ten.) Then, for at least five more years, we would go again annually for another pair with a stronger prescription. My eyes became more nearsighted as I advanced through my teenage years.

At fifteen, I got my first contact lenses: hard, impermeable contacts. I thought it was a miracle. Nearsighted vision turned to 20/20. New prescription contact lenses weren't required nearly as often as glasses. I did well with them, never losing one, unlike many people wearing lenses around me. Contacts were my miracle for 35 years.

Eye crises were common occurrences. An "eye crisis," as my husband calls it, occurs when something gets in your eye. An eyelash, a fiber, a piece of dust flies in for no good reason, feels like a cement block, and causes your eye to water profusely while delivering extraordinary pain. A woman turns into a monster for the duration. The event endears you to no one. Two corneal abrasions later, constant dryness, and remaining inability to see well when the lenses weren't in caused me to rethink whether contacts were still my miracle.

I followed the new eye surgeries coming out at about that time. A friend had a procedure called radial keratotomy (RK). This was the first corrective eye surgery. It consisted of an eye surgeon making 4 to 8 radial incisions in the cornea. A nearsighted eye ball is too long; the focal point occurs in front of the retina. To shorten the focal length, radial incisions flatten the cornea, much like the three radial cuts made into a slice of pork roll while frying. The cuts keep the slice flat so that they don't curl.

I kept my nearsighted eyes on the new surgeries as they developed, with an eeky feeling that RK was not for me. I didn't like the idea of the cutting. Or maybe it was the pork roll analogy. RK was a true surgery and depended on the surgeon's ability, steady hand, and experience with a scalpel to do it right. I wasn't ready for man-made corneal incisions, or for my cornea to be treated like a piece of pork roll.

Find out what happened next in The Continuing Saga of RK, PRK, or LASIK: My Experience with One of These Eye Surgeries.