Hey guys.

I'm enlisting in the Canadian Forces, going for infantry. My vision isn't good enough that particular job though. So I'm getting laser eye surgery, the PRK type. I'm getting this one despite the longer recovery time so that I can apply for parachute/SOF type service after a couple years in regular line infantry. LASIK creates a flap in your eye which can open or rip during intense activity, like plummeting to earth from thousands of feet up. PRK just zaps the top.

I've heard of many people doing this, so I'd figure I'd monitor my progress here to give people an idea of what to expect when they get it.

The general timeline goes like this:

Day 1 - Surgery, bandage contact lens (BCL) applied to eyes to aid healing
Days 2-4 Lots of pain and uneasiness, assuaged by constant painkiller pillpopping. Also, artificial tears are required, as they block your tearducts with a dissolving plug during the surgery. You'll be taking 3-4 different meds several times a day for the first week or so.
Day 4/5 - BCL removed.
Day 7 - Vision almost good enough to drive
Day 30 - Vision should be at just about 20/20, sometimes 20/15

The whole time you get regular checkups. As well, vision is supposed to be best in the morning when your eyes are relaxed, and get worse by the evening. Until eventually, you see 20/20 all day.

I get the surgery in 38 minutes. Wish me luck!

Immediate post op update.

It's been just under a half hour since I got my eyes zapped. I got a DVD of it, I could post it up on a filesharing site if you want. You get to see my beauties get the upper layed scraped off and then lasered. They gave me a sedative beforehand. Lots of eye drops for whatever reasons. Anti-inflammatory, steroid, numbing, etc

Right after, notice a very good improvement in vision, however I'm told to expect it to get a lot worse before it gets crisp.

I feel tired. mild pressure in my sinuses, my eyes tire pretty fast, even with sunglasses on inside. I'm going to take a nap to recover a bit.

Does anyone want to see the DVD?

Immediate post op update.

Lol.

But yeah, this is also something I'm very interested in. If I ever want to get into Force Recon here in the Marine Corps, I'm going to have to get corrective eye surgery done beforehand. I'd like to see the DVD, why not?

Imho, you should of just worn glasses and let them pay for the surgery.

Evening update

My eyes are still tiring fast, vision is slightly worse than before. This is okay and expected as the eyes are healing. Constant moderate stinging in my eyes. Lots of tearing.

The endocet they gave me really fucked me up. I napped from 11 to 5:30 after two tabs.

They make you sleepy and give you some crazy dreams, technicolor shit that when I woke me actually prompted me to ask myself "what the fuck?"

Going to a friend's house, bringing all my drops, can't get a ride back so I'm sleeping there.

Can't be around pools/lakes/hot tubs, smoke, etc. Anything that can get in your eyes. My buddies are drinking so I'll make sure they don't get too clumsy around me.

Post op checkup is tomorrow at 9:35am, see how I'm progressing and then they should be able to estimate if I can shorten the duration of the steroid drops so I can get into the infantry faster.

Byss: I'll try and get the DVD up tomorrow, I'm fucked right now. Just gonna go laze around with some friends.

I'll prolly take another endocet tonight to fall asleep, or just whenever I feel like blanking 3-4 hours of my life out.

Is there a better place to post this that would get to more people? Weapons and combat or something? Or the medical forum?

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkkkkk my eyeeeeeeeeesssssssssss

This sounds rather unpleasant. What are you doing while it heals? Do you have a job? or school?

Not being able to see properly for around a month sounds like it would be a huge stumbling block.

You can't read up close, you can't see far enough to drive, you can kind of make out the words on the TV so you can manage to find something you enjoy.

Thank God it's James Bond marathon day on AMC.

The blinds are drawn. The sun's trying to sneak in from outside. You're topless and wearing sunglasses. Your eyes are sticky and red from putting so many artificial tears in them. No matter how many you put in, your eyes still dry up.

By the end of the day, shit's so blurry you just give up and literally just pass time by lying around. No writing, reading, gaming, nothing outside cause it's too bright and there's shit that can get in your eyes and fuck your shit up for good.

That's days 2 and 3. Day 4, today, wasn't half bad. I went to see Death Race which was very cliched and fucking stupid, but oddly amusing. Especially the first revenge part, where he snaps a dude's neck on the race course. So badass.

Tomorrow I get the contacts off. These things are probably the most annoying part because they constantly haze your vision a little bit, and if you've ever worn contacts for an entire 24 hour period, you know it gets annoying. It fogs up with eye juice buildup, dries up and sticks to your eye, and is just an all around pain in the eye. Well, multiply that by four. That's laser eye surgery post operative care.

For how bad the recovery is, it's awesome being able to see well. I just woke up at 4:30am after a nice narcotics induced seven hour nap, and I can see my entire room clearly. I can read the alarm from across the room. I can see my tarantulas (Fluffy and Fang) sitting there on their rocks cause that's all they ever fucking do.

Awesome. Get it. Be a man, do the right thing.

Oh yeah, the recruiter told me to come back in three months cause that's how long it takes for vision to fully stabilize. Ninety days to work out. I'm gonna make sure I make a good first impression at BMQ.

PS Fuck the DVD, you can find that on youtube or something I bet.

I want to get laser eye surgery for reasons such as yours, but the entire idea makes me quite squeamish. I mean eyes aren't that repairable, and the idea of laser eye surgery goes against the don't-fuck-with-your-eyes mantra that has been drilled into my head.