Marci

As early as I can remember, I have always had a pair of glasses on my face to correct my near sightedness and hated all the "four eyes" jokes. In school I always tried to sit at the front of the class, simply because I had a difficult time seeing the board. As an available young woman I often went to parties without my glasses so I could look good, but the world out there was a blur, not even being able to tell what the men looked like until they came into my focal range! Contact lenses helped, but with my astigmatism and dry eyes, my blood shot eyes looked like I was on drugs. Born with a five diopter imbalance, I have never been able to use my eyes together and this monovision often gave me headaches. My "good" eye was my left with a -2.50 and my right eye nearly useless with a -7.50.

I heard about the new PRK laser surgery being done by Dr. James Salz at the American Eye Institute and decided to find out if this could help me. Dr. Salz carefully explained the procedure and also explained RK and which would be better for me and why. I choose the PRK for several reasons. State of the art technology, my eye wouldn't be weakened or have scaring that happens with RK.

We decided be do my "bad eye" and take it from a very near sighted eye to a far sighted eye I could use. The surgery was over before I had a chance to worry. I was required to hold still for a mere thirty seconds and when the surgery was finished I couldn't believe how well I could see! The FDA only allowed us to correct up to 7 diopters which wasn't quite enough correction, but anything was better than the way I was.

My recovery went quickly and easily and today was my six month post PRK check-up, My right eye has gone from a 20/400 to a 20/30 eye which was a better result then we had dared to hope for. Now that the imbalance has been reduced my headaches have vanished and I don't wear glasses any longer except to drive. I can not tell you how happy I am that I made the decision to have the laser surgery, regretting only that I hadn't done it sooner. No more ugly glasses or uncomfortable contact lenses, soft and hard, that popped out or got dirt and make-up under them. I am free of putting them in and taking them out, cleaning them or crawling around looking for a "lost" one. Now I wake up and can see the clock, look out the window and watch the birds who greet me and know that I can see!!!

Good vision is not something we are all lucky enough to be born with, but with all the advances in corrective surgery it is possible to attain. Why not check it out and in a few short months you could be enjoying greatly improved vision.

Sincerely,

Marci