RK: Pam, 31

August 17, 1999
Web posted at: 11:44 a.m. EDT (1544 GMT)

Name: Pam

Age: 31

Residence: Sherman Oaks, California

Procedure: RK

Which eyes: She had RK performed on both eyes, but there was a two-month separation between the procedures.

Cost: Her doctor charged and still charges $1,500 an eye. Pam was fortunate that her insurance company covered a portion of the procedure.

She also received an AK enhancement in one eye. The cost of the AK was included in the $3,000 she paid.

It was nine years before she returned for another treatment. At that time, her doctor performed another RK on her left eye. She paid $500 for this procedure.

When done: She had RK on her right eye in September 1989. Her left was done in November 1989. The procedure on her right eye induced an astigmatism of -1.75. She had an AK done in January 1990 to correct the problem in the right eye.

Toward the end of 1998, she felt her vision was slipping a bit, so she returned to her surgeon. She had another RK done on her left eye, which is her dominant eye, in January 1999.

Why did you do it?

"'Cause I couldn't see," she said. Pam had chronic infections from wearing contacts.

Her mother, who had extremely bad vision, had RK and was very happy with it. That encouraged Pam to look into it further.

"Once I found out about the surgery, that I could have the choice of wearing glasses or not wearing glasses, it really wasn't a decision. I really didn't want to wear glasses," she said.

After Pam had RK, her father and two of her three brothers had refractive surgery with great success.

Would you call it successful?

"Very, absolutely."

She said when she wakes up in the morning now she can see her feet and the clock. She enjoys swimming and since the surgery hasn't had to worry about contacts or glasses.

The way she looks at it, RK has saved her money. She no longer has to buy contacts or glasses or any of the equipment associated with them.

Earlier this year she returned to the surgeon because she thought her vision was "slipping a little." She had another RK performed on her left eye, which corrected her vision to what it had been after her first procedure.

Because she is a legal secretary, she felt that constant eye strain from computer work may have caused her loss of acuity. But the doctor told her that age was changing her eyes.

When he did the RK in January 1999, he did only the left eye in order to preserve the right eye for close vision. She now uses her left eye for distance vision and her right eye for closer vision.

What was your vision before the procedure?

Pam was -3.5 in both eyes, or 20/400.

After:

Following her first procedures in 1989, her vision was 20/30. When she returned for treatment in January 1999, she was -1.75 in her right eye and -1.25 in her left eye. She had four more incisions added to her left eye, but they were not as long as her initial incisions.

After her treatment in January of this year, her left eye was 20/25 with no correction.

Did this procedure meet your expectations?

"Oh yeah, absolutely," she said. "I was hoping to correct the blurriness that I had."

Would you do it again?

"Yes."

Any pain?

"None at all." Pam said neither the procedure nor the recovery was really painful.

She described the healing period as more annoying than painful. "It is like a scratch in your eye," she said. "Every time you blink, it is bothersome."

How would you describe the experience?

"Easy." The day of the procedure, she said, she was taken into the operating room, and drops were put into her eye to numb it. She said it was a "strange feeling" not to have any sensation around her eye. "It feels kind of cloudy and heavy," Pam said.

A clamp was used to keep her eye open. Then she was given more drops, and the other eye was covered. She described what she saw when the surgeon did the incisions as "looking into a kaleidoscope."

"I was nervous, because it was a strange sensation. My body was calm, but I was nervous," she said.

She couldn't tell what was going on when the actual procedure was being performed. The RK took no longer than five minutes. The preoperative preparations took longer than the actual surgery, she said.

What risks were you made aware of ahead of time?

It was so long ago, Pam said, she really doesn't remember what she was warned about. She does remember being told about star bursts.

At first she did experience some star bursts. Now, she says, they are very faint. She thinks her eyes have been trained to look at lights without being bothered by them.

Did you seek out the treatment, or was it suggested to you by a doctor?

RK was suggested to Pam by her mother. The doctor she saw was a family friend, and Pam was confident in whatever he suggested.

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