Military Hotrod Club - PRK or LASIK military members inside!

Ok, I'm going for eye surgery to correct my farsightedness. I need to know what type of surgery you had and if you had any complications afterward. Also what is your military job? I'm a flight engineer for CH-47's and maybe putting my packet in to go to flight school. So any info helps. Thanks guys.

Anyone??? Please chime in.

LASIK isn't an approved vision correction proceedure for pilots. It's PRK or nothing if you want to fly.

:stupid: JK but he is right its PRK or nothing for flyers

I had PRK. I'm in AFROTC now with a pilot slot.

I'm a USMC pilot with PRK.

.....Well worth it. You can't push negative G's with lasik or your eyeballs will fall apart. FOD in the cockpit is a big no-no......

I'm a USMC pilot with PRK.

.....Well worth it. You can't push negative G's with lasik or your eyeballs will fall apart. FOD in the cockpit is a big no-no......

:rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

but ya cant pick up the FOD if u dont have any eyeballs to see with :)

I'm a USMC pilot with PRK.

.....Well worth it. You can't push negative G's with lasik or your eyeballs will fall apart. FOD in the cockpit is a big no-no......

Boy its a no no but you might be surprised all the weird shit our pilots leave/drop in our jets :P

Boy its a no no but you might be surprised all the weird shit our pilots leave/drop in our jets :P

totally off topic, but I have to tell somebody.

I was doing solo aerobatics yesterday at 8500ft. I had a half full bottle of water in my mapcase. At the top a cuban 8, It started raining heavily in the cockpit. There was a pool of water on my canopy. I held the airplane inverted and soaked up the water with my gloves. I rolled upright and shit was everywhere.

I had touched 9900ft at the top of my loop, and the hi pressure air in the bottle caused it to explode, and the cap shot off, unlocking the mapcase from the inside, allowing the stuff to escape into the cockpit. After I landed I spent 10 minutes picking little pieces of plastic off the floor of my aircraft.

Here is the best part IMHO. AFter it blew up and I rolled upright, the leftover bottom part of the bottle had a good pint of water left in it. I already had to piss, so I didn't want to drink it. I slowed to 120kts, opened the canopy and poured it overboard. :jest:

/threadjack

Damn Malice, what aircraft you doing this in?

:devil: :jest: Took the survival kit out of a seat last night we removed for FO and I swear the 'hair' that was under the kit in the seat pan couldn't have come but from a few places :bang:

Back on topic, sorry :hijack:

totally off topic, but I have to tell somebody.

I was doing solo aerobatics yesterday at 8500ft. I had a half full bottle of water in my mapcase. At the top a cuban 8, It started raining heavily in the cockpit. There was a pool of water on my canopy. I held the airplane inverted and soaked up the water with my gloves. I rolled upright and shit was everywhere.

I had touched 9900ft at the top of my loop, and the hi pressure air in the bottle caused it to explode, and the cap shot off, unlocking the mapcase from the inside, allowing the stuff to escape into the cockpit. After I landed I spent 10 minutes picking little pieces of plastic off the floor of my aircraft.

Here is the best part IMHO. AFter it blew up and I rolled upright, the leftover bottom part of the bottle had a good pint of water left in it. I already had to piss, so I didn't want to drink it. I slowed to 120kts, opened the canopy and poured it overboard. :jest:

/threadjack

I got PRK about year and a half-two years ago. I am in the USMC infantry. I believe the military only does PRK. It is well worth it. I can't believe I wore contacts as long as I did. Eyes dry out easily for the first six months afterwards. But thats the only side effect. I see 20/20 left eye, 20/15 in right. It's good shit. I sat under the laser for about 45 sec each eye. You can see the steam like stuff and smell your eyes burning.

do u guys like the pbk? Ive been thinkin about gettin it especially now that I found out I cant be oc sprayed during re le cert whenever I leave here. I know Im a wuss

Doing the PRK on the 20th of April. Thanks for the input and would like to hear anymore that may be out there. Thanks again
SSG Steele
Army

Prk...

Iyaayas

I got PRK back in December and I just went for my 3 month check up and Im 20/12 in both eyes. I loved it, and have no issues at all. Good Luck

Prk is the only laser eye sugury the military does. it usually has like a 98% sucess rate. somthing like that, i am not an eye doctor but i am medical and have friends that deal with this stuff. make sure you write down all your questions and ask them when you see the doctor. there is a few things you should know, like if your eyes ever get worse again, contacts are out the door. your eye ball will have been reshaped and they won't stay. but i don't know many people that has had thier vision worsen since the surgury. good luck with everything let us know how it all goes.

you can always get it redone I believe. Plus by the time they get bad again or worse you will probobly be able to get new eyes. It's well worth it I believe.

I got glasses and am thinking about getting on the list, what is th edifference between prk and lasik?

totally off topic, but I have to tell somebody.

I was doing solo aerobatics yesterday at 8500ft. I had a half full bottle of water in my mapcase. At the top a cuban 8, It started raining heavily in the cockpit. There was a pool of water on my canopy. I held the airplane inverted and soaked up the water with my gloves. I rolled upright and shit was everywhere.

I had touched 9900ft at the top of my loop, and the hi pressure air in the bottle caused it to explode, and the cap shot off, unlocking the mapcase from the inside, allowing the stuff to escape into the cockpit. After I landed I spent 10 minutes picking little pieces of plastic off the floor of my aircraft.

Here is the best part IMHO. AFter it blew up and I rolled upright, the leftover bottom part of the bottle had a good pint of water left in it. I already had to piss, so I didn't want to drink it. I slowed to 120kts, opened the canopy and poured it overboard. :jest:

/threadjack

You know LT.... your future crew chiefs are going to LOVE you! You and food and drinks in the cockpit LOL........


My mom had LASIK. Said once she sad up it was worlds different with her vision. no problems at all.

lasik they cut the lens of your eye peal a flap back, then lase you. PRK they take a electric tooth brush type thing. Then Rub away some of the lens of your eye ball. Then they Lase it.

PRK is more painful (not painful during the surgery, i'm talking after). However there is no chance of that flap coming up (which reports have been made) During a jult of the head or under pressure. That is why the military won't do lasik. PRK is worth it. Just do it. I did. Not to mention it was FREE!!! There is other stuff that goes into that is diffrent, but that is just the main thing diffrent between them.

I had pretty much no pain with PRK. I wore contacts since i was in middle school. So i was used to having stuff on my eyes. I was used to having dust or dirt getting under the contact lens. And that's what it felt like that week after the PRK for me. Some people say they feel no pain some say it's the worse pain ever. For me on a scale from 1 to 10 it was a 2. It was more annoying than anything. Also I can say there are about 20 people i've known from my company who has gotten it. Not one has complained or had complications. It's good shit.

thanks for the info david

No problem. Ask any question you want.

Like I said there are a bunch of guys in my unit that got it done. Oh and to get on the list you have to see your regular military eye doctor to decide if qualify. Also your CO has sign and decide what priority level you are. It could take almost a year for you to get to the front of the list or it could take a month. And you have to have at least a year worth of active duty left on your contract. Don't quote me on that. I'm going off memory from when I got it done. :lurk:

I got mine done at Bethesda (i'm not sure where all they offer it.). They did about 20 people the day I got mine done. I think they do the surgery twice a week. The other days are used for check up days and preop days. They have the system down pat. They are pretty professional. They perscribe you some good pain killers too :) . But I was allergic to them so I didn't get any:eyes: Just motrin. And I still didn' really have pain. Oh and just a hint. When they are putting the pain killer eye drops in your eye (before they take the tooth bursh thing to your eye) It's better to get extra drops, then not enough. So say you can still feel the drops. That is the worse part of the whole thing. You can feel them rubbing off a layer of your lens. Don't let that scare you away though it's painless. I'm just trying to give you as much information as possible.

does anyone know what the cutoff is? meaning, how bad can your eyes be and still be able to get prk? I have horrible eyesight and i still hope i can get it. they won't let me right now though, because I guess my eyes are still changing. :cry:

How old are you? From what I understand you have to be over 21. For the eyes still changing reason.

My eyes were pretty freaking bad. I think my last contact lens case said -4.75 for the perscription. I have no idea what that is on the 20/20 scale.

How old are you? From what I understand you have to be over 21. For the eyes still changing reason.

My eyes were pretty freaking bad. I think my last contact lens case said -4.75 for the perscription. I have no idea what that is on the 20/20 scale.

Yea I'm 21 so I'm fine on the age aspect and my eyes are about the same as yours. -4.75 and -4.25 i believe.

I got PRK like 2.5 years ago I think. I had alot of pain, the pain killer eye drops are great but I wasn't supposed to use it but once an hour and the pain would start coming back about 15 minutes before I could use the drops. at first it was so bad I laid in a dark room. but I would do it again in a heartbeat. and on how bad your eyes can be when I went to meps the wrote down N/A on my farsighted vision and I think my contacts were like a -5.5 and a -5 or something like that maybe a little worse. anyways I love it my vision after the surgery was 20/20 and 20/30. I love it.

allbaugh_04- I don't know why you are having trouble getting the surgery. Have your eyes gotten worse in the last few exams? I actually got my surgery when I was 20. So I know they don't 100% follow the guidelines. There are exceptions and wavers to get it i'm sure.

As 85z28 stated. I also sat in the middle of a dark room. But the pain you discribe is nothing like the very little I had. Everyone is diffrent. However everyone always says it's worth it.

I'm wearing my glasses right now for 30 days then I'll have a slot of PRK.

Just had the PRK out here at Camp Pendleton 2 months ago. You can do either LASIK or PRK. The military does BOTH. (Just went through the class, and saw both being given). However if in a Flight status, you have to have the PRK. The Marines that got LASIK were healed and seeing perfectly within a day. I am on month 3 and am just now seeing good...consistently. PRK is more painfull, and the healing time is worse. However, you never have to worry about a flap coming off your eye. Or, dirt getting underneath the flap. PRK can also be given again and again. The reason why it takes so long to heal, is because the cornea is scrubbed off, and has to grow back.

Hope this helps. Oh, I still have to think before I reach into my eyes at night to try and take contacts out. Ha. Ha.

allbaugh_04- I don't know why you are having trouble getting the surgery. Have your eyes gotten worse in the last few exams? I actually got my surgery when I was 20. So I know they don't 100% follow the guidelines. There are exceptions and wavers to get it i'm sure.

As 85z28 stated. I also sat in the middle of a dark room. But the pain you discribe is nothing like the very little I had. Everyone is diffrent. However everyone always says it's worth it.

Well I've only gotten one exam done in the military and they noticed that my prescription was a little outdated. Of course it was! They think my eyes have gotten steadily worse, but I got it like 3-4 years ago and kept buying boxes of contacts so I wouldn't have to get my prescription updated and pay outrages prices on doctors' exams. So I'll give it a year and if it doesn't change then I'll tell em I want it. I still have 3 years left on my enlistment so it shouldn't be a problem.



Just had the PRK out here at Camp Pendleton 2 months ago. You can do either LASIK or PRK. The military does BOTH. (Just went through the class, and saw both being given). However if in a Flight status, you have to have the PRK. The Marines that got LASIK were healed and seeing perfectly within a day. I am on month 3 and am just now seeing good...consistently. PRK is more painfull, and the healing time is worse. However, you never have to worry about a flap coming off your eye. Or, dirt getting underneath the flap. PRK can also be given again and again. The reason why it takes so long to heal, is because the cornea is scrubbed off, and has to grow back.

Hope this helps. Oh, I still have to think before I reach into my eyes at night to try and take contacts out. Ha. Ha.

Thanks for the info. I hear that PRK is better and that you can still see well at night unlike lasik. This is what I read in an article in some magazine. Anyone know anything about this.

I saw halo's (sp?) for the first few months at night after surgery. Not anymore though. And that was with PRK. That was a good question. Anyone else have similar experiances with PRK, to help answer questions?

I'm going tomarrow morning at 11 for my PRK surgery. Can't wait. I'll try to post up what the first few days are like on Tuesday.

I'm going tomarrow morning at 11 for my PRK surgery. Can't wait. I'll try to post up what the first few days are like on Tuesday.

Sounds good.

Well the day of surgery was good. I dropped off the TA to have some things put on. Headed to the doctors. They gave me Valum (sp?) to relax me and puts antibiotics in my eyes and then took me into where the lazer machine was. I layed on a table that would move around to get me under the lazer and microscope. They put some numbing drops in my eyes and then taped my Left eye closed. They told me to look straight up at a green light on the machine and took this tool to my eye to I guess polish the surface of the eye. Washed my eye and squeegy it off. Then told me to focus on the green light above my eye once more and thats when they used the lazer. Cleaned off the eye, added some drops, applied a "bandage" contact. Taped my eye closed and did the same to my left eye. Whole process took 3 min maybe. Untaped my eye then off to another room as the doctor cleaned up. He came and looked at my eyes, said they were good and to go home and get some rest.
Went home and took the perscribed ambien and went to sleep. Woke up about 9pm and put some drops in my eyes and went to bed again. The next day I was feeling great. Eyes were a little sensitive to light but no pain. Went to the docs and my vision was 20/25 and things were still blurry , normal is what he said. The following day, Sunday, my vision was crap.... Everything was a blur, could read my watch unless it was 3" away from my eyes. So tried to spend much of the day on bed or the couch. On Monday, yesterday, vision was coming back around things were still blurry but not as bad as Sunday. Went to the doctors and was seeing 20/45 the doc looked at my eyes and said they were healing great and the crappy vision was to be expected. They took the contact off and my vision got a little worse but was still able to go to class.
Today the vision isn't to bad. Its getting better as time goes on. I'm on new eye drops. With the contacts on you'll take 2 different drops every 4 hours and with the contacts off you'll drop one antibotic for another, plus some other drops you use when you feel your eyes are getting dry.
So far so good.

Make sure to take all the eye drops. Take them!!!! You will get tired of taking them. But do it. And use the moisturizing drops. It sounds like your doing great. And don't worry you will get perfect vision after a few months. Mine took about two months, then I was perfect.

Yeah, I try to take them every 4 hours like they perscribed. My eyes arn't realy feeling dry enough to use the mosturizing drops but will start to use them more.

still painful?

No, just occassionally wake up with the eye burning like you got soap in it. Thats it.

I had my surgery in October of 05.

Would do it again in a heartbeat. I had PRK performed, and I love it. Nothing like that feeling of sitting up and being able to read a clock on the wall without needing glasses...

:nod: I want to have that feeling

PRK is better for certain job fields yes. PRK doesnt weaken the eyes like Lasik does

They cost the same, I had mine done for $2872.00 for both eyes. I'm loving it, they freekin eye drops are kind of a PIA take every 4 hours and its like putting milky sand in my eyes.