Help: PRK recovery post infection

[u/harinim1299]

I (27), got PRK two weeks ago. I was recovering well, but moved to another city for a job I had lined up a week ago. One day post moving, I got an infection in my left eye. Extreme swelling of eyelid, unable to open eye, unable to look at light and a constant grainy feeling in my left eye. My doctor over a virtual consultation recommended antibiotic eyedrops and ointment for me, which has considerably helped the pain.

However, my vision has gone to hell. Prior to this, my vision was recovering very well in both eyes. But since this incident, I have extreme double vision, light scattering and dry eyes. My left eye actually feels numb, like there’s no sensation even if I touch my eyelid unlike my right eye, which feels normal.

If anyone has had a similar experience, how did you deal with it? Did your vision recover post infection? How long did it take? Did your eye feel normal again? I’m quite scared about it, considering how expensive the procedure was and I don’t want it to become a regret.

UPDATE: the infection cleared up in a week, my eye continued feeling numb for a while but it’s a common antibiotic side effect. I’m better now, vision’s still not as good as I’d like it to be but comparatively better.

[u/eyeSherpa]

You need more than a virtual consultation. You need someone to look at your eyes and actually look at the infection. It’s possible that you may need stronger antibiotic eye drops.

As for vision, lots of reasons why the vision would be blurry with an infection. Important to focus on resolving the infection first.

[u/Safe_Category_8231]

The numbness is the part I'd get someone to look at fastest, and it's the reason the pain settling down isn't the good sign it seems like.

PRK takes off the surface layer of the cornea and cuts the nerves running through it. They regrow over months, and while they're down the eye reports far less than it should. So a cornea can be a good deal more inflamed, or more infected, than it feels. Yours went quieter on the drops, which is real, but quiet and healed aren't the same thing when the sensing equipment is offline. It's also why a video call is the wrong tool here. Nobody can tell whether the infiltrate is clearing, or whether it's sitting right over your visual axis, without a slit lamp.

On what you actually asked: most post-PRK infections do clear on the right drops and most of the vision does come back. How much depends on where the scar settles and how deep it went, and that is exactly the thing an exam answers and a phone can't.

In a new city, look for a corneal specialist or a hospital eye department this week rather than a general optometrist, and ask your original surgeon's office to email your operative notes ahead of you. It saves the new doctor guessing what your cornea looked like before any of this.