PRK or LASIK - making a decision

I have wanted to get my eyes corrected for years but I never had the money or it was never a good time.  My last checkup at the eye doctor went well and they gave me a brochure for Scott Hyver Visioncare (he is the official eye doctor and LASIK surgeon of the San Francisco 49ers) and said I should look into vision correction.  I decided to at least schedule a free consultation. 

On February 21, I went to Scott Hyver's office and had my eyes examined, measured, checked by another doctor in the office.  He put together my file and I met with Dr. Hyver.  We sat down together and went over my chart and he informed me I was not a candidate for Lasik.  He explained the specifics of my optic nerve drusen condition and the risks.  With Lasik there is a suction ring that causes an increase in eye pressure to 60 or above (normal eye pressure ranges from 10-21 mm Hg).  This could reduce blood flow to a nerve crowded with lots of drusen. They don't have the data available to know if Lasik is safe since it does also reduce oxygen to the nerves (only 1% of the population have OND). 

We googled photos in his office so he could show the difference between a normal optic nerve and optic nerve drusen.  See below. 

Normal optic nerve

Optic nerve drusen

People with my condition need to choose PRK if they want their vision corrected.  Unlike Lasik, PRK eye surgery doesn't require an incision in the cornea. During PRK surgery, the outer membrane of the cornea, called the epithelium, is loosened and then removed.  From there the laser corrects the vision and a bandage contact lens is put over the eye to protect it for the next few days while the epithelium grows back.  The recovery time is MUCH longer than Lasik.  Lasik you can return to work the next day while PRK can take 5 days to weeks to resume normal activities.  It depends on each person and how fast the cornea heals. After talking with the doctor and getting the word that PRK was safe, I scheduled my surgery for a month later.  

The day after my consultation, I received a call from Dr. Hyver's office.  He wouldn't be able to do the surgery until he saw a visual field test from my doctor confirming the drusen and ruling out any possibility of glaucoma.  SCARY! 

I went in to take the visual field which tests each eye individually for peripheral vision.  You focus your eye straight on a centered light and press a button every time you see a flash from the corners of your eye.  Pretty simple.  A few days later I found out that my left eye failed and I needed to retake the test.  I did that a week later and I had the same results.  I had some vision loss in my left eye on the inside and lower part of the eye.  This can happen sometimes with drusen (field vision loss) but is also very common with people with glaucoma, which runs in my family.  My eye pressure has always been normal (13mm) but there is a type of glaucoma called Normal-Tension Glaucoma.

After the second test my doctor assured me the vision loss was from the drusen and not of glaucoma.  Apparently with glaucoma there is 'cupping' and that is the one difference between that and OND.  There is no cupping at ALL with optic nerve drusen so I was cleared by my MD and Dr. Hyver. to go ahead with the PRK.  

Even with the OK from the doctors, I still had my doubts over the next few weeks about getting it done.  Should I even bother if there were so many questions and tests needed from the doctors? At this point it was a week until surgery so I just decided to go for it.