WaterSki Magazine

Bryce says:

I'm a medical student and currently work for an ophthalmologist who frequently performs Lasik surgery. There is certainly danger associated with skiing and other water sports after getting Lasik surgery. . .during surgery they flap the cornea and actually apply the laser below the flap. When surgery is over the physician smooths the flap back over the freshly lasered portion of cornea and over the next day or so the cornea will quickly heal because the flap acts as a makeshift bandage. The only problem is the area of the cornea where the flap was created is inherently weaker and susceptible to getting re-opened or even worse — "ripped off" when skipping across the water at 38 mph + after a barefooting faceplant. There is little an ophthalmologist can do to restore vision to a patient with a corneal flap that as been ripped off. (the only viable option is a corneal transplant which can take a year to heal and usually doesn't yield 20/20 vision). There are two ways to remedy the situation for a water sport enthusiast who still wants Lasik surgery. 1. . . get Lasik and then wear some sweet safety googles when skiing. or 2 (and in my opinion the much better option) . . . .get a similar procedure called PRK. PRK is essentially the same proceedure as Lasik but the physician does not flap the cornea and instead applies the laser directly to the surface of the cornea. People prefer Lasik because the recovery time is much shorter. With PRK, the epithelium lining the cornea must heal and this takes about 3 weeks to fully recover. For the first week your eyes will water frequently and feel like they have sand in them and then you symptoms will progressively subside. Vision will also be a bit blurry for 2-3 weeks as the corneal epithelium heals (my wife had to take work off for a week as she is a dental hygienist and must see small detail). PRK is actually a safer procedure than Lasik and delivers more predictable and accurate results. My wife is an avid water skier and she chose PRK over Lasik last summer. See now has better than 20/20 vision and doesn't hesitate to ski aggresively and take a hard fall as she has no corneal flap to worry about. In her estimation the 3 weeks of blurred vision and painful eyes were well worth a lifetime of peace of mind while skiing. Ask your ophthalmologist about PRK. . .and if you live anywhere near Utah I would strongly recommend Dr. Christian Hess who works for Insight Eye Specialists.