Blurry vision following Monovision PRK

[London729]

I had lasik in Sept 2007 to correct about an -8 in each eye. By November 2007 I had regressed to about -1.5. At that point my surgeon recommended we leave the right eye alone and do PRK on my left (dominant) eye to create monovision. I had the surgery about four weeks ago and at a recent follow up visit I’m seeing 20/20 close up with my right eye and about 20/25 for distance with my left eye. However, the two together are pretty blurry. My brain seems to be adjusting to the near vision although I’m still seeing a lot of haziness. For my distance vision it seems as if my left eye is adjusting out of focus to ‘normalize’ the image being received by the right eye. If I look at something in the distance with both eyes it will be blurry. If I cover my right eye it will also be blurry but after a second it will start to clear (like focusing a microscope) until it is sharp. If I uncover my right eye, my left eye will again adjust to out of focus. Is this part of the normal recovery process for monovision? I know everyone adjusts to this procedure differently.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

That's called "rivalry" and its like two people talking to you at the same time you can't hear either or only one. It often gets better with time but some are unable to adjust. You may need to consider glasses, contacts or if possible add'n PRK on the near eye but they you would need reading glasses if over 40.

JCH IIMD

[JodieJ]

If you find that you just can't adjust to full monovision, I have a suggestion that helped me.  Try wearing a contact lens in your right eye that will change the focus from near vision to intermediate vision (modified monovision).  If this is comfortable for you (and it probably will be), then wear the contact in your right eye for a few weeks (or longer, if you want).  When you're ready, try decreasing the power of the contact lens by just a little,  and then wear the new power for awhile.  The goal of this strategy of gradual change would be to eliminate the contact altogether (and still have comfortable vision).  I don't know if this will help you, but I eventually loved full monovision.