EBMD with RCE and getting nervous about upcoming PTK/PRK surgery

So, I’m a bit scared for my upcoming PTK/PRK surgery (May 5, 2026), not so much about the surgery itself but the pain in recovery. Needless to say, I’ve probably read too many horror stories on reddit and elsewhere and it’s defiantly got my anxiety up… so I probably shouldn’t even post this.

tl;dr: Looking for peoples’ experience/advice with RCE that have done PTK/PRK and how bad/good the recovery was.

Recurrent Corneal Erosions (RCE):

A bit of background. I started getting a feeling of something in my left eye about 6 months ago, which later turned into extreme (I think) pain when I would open my eyes sometimes in the morning. The pain would last about 3 hours and then go away (there was also a lot of tearing and light sensitivity) and I’d be fine for the rest of the day. This would reoccur about every 2-3 weeks, although the pain amount was decreasing and it would only hurt for maybe 1 hour then go away (still about 2 week intervals of this). Then one day I had a worse one that occurred in the evening and last 3 hours of pain, then my eye was swollen for and entire day (could still open it, but stung all day with tearing), skip past that and again for the last couple months I’m back for 45 minutes every couple weeks. Until this week where I eye now feels perfect (no more foreign body sensations, nothing, feels great), so of course it has me second guessing my surgery.

I’ve been using Hylo Gel drops throughout the days and systane nighttime ointment at night since this started. Yes, I’ve been diagnosed with RCE by both my ophthalmologist and optometrist.

Epithelial Basement Membrane Dystrophy (EBMD):

Apparently I also have EBMD, which is likely the cause of the RCE. My optometrist said he could actually see my eyelid catching on the epithelial irregularity.

PTK/PRK Surgery:

My ophthalmologist said that he would do PTK if the erosions continued, but that he "wouldn’t recommend it"; he never said why and I didn’t ask because I thought I was getting better once before (there was a 5 week stretch of no pain, although I still always felt like I had an eyelash in my eye). Anyways I called his office back after the swelling eye incident and he booked me for surgery (I wanted to talk with him but he cancelled my appointment to see him… very busy guy unfortunately).

Anyway, I’ve got my surgery scheduled so I thought I’d do PRK at the same time (OD -5.25 (cal -1.75), OS -6.25 (cyl -1.25)) since I believe the process is pretty much the same. I have to say that I was never interested in getting vision correction done, I’ve been wearing glass for 40 years now (I’m 46) and I’m very used to them. Pre-op went fine they said I should be able to do PRK (562 um corneal thickness). They contacted my ophthalmologist who looked through the results and said I should be able to go ahead with the correction but he will also do PTK on both eyes at the same time to try and remove the EBMD.

Anyways just freaking out a bit (I've never had any surgeries before, and the surgery is in a week), looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience and how the recovery went for you. My fear is that it will be as painful as an erosion (in both eyes) for days… I don’t think I could stand that (although obviously, I would have to). Also second guessing that I actually need the surgery... although I probably do…

Sorry for the long post.