PRK Questions

Hi,
I had PRK on my left eye 11 days ago. I was nearsighted with -5.5, and
wasn't a candidate for lasik because of thin corneas. The procedure
went well and I had no real discomfort.

During one of my follow-up visits, I was told that they used a new
technique on me. They used the microkeratome to remove the outer layer
of my cornea instead of using the normal method. I was surprised to
hear this and subsequently have tried to do some research on it. Is
this technique the same as "Epi-Lasik"?

The day after the surgery I was seeing 20/80 out of the treated eye. I
had a check-up today and found my vision has improved to 20/50 (I'm
now farsighted). I know that it requires months for the vision to
fully stabilize, but can I expect that much of a change in the
following weeks?

My eye doctor is having me wear a prescription contact lense to help
with the healing. Apparently it has been found that post-surgical
farsightedness can be reduced by irritating the eye with a contact
lens. Does anyone know the theory behind this?

Thanks,
Begbie