So I had the keratectomy and corneal cross-linking done exactly a week ago. The procedure itself wasn't too bad - booked in, then they give you a calming tablet, a couple of hours later you go into theatre, they apply numbing drops, and then the dr uses a dremel like tool or something to remove the epithelial, and then another thing he called a "drill" to remove the bump and scar tissue I had on the tip of my cornea. All of that took less than 10 mins.
After that, his assistant applied the B1 drops and UV light for I gues what was another 30-40 mins after which they apply a soft contact lens, eye patch, a bunch of meds, and off you go.
It all felt fine until about an hour or so later at home when the numbing drops suddenly wore off and the pain hit. I don't think anything can prepare you for that. They give you some schedule 8 opioids, which made zero difference, and I couldn't sleep at all that night. I took some other pain meds I had from a broken ankle operation which eventually knocked me out.
The next day was not great, but it slowly got better, and by day 3 most of the pain was gone, with only some light sensitivity and some scratchiness left.
I went for my post-op check up yesterday, and the dr reckons the procedure was a great success, the cornea is rounder, and the bump is much flatter. I have to rest the eye for another 8 weeks until the next check-up, after which I should be able to start wearing a lens again.
The assistant did mention that this was one of the most painful eye procedures, worse than a cornea graft, but they won't tell you this upfront because then you wouldn't want to do it.
So long story short, looks like this would have been worth it in preventing a cornea graft, so I'm happy.