Andrew E. Holzman, MD FACS

Reviews 3

MA

Marianne Hoebich

Marianne’s PRK Experience So a little on me, I am 45, have stigmatism in both eyes, I also have slight dry eyes, and I am plagued by nearsightedness. I decided to get mono-vision PRK so that I could toss those glasses, see the alarm clock, go scuba diving without painful contact lenses, and still read a book or even tiny text messages on my iPhone! So 12 days in and operation was a success! Still have a little blurred vision but I am sure that will clear up with time and I can definitely see my alarm clock! Here is more detail on my experience for those considering PRK. One - go to a good surgeon. I recommend Dr. Holzman. I researched him and he came highly recommended by my eye doctor, Dr. London. Two - ask your doctors about the recovery and then go read how long it took others to heal who have similar eye conditions. I was told by the doctor (Holzman) that mono-vision takes longer to heal than getting both eyes corrected for distance vision. I was also told that my vision would get worse before it got better, such as blurry eye vision (officially called ghosting). Ghosting can be described as someone with an ink stamp and has a wobbly hand and can’t perfectly stamp the paper in the exact same spot twice, so that the stamp mark looks like it has multiple slightly off shadows - if that makes sense to you. If not look it up online; lots of great information on it. I was also told that it could take up to 3 months for my vision to stabilize and that there probably would be pain in the recovery period, similar to the feeling a dry, irritated scratchy eyes. So I was told everything up front, which I like, so no unpleasant surprises and you can prepare yourself. Three - use moisture drops all the time, keep them cold, that helps with the recovery and is probably why I have so little pain. Four - don’t push your eyes too fast and blink all the time. Five - don’t panic, drink lots of water and eat healthy foods. Treat yourself right. So my experience so far has been great, and hardly any pain, had blurry eyes for 4 days that kept me out of work since I could not drive with that level of blurry vision. I returned to work 8.5 days after my operation. I still have some blurry vision but it comes and goes, which I think is due to how tired my eyes are and the fact that they are still recovering. The only real eye pain was the first night, where my eyes felt very dry when I woke up. I just put lots of drops in when I go to bed and anytime I get up to go the bathroom. That seems to take care of the nighttime dry eye issue. My eye doctor thinks I am doing great and I can’t wait till my eyes stabilize which I think might be in 1-1.5 months time. Here are my day to day experiences if you are interested: Thur 8 May - operation - quick no pain, vision great, but sensitive to light, and night time dry eyes so I woke up with dry irritated eyes, but that clears up with a few moisture eye drops Fri 9 May - vision ok, could drive myself to my eye doctor for the day after appointment, but by 8pm my sight was getting blurry Sat - Tues 13 May - eyesight very blurry could not do much, but no pain Wed -Thur 15 May - eyesight seems to clear up in the morning, but gets fuzzy as day does on Fri 16 May - first 1/2 day back at work, needed to increase font on computer to 150% to take the edge off the sometimes blurred letters Sat - Sun 17 May - eye sight pretty good, still get blurry vision as day goes on, I notice the blurred vision most when I look at text on a computer screen - have to remember to keep on blinking and use moisture drops. Mon - 19 May - Did have painful eyes waking up this morning, think it is because I was outside (with sunglasses - trendy Fendi - of course) taking photos for 5 hours on Sunday. I think this just tired my eyes out. Eyes did not feel back to normal until 12 noon on Monday.

A

A Private User

Dr. Holzman performed my LASIK Intralase surgery over the summer. I chose him to do my LASIK because of his reputation as being a top-notch doctor for the procedure. Im eternally glad I went this route. Dr. Holzman is excellent, as his staff. During the surgery, which lasted less than five minutes, the only thing I felt was some slight pressure on the first eye being lasered. Press your thumb lightly on your leg as if you were pressing a button; thats basically what it felt like. On the second eye, I felt nothing. I followed the recommended post-surgery procedures (get someone to give you a ride and take a nap when you get home) and by that evening I was basically seeing things normally. Youll see the improvement in your vision right away. Its been four months now, and my eyes are doing great. Except for being able to see much better than I had been even with glasses, I dont even feel like I even had anything done (in stark contrast to a colleague who had PRK several months ago and was basically knocked out for a week). Dry-eye discomfort was very minor in the first two weeks and has pretty much disappeared altogether. The worst it ever got was that feeling after youve been swimming in chlorinated pool. Irritating, but not painful. In fact, the steroid drops you have to take for the first week or so were more uncomfortable than any dry-eye I got and those arent even that bad. I continue to use lubricating drops because it was recommended in my follow-up examinations, but I dont ever feel like I NEED them. The oft-discussed halo-effect around lights was fairly noticeable during the first couple of weeks but steadily diminished and has completely disappeared. They were the most serious in the first 72 hours or so. Everybody back at work is pretty impressed with my review of how things went, and it seems like more than a couple are thinking about it now for themselves. And I must add this: afew days after my surgery, I had to travel out of town, so my one-week follow-up would need to occur out of town. TLC was great at helping me find a doc to do the exam, who was excellent and very thorough. In fact, this doctor had LASIK performed by TLC in D.C. several year previous. I was basically getting a post-op second opinion from doctor familiar with the procedure on Dr. Holzmans work. He was pretty blown away, to the point of saying that it might be the best LASIK procedure he had ever seen (and he had seen quite a bit). The incisions made during the correction were nearly invisible and I was seeing better than 20/20 by his measure.

A

A Private User

My laser surgery story is I wanted to have the procedure done but I needed answers. There were so many questions in my mind - what about this? What about that? So I did a ton of research, looked at many sites, read manuals, watched videos, talked to professionals and considered a number of providers. I finally weighed out my options and chose TLC. When it boiled down to it, these are my eyes! Last time I checked, I don’t get a second pair and I wanted the most comprehensive, thorough care available. I did not find any providers that were more thorough than TLC. They were more than willing to answer all my questions and concerns; I had pages of them! I wanted to be totally confident going into this decision and make sure all my ‘T’s were crossed and ‘I’s were dotted. I didn’t want to leave anything unchecked. The TLC staff was always friendly and willing to help. They really cared and reassured me that everything was going to be alright. Dr Holzman was excellent. I highly recommend him as he is totally qualified. I requested to meet with him before surgery day. Simply put, I wanted to meet the surgeon who would be correcting my eyes. He was willing to meet with me and addressed my concerns. He looked at my scans and decided to perform PRK on my eyes instead as this is a better procedure with patients who have thinner corneas, as I do. I really appreciated that as any other provider could just perform normal Lasik. He even followed up with me by phone after surgery; that really spoke volumes as not every surgeon will do that. This showed he really does care. On surgery day, I was excited but a little nervous; he created a comfortable environment that made it easier and before I knew it, we were done. At this point, I had my surgery on March 30th so I’m still a little fuzzy. My vision is currently 20/25 and this will clear up in time. I’m confident that I’ll be 20/20 when my vision stabilizes as PRK is a little different healing process. The fact of the matter is that I have someone to contact if I have questions, concerns or need to be seen again. They were even available for an emergency if that situation arose, which it never did. Concluding, TLC offers the total comprehensive package, from A to Z and that is what I wanted. They really do care and are committed to my well being. Well done, Dr. Holzman and TLC, I am definitely pleased.