Who says just doing LASIK laser eye surgery all day, every day, is boring? Not me—- First of all, it is a cliche but very true that each and every patient is unique, and at TLC Tysons Corner in Mclean, Virginia, we treat all patients with a warm and caring touch, tailoring our procedure and our operative atmosphere to the individual. We had a few nervous young female patients (low 20″s) from Sterling, Reston, Ashburn and Woodbridge who required some help in relaxation and breathing techniques this week. Dr Andrew Holzman and the outstanding staff at TLC Tysons Corner prep these patients with special care, practicing what it will be like for them once they get into the OR. We play spa music, or jazz, or light progressive sound for them, as this is what helps them to relax and makes the procedure easier for them. We had some hard rockers from Springfield, Bethesda, Alexandria and Arlington who wanted to hear Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton during their procedures. I operated on a Navy paratrooper, two nurses, two doctors, an air traffic controller, and of course lots of IT software engineers. All of these folks are fun to meet and we enjoy spending time and getting to know each of them. It is so much fun to see how excited all of these people are following a LASIK laser vision procedure. 20/20 in just 10 minutes. The technology of Bladeless LASIK with Intralase and Custom Vision Correction is really amazing stuff. It never ceases to amaze me how lucky we are to be living in this day and age!! I met a young female firefighter who needed LASIK because contact lenses just dont work well in smoke and fire>> I feel privileged to be part of such an important change in her life, making her important life saving job easier and more manageable for her. I met a pilot who came up from North Carolina to have his procedure– He was very careful in his decision process and took years before he decided to do the surgery— It is an honor that he chose us for his procedure! I was interviewed by Ophthalomology Management magazine this week and discussed LASIK laser eye surgery complications. See my blog from earlier in the week for the details. I was also interviewed by Baltimore Magazine this week for an article they are doing on laser vision Correction. I discussed Intralase, Customvue, and Allegretto lasers- I discussed the important advances that have occurred in our diagnostics over the last decade, topographers such as the Pentacam which gives us elevation maps of the cornea. Tests such as these have made it much easier to determine if you are a good candidate for the surgery or not — we turn away at least 15% of the patients we see as if you aren”t an excellent candidate for LASIK laser eye surgery, you should’nt do it. However, if you are a good candidate, it has never been safer and the results are truly amazing. We had a film crew visit our beautiful office in McLean, Va., Fairfax county, to make a video of the office staff and Dr Andrew Holzman. They filmed a patient seminar. we do these regularly, where I spend 30-40 minutes with a group of patients explaining LASIK, PRK and other vision correction options from A to Z. The filming was fun. The camera man interviewed two staff members, Jen and Pam, as well as myself. I am looking forward to seeing the final product and putting it into a webinar format. This way, patients from Waldorf, Gaithersburg, Frederick, Manassas and Warrenton can view it in the own homes and decide if they feel these procedures are for them. The new website is starting to take shape, but the Flash video is still not operational. Later next week for that. Learning how to deal with facebook and some other web based programs…… become our friend! lastly for this week…. welcome back to TLC Tysons, Kristina Oneill! KO worked for me for many years as a patient counselor and office manager, but she got busy having babies, and after 3 of those, she is back in the office. just a short 5 year maternity leave! We have the very best staff. They are all so caring and dependable. Highly experienced. We all take pride in not just giving our patients optimal vision correction, but also a fantastic experience which is easy and smooth. Nobody has a better staff than we do!
