People come into our Tyson’s Corner, Virginia and Rockville, Maryland offices all of the time to research the LASiK and PRK procedure. We provide complimentary consultations and always have. Dr. Holzman is a driving force in making sure patients who are considering taking the step to have refractive surgery are well educated in the choice to move forward with the procedure. I have had the pleasure of working for Dr. Andrew Holzman for 11 years now and I wanted to share with patients who may be considering having the procedure my experience. I personally do not need the LASIK procedure. I see 20/20 naturally. Patient’s ask me regularly if I have had the procedure and I am actually embarrassed to say I do not need it. My 10 year old daughter, however, started wearing glasses when she was 8 years old. She is very nearsighted and has astigmatism. She struggles daily with losing her glasses or forgetting them for school. As a mom, I want to do whatever I can to make things better for her. Her question recently to me was “Why can’t Dr. Holzman do laser vision correction on me so I do not have to wear glasses all of the time”? I explained to her that she needs to be at least 18 years old because her eyes are still developing and her vision needs to be stable in order to have the procedure. This answer was not what she wanted to hear! I work in the OR with Dr. Holzman and the best part of my job is that I get to see so many different types of patients. So many are so scared when they walk in the room, but when they get up from having the procedure 15 minutes later, the reactions are what makes me love my job. People who started wearing glasses at my daughters age are either speechless just looking around the room with a big grin on their face, others cry and cannot believe their eyes ( pun intended!). I am in such a happy medical field. I witness Dr. Holzman operate and his meticulous attention to detail and to the patient are above any other surgeon that I have ever assisted in the OR. His care goes beyond the day of surgery. He truly enjoys hearing from paitent’s – their stories, their concerns etc… I can and do tell patients all of the time that if my daughter could have LASIK or PRK today I would trust Dr. Holzman completely to give her the best care out there – not because I work with him, but because what he does, what we as his surgical team get to be a part of is changing someone’s quality of life. I know first hand that Dr. Holzman treats all of his patients as if he were performing the surgery on my daughter. That is hard to come by in a surgeon. As many parents know, trusting someone to operate on your child – my most treasured gift is a tough decision. As soon as my daughter is old enough to do the procedure I will confidently trust her eyesight to Dr. Holzman. Watching my daughter live with the hassle at 10 years old of constantly looking for her glasses, and frankly having to by 2 or 3 pair just in case she loses them helps me to get a glimpse into the experience of the patient. I witness the gift of sight regularly and it truly is amazing. Technology has made so much possible in the medical field of vision care – but I cannot stress enough that Surgeon skill and confidence means so much more. Dr. Holzman is a truly great surgeon and I would stress to any potential patient who is researching LASIK or PRK: Know your surgeon skill. It does matter!!! You only have one set of eyes and you want someone who genuinely takes the fact that you trust him with your eyesight seriously. Your best vision is his priority!
