Good evening/morning all.

I wanted to provide some feedback from my laser eye surgery experience (PRK). I’ll begin with the Bottom-Line Up Front (BLUF) – PRK/laser eye surgery is an absolute game changer. One of the best decisions I’ve made in my life, next to when I got Accutane about 10 years or so back and never having to deal with acne products. The experience was similar, it got worse before it got good and then great. It should be noted I’m only two weeks into the surgery and I’m already totally in love with the lifestyle its brought and continuing to bring me.

I got surgery on Wednesday, May 15th and I’m about 3 weeks along my recovery and things are continuing to get better and better every day. As we all know, the first week was definitely pretty challenging for someone like myself. I’m a very active person, super motivated and always doing something. You could say I’m a total self-improvement junkie – however I actually implement strategies than just read about productivity. So being handicapped for a week was definitely not fun. Audiobooks were my savior! I managed to complete 12 audiobooks during the first week.

I had researched about Laser Eye Surgery for about 2 years until I finally got fed up to where wearing my contacts and glasses were just impeding on everyday life activities and actually impacting my work performance – which is one thing I simply could not tolerate. Additionally, my eyes had gotten to the point they just flat out rejected contacts so now doing physical activities such as going to the gym, riding my motorcycle, watersports etc… was just annoying.

I got my PRK surgery done by Andrew Holzman in Tysons, VA at the TLC Vision Center. Initially I had gone to LasikPlus for a consultation, but they skipped out on tests and I didn’t feel comfortable with them. TLC on the other hand was a totally different experience. Felt comfortable, and everyone was very accommodating, and they ran multiple tests.

Some overall comments regarding my experience with PRK, and as always – your mileage may vary.

• Do your research. As accommodating and informative TLC was with providing information, I personally recommend ensuring you do your respective level of research and weigh the benefits and cons. No matter how you swing it – there will always be risks. I made sure I did my research and picked the most experience surgeon and weighed my comfort level with the center. The office themselves were very impressed with all the information I had already known about PRK, down to the type of machines used etc. Obviously not everyone needs to know to this level of detail – but the depth of my research ensured I knew what I was getting into.
• The procedure is definitely a quick procedure, but I felt after reading all the comments and reviews of how quick the procedure was – I mentally had unrealistic expectations of how quick it would be, for some reason I thought it would be as simple as laying me down, one two , zap, lay back up – HA! Regardless, the procedure is painless and quick. Andrew Holzman was great throughout the experience and even rocking some country music to chill you out.
• Read and follow the instructions. It’s surprising to me how many people that post on this forum post about complications and then when they go on explaining what they did or did not do, you realize they missed some type of instruction, or thought they knew more and stopped following instructions halfway through recovery or some other small instruction which they overlooked. Additionally, I’m naturally super careful with my eyes so I ensured I purchased plenty of eyelid wipes for the inevitable sticking of eyelashes due to the drops. In about a month I will be planning to move back to Cliradex eyelid wipes which I used pre-op to help with dry eye and general maintenance health of my eye.
• As we all should be aware that we are biologically wired to take the path which expends the least amount of energy when doing things – when I used to deal with contacts and glasses – there were always activities/actions which required me (maybe to a subconscious degree) weigh the activity against having to do it with frustrating glasses or dealing with contacts drying out and never staying sharp. After PRK – I’ve noticed this “mental block” has completely vanished. I just go for things without thinking about it – my mind is much more on autopilot most of the time. This is because I’ve structured my life/routines to ensure the mental energy I do expend is on value critical thinking/creative work and not on things that are insignificant. I’m now in the “zone” or “flow” for much longer and can sustain it tremendously longer due to not having to fiddle around with contacts and/or glasses.
• I believe someone else mentioned this on their laser eye surgery review, but the added confidence is great – as you are more perceptive due to increase in visual acuity with seeps into your peripheral vision. I not only have more confidence during social interactions but when riding my motorcycle, I just feel “freer” and in command, because there isn’t something on or in my eyes constantly reminding me there is something there. I feel absolutely liberated.
• No complications. (Yet, knock on wood). No ghosting. No halos. No decrease in contrast. No loss of night vision, it actually improved tremendously. I was pre-disposed to dry eye and I knew PRK was the option to go with if you have dry eyes. I still have dry eyes but I know that should subside back to pre-op baselines, and in some rare-cases I know people have reported dry eye getting better than pre-op levels. I actually believe that may be my case as when I began preparations for PRK I had stopped wearing contacts 1 month ahead of time before the procedure and my eye dry eye was SIGNIFICANTLY improved which leads me to believe my contacts triggered dry-eye, as it does for most people. So now that I won’t be wearing contacts again, I’m hoping to see (no pun intended!) a decrease in my dry-eye issues. In about a month I will be re implementing the use of hot compresses into my daily routine (as the doctor mentioned to wait at least a month prior to restart the use of hot compresses). The hot compress pre-op would drastically help with dry eye. Looking forward to using that again!
• Some suggestions: In addition to Omega 3’s, take Flaxseed Oil, along with bilberry, lutein Astaxanthin and zeaxanthin. I take quite a few vitamins every day and the addition of the other vitamins have helped with visual acuity GREATLY. Obviously, your mileage may vary but I highly suggest giving it a shot if you’re having issues with clarity. This vitamin stack had brought my visual clarity to 8K HDR levels! Highly suggested and a staple in my regime.
• I still have plenty of healing to go but a few days ago I tested at 20/20 with a little blurriness mostly due to dry eye and still early in the recovery process. With that being said, as mentioned above, everyday I can tell my eyesight getting sharper, more clearer, more vivid, just much better overall. I’m already absolutely ecstatic about the results and can’t wait until to see how much better it will be in a few months!

Let me know if anyone has any questions, I’ll be more than happy to provide some feedback and input! I’ll continue to provide any updates as things progress as I’m still pretty early into the recovery procedure but things have been excellent.