I, Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, was in Vancouver last Thursday for the Olympic press conference with the United States Men’s Bobsled team.  “Why would an eye surgeon be attending an Olympic press conference?” is probably going through your mind.  No, I didn’t give up my day job to join the U.S. Bobsled team.  Patient Steve Holcomb and his story has become one of the most miraculous stories in the Olympics.  

Steve is the driver of the U.S. Bobsled team’s top sled called “The Night Train”.  He became legally blind two years ago due to a degenerative cornea condition called Keratoconus which just about forced him to retire and give up the sport.  The U.S. Olympic Committee and the Bobsled team refused to let him give up.  That’s when they discovered me.  I had the honor of helping Steve over his keratoconus condition with C3-R along with corrective lens implants.  C3-R saved Steve’s eyesight.  

Steve then went on to win the World Bobsled Championship gold– a U.S. first in 50 years.  

There lies the reason for me being part of the press conference last week.  There were plenty of TV crews and journalists.  

To see the full details about Steve’s miracle story, please click: www.BoxerWachler.com  

In 10  days, Steve and the Night Train will be going for Gold.  I will be there cheering for Steve and will be posting updates on this blog and tweeting at www.twitter.com/drboxerwachler

Do you wear Rigid Hard Contact lenses for your vision correction? Searching for the right option to help you see without pain and discomfort? INTACS could be the answer. Other the past 10 years there has been several improvements in the way Keratoconus and other eye conditions are treated. The use of contact lens that are uncomfortable could be a thing of the past for you.

INTACS has shown positive results for a replacement for Rigid Contact lens or improving the comfort, wear time and quality of vision in Rigid Contact Lenses. INTACS are tiny inserts that are placed in the cornea to improve your vision in contacts or glasses and improve the comfort of the fit in the contact lenses.

INTACS in combination with C3-R have proven to give exceptional results for the treatment of Keratoconus. The INTACS procedure takes little time and has a quick recovery time. INTACS require no maintenance unlike hard contact lens.

Below you will find some benefits of using INTACS:

No maintenance

Short recovery time

Easy to remove & and change [if needed]

No feeling of the INTACTS in the eye

INTACS & C3-R:

The use of INTACS in combination with C3-R has had a positive effect on treatments for patients with Keratoconus. C3-R has proven to strengthen the patients cornea stopping the progression of the patients condition. While INTACS give them a comfortable, and easier to manage treatment option.

Both procedures can be preformed in as little as an hour. With little recovery time and exceptional results.

Below are some testimonials from patients who received both INTACTS & C3-R:

Meet Brian Costa:

Brian was diagnosed with Keratoconus at the age of 31. He had an INTACS procedure done in one eye 7-8 months before going to the Boxer Wachler Vision Institute. When he started experiencing halos, star bursts, and had trouble seeing at night.

He then visited the Boxer Wachler Vision Clinic where he had INTACS, CK, and C3-R done, in addition Dr. Boxer Wachler fixed his previous procedure eliminating his Halos, Star bursts, and night vision problems.

Brian says:

“I was very pleased, everyone was pleasant, and very knowledgeable. Nothing but Kudos for Staff here.”

Meet Ben:

Ben is a college student who discovered he had Keratoconus 1 ½ ago. Ben had many problems with his vision and was near blind with 20/100 vision in one eye. After going to the Boxer Wachler Vision Institute Ben could read without glasses!

Ben Says:

                              “I am more than ecstatic about how it went.”

Ben had both procedures done in one day and now sees at 20/20 in one eye, and 20/40 in the other without his glasses.

To find out more about these life changing procedures visit: www.keratoconusinserts.com

To watch a free webinar visit: www.boxerwachler.com

www.boxerwachler.com/facebook 

 https://twitter.com/DrBoxerWachler

It is never too soon to take steps to protect your vision. Ensuring we have good vision care should be a high priority in your families health care. Establishing a good vision specialist will protect your eyes in the future. Many of us take for granted our vision care despite the fact that we only have one pair.

Here are 4 things your family can do to ensure good vision:

Choose a good vision clinic:

Ensure that your eye clinic has good customer service and is not too busy to give you an appointment in a reasonable time. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of the staff when looking. Note how helpful the staff are and whether they answer your questions without hesitation.

Choose an compatible doctor:

Make sure the doctor you choose for your family is one that is concerned with their patients, and has the time to see them. Many times the doctor is good but very busy and doesn’t have sufficient time to dedicate to you and your family. You want to choose a doctor that has time for you! Ask questions to the patients as well. Some doctors have testimonials on their websites; feel free to research them as well. Be serious about your vision care.

Get regular checkups:

Make sure your family is being seen every two years. If you have risk factors for eye conditions like Diabetes you should be seen every year. If you have trouble remembering your appointments put it on your calendar. Ensuring your families eyes are checked regularly could save them hassles or catch conditions early on.

Educate yourself:

Don’t be afraid to do the research and take some initiative in your vision care. Write down any questions you have for your eye doctor and address them at your next appointment. If you don’t understand the answers they are giving you ask them until you do. This is your vision, and your care.

Remember:

                                                    “You are your best advocate”

For more information on Keratoconus visit: http://www.keratoconusinserts.com

For a free educational webinar visit: http://www.FixesYourKC.com

Now you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter:

www.boxerwachler.com/facebook 

 https://twitter.com/DrBoxerWachler

INTACS are tiny inserts placed in the cornea to improve your natural corneal curves. The treatment of INTACS was to treat mild nearsightedness. However the results have shown improvement in patients with Keratoconus. The INTACS reshape the damaged irregular shape of the patient’s cornea providing them with more stability, and clearer vision.

INTACS has also been combined with C3-R® aka Corneal Collagen Cross-linking with Riboflavin to strengthen the cornea over time repair the damage Keratoconus has done to the patient’s vision. The INTACS & C3-R® can be performed many times within the same day, give the patient little if any pain and minimal recovery time.

This new Technology offers a great treatment plan for patients suffering from Keratoconus. In the past treatments only consisted of hard contact lens, and corneal transplants. Understanding that there are new and more improved treatments that can help is the first step to recovery.

Below are some Benefits of INTACS:

10 minute procedure

Procedure is preformed in the doctors office

Less invasive

Minimal recovery time

Less pain than most invasive procedures

Each year technology is improving the way we see. It is improving our procedures and giving us second chances for quality vision. The use of INTACS and C3-R® is an exceptional option for many patients with Keratoconus. It could be right for you.

For more information on the INTACS procedure or C3-R® visit: http://www.keratoconusinserts.com

or http://www.boxerwachler.com

Watch a free educational webinar: http://www.FixesYourKC.com

Now you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter:

www.boxerwachler.com/facebook 

 https://twitter.com/DrBoxerWachler

Our journey through life is often a bumpy one. Many of us have trouble coping with stress and the riggers life brings without throwing Progressive Keratoconus in the mix. However finding new ways to cope with your disease can help reduce extra problems along the way. Below are a few tips to assist you in making life a little easier:

Tip 1: Educate yourself:

Your doctor can do a lot for you but when you take the initiative to find out about your illness you can ask important questions, feel more comfortable with what they are telling you, learn whys you can help yourself.

Tip 2: Find a good doctor:

It is just as important to find a eye doctor you are comfortable with as it is to find a general physician. Make sure that the doctor you choose is comfortable with you asking questions, they are concerned about you, and that they have proper time for you. If you notice it is hard to schedule an appointment, or they take more than 24 hours getting back to you than you should find another doctor.

Tip 3: Reduce the amount of times you rub your eyes:

Progressive Keratoconus can be increased by excessive eye rubbing. To ensure you don’t create anymore damage speak with your doctor about dry eye, allergies, and other conditions that can cause itchy and irritated eyes. They may be able to prescribe drops or medications to help you combat these problems.

Tip 4: Explore C3-R to stop the Process:

C3-R is a revolutionary new procedure that stops the progression of Keratoconus. It is a one time 30 minute procedure performed in a eye doctors office. This will help preserve your current eyesight and in some cases improve the quality of vision in your contacts or glasses.

Tip 5: Find a good contact lens fitter:

Find a contact lens fitter that sees Keratoconus on a regular basis i.e. weekly or even better daily. It is important that they offer a full range of contact lens options, soft toric contacts, hybrid contacts, piggy back lenses, Rose-K, Dyna-Z intralimbal, and Mini-sclera are some of those options that should be available.

Most of all pamper yourself. Don’t worry about all the things that are wrong or what may happen 5 years from now find out how you can treat your condition now. There are many treatments out now that can greatly improve even reverse the damage of keratoconus. Focus on your treatment, taking care of yourself, and your education. You are your best tool.

To learn more on Keratoconus Visit: http://www.keratoconusinsert.com

To watch our free webinar on Keratoconus visit: http://www.FixesYourKeratoconus.com

Now you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter:

www.boxerwachler.com/facebook

https://twitter.com/DrBoxerWachler

Treatments for progressive Keratoconus patients have been quite a difficult choice to handle. Grasping the idea of having an illness that will continue to progress as you grow older is enough to bring anyone down. However new treatments in Keratoconus bring hope to suffers. The new treatments have shown excellent results in slowing, stopping, and in some cases reversing the damage this disease have caused altogether.

So what does this mean for Keratoconus patients? This means they many not have to endure uncomfortable contact lens like RGP Lens or face invasive procedures like Corneal Transplant. The experts at the Boxer Wachler Vision Institute have already treated hundreds of patients with the new techniques such as the use of INTACS and procedures such as C3R®.

Keratoconus patients are showing positive results, excellent vision improvement, and improved their sight in as little as 2 weeks. I bet now your wondering what these procedures are? Am I right?

INTACS- Are small plastic semi-circle inserts that are placed in the cornea. They require no maintenance and they are so light you won’t even know they are there. Intacs help to reshape the cornea, which can improve the quality of vision and comfort in contact lens and glasses. Some patients find that this provides so much improvement that they are able to do some activities without the need for contacts or lens.  Additionally the C3R  procedure can be combined with the Intacs procedure to maximize the results.

C3R – Is a procedure that strengthens your cornea by placing special solution of drops composed of Riboflavin on the affected eye and applying UV light on the area for 30 minutes to activate the solution. There is no pain and in most cases this is a one time procedure.  Over the course of 3 months the solution continues to work gradually increasing and strengthening your cornea. There have been people to report significant improvement in as little as 24 hours.

The choices for Keratoconus treatments are growing, no one should be left in the dark.

Watch a Free Educational Webinar: www.FixesYourKC.com

Subscribe to a weekly Audio Podcast: Keratoconus Weekly

This year in January Steve Holcomb had undergone a vision correction treatment that restored is vision. With his uncanny talent in bobsledding few knew of the troubles Steve suffered out there on the track. However his sight had become such a problem the extraordinarily talented athlete thought of throwing in the towel and retiring. In one last effort to help himself a few organizations pitched in an assisted the athlete in getting the experimental procedures done. His response to the procedures?

Quote from USA Today:

“I could instantly see clearly. It’s an amazing feeling”

- Says a pleased Steve Holcomb

Now with the 2010 Olympic Games coming up the athlete is back and stronger than ever. Holcomb entered the Bobsled World Championships on Friday in New York. His vision is almost perfect a far cry from his vision early last year at 20/1000 which for those of you that don’t know is quite poor -noted by doctors as profoundly poor in fact.

In further quotes Steve Holcomb states:

“Its life in high-definition”

His team was not aware of how bad Holcomb’s vision was until recently but says that he worked more off instinct than vision anyway. And Steve is more confident and amped about his vision than ever, no longer worrying about the constant hassle of his contacts and view life in a whole new way…as for the 2010 Olympics will just have to wait and see!

Read the USA Today Article:  http://www.boxerwachler.com/usatoday/index.htm

Watch a Free educational video on treatments for Keratoconus by visiting: www.FixesYourKC.com

Now you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter:

www.boxerwachler.com/facebook

https://twitter.com/DrBoxerWachler

Olympic Bobsledder- Steven Holcomb has a lot to say about Dr. Boxer Wachler in this article from USA Today Written by Tim Reynolds…

———————————————————–

Olympic bobsledder Steven Holcomb was speeding down the icy track for a preseason training run a few weeks ago, when a piece of duct tape tore off the chassis and whizzed past his helmet. His teammates weren’t bothered. They’d seen it happen dozens of times. Holcomb, though, was spooked. Until then, he’d never seen that before.

In a sport that demands razor-sharp hand-eye coordination, Holcomb excels even with a degenerative eye disease called keratoconus that makes reading a challenge - say nothing for steering a bobsled in a snowstorm. “Sometimes, I really didn’t see all that much out there,” he said.

Given his success, that’s hard to believe. Holcomb is a national champion, a World Cup star and was the top American driver at the 2006 Turin Olympics. He navigates slippery tracks at 80 mph in a sport where tiny mistakes can lead to disaster. Yet he did all that with vision so blurry that he couldn’t read the big “E” atop an eye chart from more than 6 feet away. A $15,000 procedure may have saved Holcomb’s vision - plus could nudge him closer to Olympic gold in Vancouver in 2010.

“If he was in the top five in the world before, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s soon to be the top in the world,” said Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler of Beverly Hills, Calif., the corneal surgeon who developed the procedure that Holcomb underwent, Holcomb would love to see that.

Keratoconus causes the cornea to bulge outward, causing blurred vision. In some mild cases, glasses or contacts can be the answer. In Holcomb’s case, neither did the trick. Lasik didn’t work, either; Holcomb tried that in 2000, but was back in glasses within a year. So after last season, he decided he’d either find a solution or retire.

“They couldn’t make contacts strong enough for me anymore,” Holcomb said. “And since it’s a progressive disease, I had to get a new prescription, a stronger prescription, every three months. Finally they said, ‘You know, we can’t make them any stronger.’ So it was the end. For a while, I thought it was the end.”

U.S. bobsled coach Brian Shimer didn’t want to see that happen. He researched options, found Boxer Wachler, and sent Holcomb to California to meet the doctor. Holcomb was deemed a candidate for Visian ICL, or Implantable Collamer Lens, a 9-minute surgery where a contact is embedded behind the iris. It’s permanent, and so far, it’s worked for Holcomb.

His vision, once as bad as 20-1000 - which gets defined as “profound visual impairment” - is now close to perfect. He sees things on tracks that he never knew were there before.

“I was part of the FDA approval study for it,” Holcomb said. “I couldn’t wear contacts the day of the surgery, so they literally had to walk me around the room. And then they did it, I got up, and just like that, I was 20-20. It’s incredible. I call it an eye-opening experience.” Pun intended, of course.

Holcomb didn’t just suffer from keratoconus, but also was extremely nearsighted. So Boxer Wachler - who has performed similar procedures before live on national television, plus has worked with other athletes, most notably Los Angeles Lakers’ guard Derek Fisher - began the process by having Holcomb undergo what’s called C3-R, something that strengthens the anchors within the cornea and minimizes the bulging effect.

It’s relatively new technology and isn’t offered by many eye doctors yet. Boxer Wachler is considered the pioneer in this sort of work. “We’ve been doing this for five years,” Boxer Wachler said. “It’s not experimental for us. We call it an off-label procedure.”

But because of the costs involved, Holcomb almost decided not to undergo any procedure. Holcomb isn’t a rich man, by any stretch of the imagination. Bobsledders don’t get into their sport for money; it’s rare to find a sled that turns a profit at the end of a season, no matter how many races a team wins in a given year. The technology is costly, the perks are few, and when Holcomb was told how much Visian ICL would cost, he initially balked at going forward.

“It was every amount of prize money I’d ever won,” Holcomb said. “So the U.S. Bobsled Federation stepped up and donated, and the U.S. Olympic Committee stepped up and donated, and now I hope they can collect on it.” That shouldn’t be a problem.

When the World Cup season starts in Germany in a few weeks, Holcomb will be among the favorites once again. He ended last season ranked fourth among drivers in two- and four-man bobsled, and now with his vision no longer a stressful issue, he can’t see any reason why he shouldn’t improve on the track.

“Now that I can see, things are starting to click,” Holcomb said. “I already could feel out there on the track. It’s like putting a face to a name now. My eyes don’t hurt. My head doesn’t hurt. Before, I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t even play catch before. Someone would throw me something and it’d hit me in the face. Now I can focus on what’s important out there.”

To learn more and watch and education  vision on Keratoconus visit: www.FixesYourKC.com

Many of us deal with anxiety when it comes to our eyes. The patients at Boxer Wachler Vision Institute are no exception. The key is all in how they are treated. There is a big difference in with treatment of patients at Boxer Wachler Vision Institute and other vision centers.

Meet Dorothy McDonald a registered nurse who has had to use reading glasses for the better part of her life. She is an avid reader of her local newspaper as stated she was tired of reading it with her glasses and was ready for a change.

Deciding to get vision corrective surgery is not a decision to take lightly. However she decided it was time. Dorothy decided to have CK followed by C3-R in both eyes despite her concerns and anxiety. She shares that she enjoyed the presence of staff in the room with her and listening to their voices.

She had an “Anxiety Free” experience with the CK. However during her C3-R procedures Dorothy did experience some anxiety and the staff aided her by holding her hand, talking her through the procedure and with some medication to help her through.

Dorothy stated in an interview 24 hours after the procedure-

Quote:

“I woke up this morning to read the newspaper for the first time in 5 years without my glasses.”

While her procedures went well Dorothy tells anyone who is tired of wearing glasses to read to try the procedure. She says it is painless and a wonderful decision! For many of us we fight with the decision to have procedures done; especially if they are new. However the Boxer Wachler Vision Institute offers a caring and expert staff that go above and beyond to meet your needs-Just ask Dorothy!

The importance of vision correction to many is a important issue. Many however value greatly the precious vision they have and understand there is often risk associated with making some improvements. That is why Lynn Murphy decided to delay her procedure by a few years. Although Lynn has had issues with her vision since grade school she often worried about the advancement of the vision correction procedures like most patients do.

This created a delay in her care. Unfortunately this is often a common story. When she was interested in looking into the procedures she consulted her physician on the best surgeon to undergo the treatment. That is when Boxer Wachler Vision Institute took hold.

Lynn’s treatment went well. Correcting her 20/200 vision too 20/20 in one eye and the use of mere reading glasses for endeavors of the other. She was very pleased with the outcome and was able to see almost immediately. The truth is many Lasik procedures are shied away from simply because the patient is misinformed of the proper procedure for them. It is important that you ensure you have a good surgeon, a thorough exam, and are a good candidate for the procedure before moving forward. This will help prevent any complications after the procedure.

Lynn Murphy is doing incredible now and enjoying her new found vision. She says that:

“It was absolutely one of the best things I ever did in my life” despite her former skepticism.

Stating that her only regret was not having it done soon! Another happy patient. Vision correction though scaring can be life changing for many. The staff at The Boxer Wachler Vision Institute are taking vision care one patient at a time.