Eye Surgery in Istanbul

13th – 16th October 2011

Everything started with the Facebook Status: “Who is in for a eyes surgery in Istanbul?”
Few months later me and Sandra (a former colleague when I was working at Alprausch) organized a trip to Istanbul. Our goal: get our eyes lasered….

We had some troubles just a couple weeks before our operation appointment. We booked everything through a company in Switzerland, which was not the best idea. So we decided quite spontanously to book our flight ourselves and we got in contact with the clinic directly. We already got a competent response on the phone and via email. This is just the ‘organizing’ part.

Thursday we took the first SWISS flight to Istanbul. We got picked up from a german speaking driver and he took us to the Hotel (Park City Hotel Taksim). When ww arrived we already had some funny conversation with the receptionist. (we are still convinced Tarkan is not gay!!!) Thursday afternoon we had time to discover the city. It was very cold and raining. Here my first recommendation: plan your trip in spring or summertime.

Friday morning we had the preliminary inspection/test if our eyes are capable of doing such a LASIK surgery. 5 different mashines but everything was fine. -5.25 has to get reduced to 0.00 or max. -0.25! Well well well…. Time to get lunch and get prepared for the operation. No coffee, coke or alcohol before the operation. This would make you even more nervous. My friend and me were so “hibbelig” (sorry there is no english translation) anyway.

2.30 PM time to be at the clinic again. We got a pill which should have made us calm. Furthermore we went to the waiting room where a very stimulating movie ‘planet earth’ was on. My Friend was first, afterwards my turn. The first room a lady cleaned my face and tried to calm me down even more. She kept telling me that they have the best doctors in Turkey. In the meantime I heard from the room next door *zzzzzzz* *zzzzzz* my friend got lasered in this very second.
Okay. My turn. Next room. I laid on this bed and the doctor told me to look straight into green light. Thats what I have done. A ring kept my eyen open and i was not able to blink anymore. Once the green light disppeard it was time for the cut. Afterwards it took the doctor 19 seconds to actually laser my eye. It smelled burnt. No reason to panic, everything normal and everything seemed to be okay. The other eye was the same. ( what a surprise right? ) afterwards he said he was finish and i could sit up. The guys asked me if I am able to see, and I said surpisingly yes I do. They brought me to a different room where I need to rest few minutes. Next destination, waiting room again, where I also met my friend. We couldn’t sit quietly and were already making jokes again. Everything is cool. We got three different drops, stickers for the eyes and one panadol. We walked back to the Hotel – no problem at all. Next task: try to sleep, the next few hours it could hurt. We arrived at the hotel and had some problems to sleep (it was still afternoon). Somehow we still felt asleep (probably thinking of Tarkan :p)

8PM we woke up. What a feeling… We saw each other, we saw everything. awesome. What a life.
task: drops 1, drops 2, drops 3 with two minutes difference. Done! Time to get out of the hotelroom. We were walking down to Taksim Square and had some Kebab (what a surprise in Turkey) still unbelivable. No pain and nothing. It was not even necessary to use sunglasses. Very easy very cool, new life hello! We slept again with stickers on our eyes and showering was still forbidden. Water in the eye would not be good at all. Well okay, we stink and didnt care and went to bed. 😉

Saturday. Waking up was great. I was still able to see and was still very happy and very convinced. At 11 AM we had another check at the clinic if everything is still ok. All fine, time to get out to see more from the city. The driver and doctor assistant took us first to BAKLAVA tasting and afterwards to a 1.5 hours boatcruise. We saw the nice coast And the asian part of Istanbul. It looks okay, but again probably better in summertime. Afterwards we went to the big bazar and to see the blue moshee. Incredible.
Afterwards shopping time… Like in every other city, nothing spectacular.

Sunday morning 4AM – we got picked up from the Hotel. Our driver brought us to the airport.
Thats it from our short trip to Istanbul

Recommendation: i can absolutely recommend this clinic. Everything was very professional, very clean, they were friendly and explained everything very detailled. If you are interested check out:
www.eyestar.us and get in contact with the Patient Relations Manager Fred Ozatakan. He speaks German, Swiss German (lived in Bern before) and English!

Costs: 1090 EUR for the operation. Flight around 350 EUR, Hotel 85 EUR

If you have any question let me know. I would recommend it everybody. It is a new attitude of Life.
see you now even more clearly!