My spontaneous laser surgery in Istanbul – report from Thursday, June 4, 2015

I’ve been wearing glasses for 14 years to correct my vision. With only -0.75 diopters in my right eye and a whopping 3.75 diopters in my left, buying glasses has always been rather expensive. I’ve long dreamed of having laser eye surgery, but never thought my dream would actually come true. For one thing, the high cost held me back, and I was terrified of such an operation. I couldn’t even wear contact lenses – how could I possibly survive laser surgery?

The whole thing faded somewhat into the background when an acquaintance told me she’d had laser eye surgery in Istanbul. Naturally, I was immediately curious and asked her for all the information, which I then reviewed again on swisslasik.ch. I hesitated a bit, as I would have liked to fly to Istanbul with someone, but unfortunately, no one I knew could do that within the next month.

So, at the end of December, I booked my laser surgery with Mr. Kara on my own – just two weeks in advance, and without any problems! I received very quick and detailed answers at any time of day, and everything was perfectly planned.

Just two weeks later, I was sitting alone on a plane to Turkey. Unfortunately, the flight was delayed by over an hour, but the driver found me without any trouble and took me directly to the clinic. It was around 11 p.m. when we arrived, and I was taken to my room where the night nurse gave me all the information I needed about the upcoming surgery and the rest of the procedure.

The next day, my interpreter, Denise, picked me up from my room and took me to all the necessary preliminary examinations. They involved the usual equipment and procedures. If anything wasn’t entirely clear, the test was repeated; great care was taken to avoid mistakes. After a more thorough examination, one doctor said she saw something on the retina of my left eye, but wasn’t completely certain. Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting with the clinic’s retinal specialist, who examined both eyes again thoroughly. Thankfully, everything was fine.

I was allowed back to my room, and just half an hour later Denise called to say I could come down another floor for the surgery. I was very nervous, but everyone was very accommodating, and one of the nurses was incredibly kind, like a mother. I think it was her who held my hand during the operation.

Everything was prepared; I was given surgical gowns, and my eyes were disinfected and numbed with drops. It started working very quickly, which you could feel, but it wasn’t unpleasant.

I lay down on the table, everything was prepared, and shortly after, the first device was placed on my eye to hold it open and stabilize it. It felt slightly tight, but didn’t hurt. Then came the first laser, which released the flap. The ring was removed and placed on the other eye. After both flaps were released, a plastic sheet was placed over my face, leaving only my eyes uncovered. My first eye was held open—I think it was with clamps, but it felt like having small pieces of tape on my eyelid, so it wasn’t bad at all. Then I had to look at a red dot, and within 30 seconds, my first eye was lasered. The flap was repositioned, smoothed down, and, as had been the case the whole time, my eye was kept moist and numb. The same procedure was repeated with the other eye, and after about 5-10 minutes, I was back out of the operating room. Completely lasered!

In the next room, the senior physician and the assistant physician both examined my eyes through the microscope and were very pleased with the results. I was given dark glasses and taken to my room.

It was now 5 p.m. and I lay down on the bed. After half an hour, the numbing effect of the drops wore off and my eyes started to itch, as if I had sand in them. It was quite unpleasant; I tried not to move my eyes under my closed lids, but I couldn’t manage it. My eyes were always moving slightly. Soon the night nurse came and gave me two different types of eye drops and a painkiller.

After another 1.5 hours, I received a few more drops and a sleeping pill. I skipped dinner because of my itchy eyes and didn’t want to/couldn’t open them yet. I fell asleep very soon after, though. I woke up again at 1 a.m. Apart from still having slightly dry eyes, the itchy pain was gone. The next morning, I was able to take off my dark glasses and was only slightly sensitive to light. I was picked up at 9:30 for a follow-up appointment. Everything went well, and I also received punctal plugs. These are tiny plugs for the tear duct, designed to prevent the tear fluid from draining too quickly and drying out the eyes. This was only because I already had rather dry eyes before the surgery, and they were recommended to me.

I didn’t do much for the rest of the day except for a short run around the clinic. Since the weather was rather cold and windy, I soon went back to my room. I was now able to administer the drops myself, and I also received a detailed schedule outlining which drops I should take, how often, and for how long.

On the morning of my departure, I had a very red inner corner of my eye. I asked my interpreter if I could see a doctor again, as I was quite worried. Fifteen minutes later, I was back with the surgeon, who confirmed that a punctal plug had slipped out slightly. He pushed it back into the correct position and also checked my eyes again. Everything was fine!

The journey home went smoothly. I arrived back home on Thursday, but by Friday my eye was red again. I went to an ophthalmologist in Switzerland who removed the punctal plug. It simply wasn’t staying in place properly in my tear duct. After that, I just used natural tear drops more often. Now I don’t even have dry eyes anymore!

My diopter values ​​are now perfect, and my visual acuity has improved to 100% after 4 months. After 1.5 months, it was only at 60-70%.

Now I live without glasses and am so glad I took this step. The price-performance ratio is fantastic, and the doctors and the clinic are simply top-notch, comparable to, if not better than, our Swiss standards. I can wholeheartedly recommend the entire procedure and the travel arrangements through Swisslasik to everyone.

Andrea Schwyzer
June 2015