You wonder where you should have it done, and want the best? Go to Turkey.
There, that was the short version of this blog post.
Why did I go to Turkey of all places? It's cheaper and they have more experienced doctors. I first found a clinic here to test my eyes for free to verify that I qualified for Lasik. I did. They quoted me about 3500 Euros in price for both eyes getting Femto Lasik with wavefront (I recommend you google Femto Lasik and the various Lasik operations. There is no point in me rewriting all the info out there.) The health insurance would cover 500 Euros of the price, but only at one of their clinics that they contract with. In Turkey I paid 1660 Euros for the same surgery, and got 3 nights at a cute hotel and a tour of the city. And the surgery was performed by one of the most experienced surgeons in all of Europe. So that's why I opted for Turkey. It was my first experience in a Muslim country. The reason it's so much cheaper is because they do more surgeries, and they pay their workers less.
So here is my experience with Blumedi Travel. It is nicely set up. They work exclusively with Dr. Nusret Bas who has a clinic in Rotterdam and Istanbul. I chose Istanbul nonetheless because I wanted to have some alone time, travel somewhere new, and even with hotel and flight it was still cheaper than Rotterdam. I booked my flight to Ataturk (which I really recommend, because traffic is awful, especially coming from the other airport 2.5 hours away).
Charming Demet picked me up from the airport with a little sign. The driver took us to the hotel and she made sure I was set up before leaving me with the information booklet about the surgery, schedule, and some interesting sight seeing points to see.
On the day of the surgery our group was taken to the hospital around 12:00 pm. We sat around for a large part of that afternoon, waiting to get our eyes checked. We had three checks, one of which was performed by Dr. Bas himself. Then we each went into surgery one after another. I was very nervous, but once the eye drops were in I didn't feel much. Demet was there to translate in English and reassure me. The best word I can use to describe the operation itself is trippy. It wasn't really painful. They have to put a little metal brace into the eye to keep it open. That was quite uncomfortable, but again, not painful and it didn't last long. Then when the laser opened the eye I just felt pressure and I saw these cool little laser beams that looked like tiny stars. The whole experience lasted for about 20 minutes. It felt even faster than that. The most painful part of the surgery was taking off the surgical mask they put over my cheeks and forehead. It was like having my face waxed, but then again I was more bothered than others, because I have sensitive skin. After the surgery my vision was hazy. It was uncomfortable to have my eyes open. We waited with closed eyes and sunglasses, in a darkened room for everyone to finish, got our medication, a cake and juice. and got driven back to the hotel, which took about 30 minutes. I got to my room at around 5:00 pm and followed the clinic's advice to take painkillers and get plenty of rest. I slept until the next morning at 7 am. The best way I can describe how your eyes feel after surgery is this: if you've ever worn contacts before, it's like you put them in early in the morning, and forgot about them until the next morning. If you have never worn contacts: it's like having sand in your eyes. What felt best was just to keep my eyes closed. Also being exposed to cold air felt very soothing. I was practically the only one who chose to rest and stay in the hotel. Everybody else went out to eat and drink. They didn't do so well the next day (honestly who drinks alcohol the day they have surgery?) I woke up and could see. After breakfast we were picked up and driven back to the clinic for a check up with Dr. Bas. He checked our eyes, and pronounced us seeing. After that we had lunch and got a fun city tour. The sticky contact lens feeling stayed with me for three days. Now as I'm writing this it's been almost a week, and I don't feel the lens feeling anymore, but my eyes do get dry easily, so I just keep on putting the natural tear drops in.
It takes a while for the vision to settle in, I've been told, but the very next day I could see better and more detailed than I ever have before, even with glasses or lenses. I highly recommend it to anyone. The pain is not dramatic, just kind of uncomfortable.
