Appointment with the hospital

Not an emergency though... don't worry! Full story below.

Yesterday was an interesting day. We had to get a legal file printed off and mailed back to Canada. Just some stuff related to Ruth's father's estate. So we had to find somewhere to do that. I thought about a library, and a computer store, or an internet cafe but couldn't find any decent looking options using google maps in the town we are in. Guaranteed there would be somewhere, but instead we chose to drive a half an hour to the larger town of Kumluca.

We found somewhere to park close to the downtown, and just started walking around, looking for somewhere that might do the job. Just by luck, Ruth poked her head into a shop that looked like it was a local office supply, school supply type of place. He had a big photocopy machine, and I asked through google translate if he could print off a file from email. I sent him the file, and sure enough he got it done, and sold us an envelope as well.

Then I tried to find a post office. Google maps kept directing me towards a bank, and when we got there, what looked like a bank was closed for lunch. (Later we realized that this was actually a post office!) I thought that was odd, but we there was another post office mentioned in the town we are staying, so we went back there. Sure enough, what google has labeled as being a bank is actually the Turkish Post Office... PTT for short. It cost 5.5 lira ($0.90 CAD, $0.70 USD) to mail the letter back to Canada. 

It will be interesting to see how long it takes to get there. Not that it matters, we have already emailed copies back to the lawyers office.

Okay, on to our medical story...

Turkey is one of the cheapest places in the world to get corrective eye surgery done. In fact, they even have special packages that include the surgery and accommodation and everything for people who come here for medical tourism.

We both hate having to wear glasses. But the cost of getting this stuff done in Canada is ridiculous. We've thought about getting it done in Mexico, but we just never made the effort to look into it. But when we met Joe and Josee when we were in Kas, she told me that she had looked into it, and gave me some info that I followed up on.

The hospital group I chose has several locations in Turkey and combined, they perform 2,500 eye surgeries per month on foreign patients!

Not only do they perform laser eye surgery, but they also do lens replacement surgery for those who are not suitable candidates for the laser. It's all very high tech! I hadn't really done any research on it, but now that we have an appointment to see a doctor we have been educating ourselves.

We have an appointment on Thursday in Antalya. We are already booked for a two week stay there, partly because we are hoping to get our eyes fixed in that time. If we have to stay longer, we can.

We will be seeing Dr. Hakan Sivrikaya for our initial appointment. He speaks fluent Turkish, English, Russian, and German.

The initial appointment costs 360 lira ($58 CAD, $45 USD), and the cost to fix our eyes should be between 7,000 lira to 15,000 lira ($1,100 to $2,400 CAD, $900 to $1,900 USD) per person depending on what needs to be done. 

The initial appointment cost is applied to the towards the total treatment cost if you get it done within 10 days.

So, interesting stuff and we look forward to reporting back to you next Thursday!

Ruth made a delicious baked salmon last night. I am so lucky to be married to a good cook!

We are under voluntary quarantine again for the weekend. But, it's pouring rain outside, so it's a good time to be on lockdown!

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