Stage 3 · Your Journey
Aftercare
The days in Istanbul, and the months after you fly home.
The first hours
You wake in a private suite with someone from the clinic there. The first hours are watched rather than left to a call button: pain is managed before it builds, and the things that look alarming and are not — swelling, bruising that spreads downwards, a voice that sounds wrong — are explained to you as they happen, in your language.
The days you are with us
You are seen every day. Dressings, drains where there are any, medication and the checks themselves are part of the plan you already agreed to, which matters more than it sounds: nothing about your care is negotiated while you are sore, tired and a long way from home.
Most of what you will feel in this period is ordinary and most of it passes on its own. Some of it does not, which is the reason a person looks at you daily rather than a message asking how you are getting on.
Most questions arrive after the flight home. That is the part clinics quietly stop paying attention to.
Before you fly
There is a final check, and it is the one appointment that is not moved for a flight. You leave with written instructions in your own language — what to take and for how long, what to avoid, what is normal, and the specific things that mean you should call rather than wait.
- A final examination before you are cleared to travel
- Written instructions in your own language
- The signs that mean call us, listed plainly
- Your coordinator’s direct line, still the same person
From home
This is when most questions arrive, and it is the part clinics quietly stop paying attention to. Yours does not. Follow-up continues from wherever you are — photographs, a call, a look at something you are not sure about — and the person answering is the coordinator who has been with you since the first message.
Healing takes longer than the visible part of it. Swelling moves and settles, scars darken before they fade, and the result you were shown is the one at the end of that, not the one in the mirror the week you get home. Knowing that in advance is most of what makes the middle of it bearable.
This article is general information, not medical advice, and does not replace a consultation. Every procedure carries risk and outcomes vary from person to person.
Accommodation
Where you stay
Sheraton Istanbul Ataköy
The nights that are not spent at the clinic are spent at the Sheraton Istanbul Ataköy, on the Marmara shore. It is booked against your dates as part of the plan, and the transfers between it and the clinic are ours to arrange — on the days you are seen, someone comes for you.
Why this hotel and not the nearest one is the part of recovery nobody photographs: a quiet room with the sea in front of it, room service at the hour you actually wake up, and a companion who is given a bed rather than a chair.
The pool, the spa and the sauna in these photographs are part of the hotel, not part of your recovery. Which of them you may use, and from which day, is written into the instructions you are given — and there are days when the answer is none of them.
The hotel, on the Marmara shore at Ataköy 
The lobby, where your host meets you 
A room facing the sea 
Twin beds, for the person travelling with you 
The club lounge, looking out 
Breakfast, served late enough 
Dinner, when you are up to it 
The terrace, and the garden below it 
The indoor pool — ask before you use it 
The spa, for your companion and for later 
The sauna, off limits while you are healing
Photographs: Sheraton Istanbul Ataköy
What does not change
One coordinator, start to finish
The person who answers your first message is the person who answers the one you send from home a month later.
Your own language
Seven of them, spoken by the people you deal with rather than routed to a service — including in the room on the day.
In writing, before you commit
Procedure, surgeon, dates and cost are a document you can read at home, not a number said on a call.
No pressure to book
There is no month-end offer here. People who decide slowly are the ones who arrive certain, which is how we would rather they arrive.
Linspired by you.
Your becoming starts with a conversation.
Tell us what you are considering. A coordinator who speaks your language will come back to you with an honest assessment of what is realistic — not a sales pitch.
Seven languages · No obligation