Age: 25
/
Procedure: iLasik
Dorota Barbarewicz
My name is Dorota Barbarewicz (Kalkowska). My great passion is music. By profession, I am a musician, specializing in instrumental performance, and an early education teacher. Currently, I am studying two majors: at the Music Academy in the instrumental department – Bassoon (undergraduate level) and at the University of Gdańsk – Pedagogy (master’s level).
Each of us has a different story when it comes to vision problems. Honestly, I don’t remember when mine started. Perhaps the vision impairment accompanied me from birth because as my mother told me, I was born without signs of life, with 2 points on the Apgar scale, then I lay in an incubator – and without protective glasses.
No one at home suspected that I might have any eye problems; I could find every needle and speck of dust on the carpet, and I ran around our plot of land among the trees (and there were really many of them).
When I went to school, I underwent examinations, and that’s when everything started… My mother took me to many ophthalmologists, but thankfully, by the grace of God, I ended up under the care of Dr. Trapkowska and then Dr. Lipowski. I’ll just add that my vision impairment at the age of 6 was OP -6 and OL -4, with bilateral astigmatism.
With each visit, my impairment worsened. Right until the end, along with my parents, we waited for a signal from the doctor to go for the surgery of fitting a eye patch in Katowice. However, it didn’t come to that. At one point, my impairment increased so much that I could no longer wear glasses because there was too much discrepancy between one eye and the other, so I started wearing contact lenses from the age of 13.
Since then, my vision impairment has remained around OP -16.5, OL -8, and with astigmatism. When I turned 18, I finally decided on laser correction, but I had many concerns and recurring questions: “What if it doesn’t work…?”
I decided to take the risk and endure for another 3 years until I turned 21, the age at which the eyeball stops growing. I was under the care of Dr. Lipowski and Dr. Zachariasz (for contact lenses).
I began to look for places where such procedures were performed. I came across Blikpol thanks to my doctor. Before scheduling an appointment, I read all the reviews, to my surprise, all were positive!!! There was no need to wait; I made an appointment.
There’s no hiding the fact that I was very nervous because I knew my vision impairment could exclude me from the procedure… The ladies at the reception made a nice impression on me, they took care of me while I waited for the qualification visit for the procedure.
During the examinations, my eyes were thoroughly examined from all sides. Dr. Witold Czuszyński conducted each test very meticulously and without haste. The most frightening moment for me was when Dr. Czuszyński put a lens of about -20 power on my worse eye to see well. I thought to myself, “It won’t work…”
I said I didn’t want to eliminate my impairment completely, just reduce it so that I could wear glasses or lenses that wouldn’t cost thousands because they were imported from abroad (unfortunately, such high power lenses were not made in Poland). The doctor agreed and proposed the Femtolasik procedure (I hope I remember correctly :)) and the impairment after the procedure would be OP -6 and OL -3 so that I could wear glasses. I agreed to everything, I immediately felt great trust in Dr. Czuszyński. I was extremely happy about it.
The day of the procedure came on July 21, 2015, my parents came with me. When I entered the designated room, I put on a gown and a cap, the nurse allowed me to take my teddy bear, which I still have and I got it from my brother when he found out I had vision problems.
Before the procedure, I was definitely given something to calm me down, and drops were put into my eyes. Finally, I entered the operating room, lay down comfortably, hugged my teddy bear, and the procedure began. It was a very big experience for me; I remembered everything, even that I sang songs to everyone :D. Right after the procedure, I sat in the room outside the operating room, and to my surprise, I could see much better!!!
Overall, the procedure went very quickly; I thought it would take much longer. Then, with my parents, I went home… My dad was also very nervous, he almost hit the car in front of him, but at the last moment, I shouted, “Dad, brake!”
When I got home, I went to bed; my fiancé kept asking me if he could bring me anything. In the morning, I woke up and saw a clock on the wall. For a moment, I tried to take off my glasses because I thought I had them on my nose, but they weren’t there… I simply saw!!!
I cautiously got out of bed and approached the mirror, I couldn’t stop looking at myself; I approached every place in the room and looked around. It was amazing!! I was filled with hope, and we went for a follow-up examination.
Dr. Czuszyński couldn’t believe it was so good!!! I could see almost all the letters… For the first time that I can remember. It was simply a miracle! I think no one expected such a result :)!
Among the most important moments of my life after the procedure is that in 2017, I got married, and I am very happy. I’ve known Łukasz since I was 16, and he fully accepted my vision impairment; in a way, he wasn’t afraid to take responsibility for me. My vision impairment didn’t bother him at all. I did the procedure for myself and for the sake of my eyes. Now they’re not constantly strained by contact lenses.
Finally, I revived. In 2016, I graduated from the Music School of the Second Degree in Gdynia on the Bassoon – it was a very important event for me; I’ve been playing the bassoon for almost 13 years now, which is more than half of my life!
Now nothing limits me, not even my residual impairment, but what is it compared to what it was. Now, without any correction, I see better than before with correction.
I’m really glad I ended up at Blikpol and that I found myself under the care of such good doctors as Dr. Paweł Lipowski and Dr. Witold Czuszyński.
