The pre-surgery day checklist: the night before and the morning of

The shape of the day

You'll be given an arrival time, usually mid-morning. Nursing will check you in, confirm your ID against the consent form, run through your medications and the contact-lens question one more time, and put a few rounds of numbing and antibiotic drops in. You may be offered a mild oral sedative. Then you'll lie under the laser for a few minutes per eye, sit for a short post-op check, and be sent out in shields and sunglasses to sleep it off. Door to door: one to two hours.

The reason a checklist matters at all is that the clinic's instructions arrive as a list of "don'ts" that are easy to half-follow. Half-following them is how people end up with a rescheduled morning because of mascara, or a nervous hour because the consent copy is in the other bag. So here's the whole thing, split into two columns you can screenshot.

The 24 to 48 hours between exam and surgery

Most Colombian clinics do the exam one day and the surgery the next, or the day after that. That gap is short, and the things that go wrong on surgery morning almost always started in it. Three rules for the in-between day.

Nothing near the eyes. No contacts, obviously; also no eye makeup, no new eye drops other than what the clinic gave you, no swimming, no dusty tourism, no smoke-filled bars. You're not fragile — the eye hasn't been touched yet — but you want it exactly as the scans saw it.

Sleep and hydrate. A dehydrated eye is a drier eye, and the first post-op days are all about dryness. Water on the in-between day helps more than water on the morning of.

Use the day for admin. Read the consent form properly. Confirm the balance payment method with the coordinator. Confirm the transfer. Set your hotel room up: curtains, water, the drops schedule written large, an audiobook queued. If a companion is with you, brief them on the afternoon; if you're solo, brief the hotel front desk. Then go and have an early, unexciting dinner. The whole point of the in-between day is to arrive at surgery morning with nothing left to decide.

Why the cosmetics rule is strict

Every year clinics turn people around at reception for eye makeup, and it always feels petty to the patient. It isn't. Mascara and eyeliner leave particles at the lash line that can be drawn under the flap. Moisturiser and sunscreen leave a film that can reach the eye when the lid speculum opens it wide. Perfume and cologne are an issue for a different reason: the laser environment is kept clean and controlled, and strong volatiles are unwelcome. The rule is total — face, eyelids, hair, neck — for a single morning. Do it properly the night before and it's easy.

What to wear

Something you can get in and out of without pulling over your head, because you'll be doing that in shields with blurry vision that afternoon. Layers help: clinics are cool, and you may be given a blanket under the laser. Flat, closed shoes. No jewellery around the face. Leave the watch if it's a bulky one; you'll be lying flat with your arms at your sides.

Sedation, if offered

Many Colombian clinics offer a low-dose oral anxiolytic before the procedure. It's optional. It takes the edge off the anxiety of lying still with your eye held open, and it makes the afternoon nap easier. The trade-off is that you're mildly foggy for a few hours and must be escorted. If you're solo with a driver, that's fine. If you're planning to be sharper afterwards for some reason, decline it. Decide the night before so you're not making the call in the chair.

The contact-lens question, one last time

You'll be asked at check-in when you last wore lenses. Answer honestly. The exam scans were taken after your cut-off; if you put lenses back in "just for dinner" between exam and surgery, the cornea may have shifted subtly and the surgeon needs to know. The full timeline by lens type is in When to stop contact lenses before LASIK. A surgeon who postpones because of an honest answer is doing the right thing; a patient who hides it is gambling with the outcome.

Things people forget

• The consent copy. If you were given the form on exam day to read at the hotel, it comes back with you, signed or unsigned. Details in the consent form article.
• The medication list, including anything from a dental appointment earlier in the trip.
• Sunglasses. The clinic usually gives you a pair, but yours are better and you'll want them for a week.
• Cash for the balance, if you're paying the remainder on the day and the clinic prefers a method that isn't your card. That's a question for the coordinator two days earlier — see Deposit and payment for LASIK abroad.
• Your hotel room set up for the afternoon: curtains that actually close, a bottle of water by the bed, the drops schedule written large on a piece of paper so you can read it squinting.

At the clinic: what you can expect to be asked

Check-in is a short interview. Your name and passport against the consent form. Any change in health since the exam — a cold, a new medication, an eye that feels irritated. The contact-lens question. Whether you ate. Whether you have a companion or transfer. Whether you understand the procedure and have any last questions. That's your final opening to ask something, and it's the moment to raise anything the surgeon said in the consult that doesn't match what's on paper.

After: the first six hours

You'll be told to go straight to the hotel and sleep with the shields on. Drops on a schedule that's frequent at first. No screens, no reading, no rubbing. Some burning and watering for a few hours is normal; that's why the nap is the plan. By evening you'll usually see well enough to walk to dinner and be surprised by the street signs. Day-1 check is the next morning, and after that the trip becomes a holiday with sunglasses. What your companion does in those six hours is in bringing a companion to LASIK abroad.

The short version

Clean face, glasses, light breakfast, one bag, a margin on the clock, and an honest answer to the contact-lens question. Everything else the clinic does.