After completing the laser vision correction surgery on Melanie’s eye, the doctor flushed it out with water – a strange sensation, Melanie remembered, because she could see the water being sprayed across her eye and could feel it trickling down the side of her face but could not feel it on her anesthetized eye.
Once the laser sequence ends, laser eye correction patients have slightly different experiences. When Bruce’s surgery was over, the doctor put some drops in his eye, including an antibiotic to prevent infection and an anti-inflammatory medication to minimize discomfort.
He then placed a clear contact tens in Bruce’s eye to protect the cornea and decrease pain. Bruce sat up and looked across the room. There was an assistant standing a few feet away and, despite the fact that the contact lens made his vision somewhat cloudy, Bruce could read the man’s name tag. “A total sense of euphoria came over me,” Bruce remembered. “I wasn’t blind, and the bonus was that I could really see.”