Very short-sighted all my life, first eye done for distance, and now I cannot read without glasses for the first time ever. Should the second eye be different?

I have worn strong glasses since I was eight. Minus eight and a half in both eyes, if that means anything to anyone. Cataract in the right eye done twelve days ago with a lens for distance because that is what the surgeon suggested and I did not really think about it.

The distance is unbelievable. I can see the church clock from my bedroom window. I cried a bit, not going to lie. BUT I have always read by taking my glasses off and holding the book close, every night of my life, and now with the right eye I cannot read a thing up close. The left eye still reads perfectly without glasses. With my old glasses on everything is wrong sizes and swimmy so I mostly go without and keep shutting one eye.

Second eye is booked for the middle of November. Part of me wants the same distance lens so they match and part of me wants the left one left short-sighted so I can still read in bed. Is that even allowed? Will they look at me like I am mad?

Not mad at all. I was offered monovision, one eye near and one far, and I did a contact lens trial and hated it, so I went distance both eyes. But plenty of people get on with it. The contact lens trial was a really good way to find out before it was permanent.

Pamela, it is entirely allowed, and you are asking exactly the right question at exactly the right time. The direct answer is that the target for the second eye is a choice you make with your surgeon before the lens is chosen, and leaving an eye mildly short-sighted for near work is a legitimate option, not an eccentric one. Lifelong high myopes lose something real when both eyes are set for distance, the ability to read close up without glasses, and many are surprised by how much they miss it.

The broad options for your second eye are: distance again, giving two matched distance eyes and readers for close work; a mildly short-sighted target in the second eye, so one eye is set for distance and one for near, which is monovision; or occasionally a mildly short-sighted target in both eyes, which would mean revisiting the first. Monovision suits some people very well and others not at all, and Betty's route of a contact lens trial first is a sensible way to test it, because your unoperated eye can be fitted with a lens at the planned near power. Your surgeon will also consider how different the two eyes would be, since too large a gap can be uncomfortable. The site's new guide to cataract surgery when you are very short-sighted sets out these choices and the trade-offs.

Two other points while you are in the gap. The swimmy, wrong-sized feeling through your old glasses is expected with a strong prescription; a contact lens in the left eye, if you have worn them before, often solves it better than glasses. And as a very short-sighted person you are at higher risk of retinal detachment after cataract surgery, so please know the signs: a sudden shower of new floaters, flashes of light, or a shadow or curtain coming across the vision in either eye needs same-day help. Ring the clinic and ask to discuss the target for the left eye before the date; they would far rather have that conversation now.

Bookmarking this, my sister is minus ten and having her first done next year. She is going to be exactly where you are Pamela.

Rang the clinic. The optometrist there was lovely and said lots of people ask, and they are going to try me with a contact lens in the left eye at the "near" setting for a week to see whether my brain copes with one near and one far. So I am a guinea pig.

Mr Lewis Pereira said:

Monovision suits some people very well and others not at all

Week of the trial done. I LOVED it. Read in bed every night without glasses, drove to my daughter's in the day without glasses. Nights driving were slightly less crisp than with both eyes sharp, so I will probably get a pair of glasses for night driving and be done with it.

Surgeon is happy to set the left for near. I feel so much better having actually chosen something this time instead of just nodding along.