Anyone remember when they got their first pair? Here’s my granddaughter on our way back from the eye doctor. All the way home she was marveling at being able to read street names, car numbers at a distance etc. “Oooh…..look at those leaves on the trees!” 
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For me, in third or fourth grade, when my mother realized I couldn’t read the blackboard at school. And my most vivid memory when driving home from the eye doctor with my new glasses is…wow! all the trees have leaves, not just green!
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I got my first pair of eyeglasses at age 13. I was a non-stop avid reader. I suffered from severe headaches which the doctor couldn’t diagnose. Turns out my eyes focused slightly differently from each other. The headaches stopped when I got glasses.
It wasn’t until I was over 60 that an optometrist diagnosed that I have “prism,” which is an imbalance in the muscles of the eyes. He said I could have corrected it with exercises in youth but it’s too late now.
He said, “I’ll bet that you could never catch a ball.” He was right - I can’t play tennis, catch a ball or play baseball. Apparently my eyes see the ball in two different places. That explains something I always wondered about. I have excellent eye-hand coordination and can paint miniatures. So why couldn’t I catch a ball? The miniatures are close but the ball was approaching fast from a distance.
I will get cataract surgery on May 6. Plain vanilla lenses. The toric lenses that can correct astigmatism can’t correct prism so I will need glasses anyway.
Wendy
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I think my granddaughter might well be in a similar situation to you @WendyBG . Daughter and I much closer to @Wyomingtim . Maya had already had a couple of eye exams prior to my my daughter giving up on the albatross and no issues. So, shortly after the separation….and this 50:50 arrangement for joint custody and decision making was foisted on them by the courts (a strategy that guarantees LOADSA billable hours when one party and their lawyers are super high conflict)….Maya started acting up in class and school work dropped off. She’s in the gifted and talented program and usually outpaces a good many of her classmates so the drop off was very noticeable.
Teacher recommended an assessment at a specific place dealing with these issues in smart kids….which was 4 days of testing for a fee of $3k and change. The wankertron (with 50% decided that a $150 online assessment at a place he found would be as good) We paid and shut him down with the insight that his place was a recognized Adderall mill.
Turns out she had something called Streff Syndrome (new to me too so I did the Google thing) Involved quite a long period of eye exercises designed to address the difference in tracking between her eyes and that, along with my daughter’s persistence and a good, problem solving lawyer got custody down to almost full for her. ….meaning back to calm and security in her own home with every other weekend with the Lump of Foul Deformity. Obviously didn’t address refraction issues directly but some Involved focus as well as training the tracking…and Maya is now 9, vs 5 or 6 with her mom and me.
Also fairly new on the scene….and to me….are something called myopia management lenses. Designed to slow the rate of progression. Regular prescription with a defocusing zone around the periphery. I can’t fathom how they work but thete appears to be enough sturdy evidence of efficacy to encourage grandma’s use of her credit card!
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Good luck on your surgery!
Both of my parents just had cataract surgery a few months ago (and my MIL is having hers in 2 weeks from now). They were given what sounded like an odd option to me - their doctor told them that they can get different lenses installed in each of their eyes. One for nearsight and one for farsight. And they both took that option. My mom’s brain adapted to it almost immediately (2-3 days) and my dad’s brain adapted to it also relatively quickly (6-7 days). In fact, a few weeks ago, my mom went to the DMV and got the “corrective lenses” note removed from her drivers license!!!
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No but I remember when plastic lenses first came out. I had already broken some glasses that fell to the floor. I wondered if plastic could be as clear as glass ones. I tried bifocals which gave me headaches. A cousin convinced me to try multifocals. That’s what I use now.
The Captain
That’s tempting and I’m glad it worked for them. But I already have the experience of headaches if my eyes are different so I don’t want to take the chance.
Wendy