@Thomas,
Yep. (Optical correction restores her vision to 20/20. The eye doc gave her a couple of portable lenses [her prescription] and sent her out to the lobby to take a look outside -- sozlet's reaction was, well, trippy. Lots of "wows!" involved, and gasping, and grinning, and "I can see every little thing...!")
It happened gradually enough that she seems to have thought that's just how humans see -- not very far -- and this is a bit mind-blowing for her.
Re: surgery, I've talked to a bazillion friends who have gone through this with their kids (seriously, it seems like more have than haven't), and am feeling calmer about it all. Sozlet remains sanguine. Her friends are promising to visit bearing ice cream, and generally being sweet, and she's feeling that sort of celebrity-ish thing when kids get very sick or very hurt. All without any pain... yet. (It's gonna be bad, but we knew that, and hopefully the really painful part will be relatively short.)
Bad news -- we got the date but not the time for the surgery, and just got the time -- 3 PM. This is bad news because she's not allowed to eat after midnight the day of. We'll stuff her Sunday and let her stay up late so she sleeps in and there is less time for extreme hunger to strike. (The girl's an eater.)