jgc,
I think that monovision is for those people who are going from nearsighted to farsighted. I can't remember what I read about it. I had lasik done 2 months ago tomorrow. My vision was nearsighted 20/40 in my left eye, 20/50 in my right with a rather high level of astigmatism and I was also slightly farsighted in my right eye. I haven't had any close-up vision loss. My only problems have been dryness while healing (which gets better day by day and seems to be related to my environment at this point) and due to the slight farsightedness in combination with nearsightedness in my right eye, I have a feeling of my right eye pulling a little when I am looking at letters or numbers at a distance. That is just because my eye was used to one way of dealing with that near/farsighted disaster and it is taking some time for it to adjust itself to being a fully functioning eye. BTW...my eyesight is now 20/15 as of my last check up Feb. 2. That means that I am seeing better than 20/20. Have you been to a Lasik specialist yet? And, if so, were they the ones who told you that you need monovision? It doesn't sound like it to me but, then again, I may not entirely understand why people need monovision. Anyway, talk to a lasik specialist. Find out if you are a candidate. They should be able to tell you whether or not you will end up loosing your close-up vision.
Good luck with your decision.