I had my first cataract surgery clear back in 2009, at that time they would only remove the cataract when it was large enough or what they called "ripe". I told them right then that if they would do the second eye that I would pay for it myself, I liked it that much. Then fast forward to 2016 and my optometrist told me that they were now just doing it, that is as long as you had a cataract. I was signed up within a week to get it done.
Now after another 5 years I have zero problems with distance vision but when it comes to reading I'll likely pull out some reading glasses. It still bugs me when I am doing something and have to get close to what I am doing and I have to go find my glasses so that I can see what I am doing. They do have bifocal replacement lenses that I could of gotten but I never did hear much good from the reviews that I read about them.
But like you said 20 or so minutes of surgery and you are kicked out of the door for the ride home. I was seeing good enough that I think that I could of driven myself home but I was glad that there was someone with me to do the driving. The next day on the follow up we went to lunch afterwards and my brother in law looked at my one eye and told me that it was as big as a saucer, it was still that dilated.
