I'm getting close to the end here, I think.
I had cataract surgery on my right eye earlier this week. I ended up opting for laser-assisted surgery - as posted in another thread, the extra cost wasn't a deal-breaker for me, my surgeon didn't pressure me either way but felt slightly more comfortable with the laser procedure, and on balance I preferred any advantage I felt like I could get, no matter how slight, given the history of problems with my other eye.
A little pain a couple of hours after surgery, which was relieved by the first dose of the extensive eyedrop regimen. Otherwise, very little discomforte. I could see extremely well out of the right eye within about 6 hours after surgery, watched TV that night without problems.
At the first follow-up, the pressure in the operated eye was at 33, so they "burped" it (gross) and it immediately went down to 22. They added eye pressure drops to my regimen. Hopefully that will settle down.
I opted, as planned, for a monofocal lens set for distance, as I already have in the other eye. I had expressed a great deal of concern about the refractive error I had in the other eye - likely a result of the scleral buckle and the membrane I had at the time. The surgeon wanted to aim a little under in the new eye, because in his experience most refractive errors in high myopes are a result of overcorrection.
I'm expecting that is where I'll end up, a little undercorrected in my right eye - they tested me quickly at 20/20 in my first followup appointment, but I was probably squinting and didn't get all the letters. So I've got a touch of monovision, the "bad old" eye is crystal clear af the furthest distances but blurry within about six feet, the new eye currently becomes clear at around three feet but is a little blurred at the farthest distances. Because the new eye hasn't had a vitrecomy, I also have minor jelly-like floaters, nothing that bad but it does bring the acuity down a touch.
The old eye, while crystal clear, does have some distortion remaining from the ERM peel - mostly visible when looking at a circular object with only that eye, but my brain appears to compensate and eliminate it when using both eyes. I also still have a weird visual artifact in the center of my vision, a shimmering or vibrating dark patch that appears only when I first wake up or after exercise. May be pressure-related, maybe a blood vessel, who knows. It's minor and I don't notice it much. The PRK touchup was painful but well worth it, almost all of the buckle-related astigmatism is gone and the refractive error totally eliminated.
Binocularly, my distance vision is great - having just a little more trouble adjusting to the intermediate vision. For lack of a better description, it feels like I'm under water. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully, I'll adjust - while I'd prefer both eyes at plano, I was planning on wearing progressive glasses most of the time anyway, so I'll give it time for the vision to settle and then experiment with those. My inclination is that even if Lasik/PRK touchups are heavily discounted by my surgeon (which I think they are), I should probably leave well enough alone at this point. The benefit is that I can see myself in a bathroom mirror and can read reasonable sized text at arms-length, without glasses.
All in all, given how crappy my vision has been (in different ways) over the last year, I'm very pleased. It takes a long time to recover from a retinal detachment and all of its complications, but I would not have guessed I'd end up with such good vision, without contacts. Another follow-up today to check the pressure, then an appointment with the surgeon mid-week next week.
I think it's individual. In my case both were seriously affecting my vision and the membrane was growing so fast it needed to come out quickly. The downside was that because of all the interference, the iol measurements did not come out well, resulting in the need for later PRK. It took a few months for the retina to settle down enough from the peel to really tell what was going on. If I recall correctly, the Google can find some recent studies on doing the combined surgery.