Why is my distance prescription is stronger after cataract surgery?

[ChiSandy]

I’d gradually been developing bilateral cataracts for several years. In Sept. 2014, I was refracted (progressives) as Sphere -.25 right and -1 left, with a reading correction of +2.50. (couldn’t use drugstore readers due to astigmatism). My cataracts were ripening then but not yet causing problems. Then in 2015 I started having poor contrast vision (people & things looked silhouetted when backlit such as through a window) and by June 2016 I had trouble seeing unlit roads at night without my brights on, and needed both a flashlight and magnifying glass to read small print on menus, especially on tinted paper and in dim light. Push came to shove when during a refraction (due to misplacing my glasses), the optometrist not only couldn’t correct my reading beyond 2.50, she couldn’t even visualize my fundi through the cataracts (but I still needed glasses anyway, unfortunately, I don’t have access to that interim Rx). So after that I went to my opthalmologist, and we decided that to avoid glare (and because Medicare is stingy) I would get monovision lenses implanted to correct for distance. Had first the R done in mid-Sept. and then L done in early Nov.; finally got re-refracted a month after the L surgery, just before Thanksgiving. That new prescription is -.75 R and -1.50 L, with reading correction unchanged (+2.50). Only my astigmatism correction (cylinder & access) is stronger on the new prescription.

What gives? I thought that depending on which monovision lens was implanted, it would result in either greatly improved distance or reading acuity—instead, according to my 2014 and post-op 2016 prescriptions, I am now more nearsighted and just as presbyopic. What’s even more confusing is that I perceive improved acuity with & w/o glasses, distance & reading—the DMV removed the “corrective lenses” restriction from my license (though I feel I do see better with my glasses on, especially at night; and because of little-to-no astigmatism now, I can even get by with 1.50 readers or no glasses at all in bright light) compared to my pre-op vision with glasses.  Can it be that my distance acuity had significantly worsened between Sept. 2014 and June 2016? Or did my ophtho. (who did my latest refraction) decide to correct me more sharply than before, because my clear new lenses make that possible when the cataracts couldn't? (i.e., was my distance vision previously under-corrected)?  If I could dig up my June 2016 prescription, would that explain it, or is something else at play here?

[JohnHaganMD]

duplicate answered elsewhere