Had a vitrectomy last year after a retinal tear caused by a blow to the head. Within three months a cataract started to develop. It progressed fairly rapidly to the point where I had the ability to focus on fine detail at a distance of a few inches, but anything more distant was a blur.
A couple of months ago the cataract was removed and the natural lens replaced with a single focus distance biased lens. Remarkably, I found that while I now had perfect distance vision, I could also bring the eye to focus well enough to read without glasses in reasonable light. So I now have 20/20 vision in both eyes and am free to drive or carry out other activities without needing to wear glasses. Weird after 30 years of automatically slipping a pair of glasses on every time I drove. The improved vision in the treated eye seems to have dragged up the performance of the slightly myopic untreated eye. Quite amazing.
The NHS were brilliant, no complaints. I had to wait a few weeks for an appointment for treatment, but it was all done for free. The operation is painless, but the intensity of the lights used by the surgeon can be uncomfortable. You knew there had to be a catch? ;-)