35yo psc Cataract in one eye with high Rx both eyes, possible lens and target vision - near/int/far?

There are two other options that I did not mention because I would not recommend them. But for completeness they are:

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1. Correct your cataract eye to match your non cataract eye by targeting -7.5 D or so with the IOL. Then there would be no differential between the eyes. You could carry on wearing eyeglasses like you do now, but would need a progressive lens in the IOL eye to be able to read. The downside of doing this is that you are locking yourself into being highly myopic and needing thick glasses for life. To my thinking, while cataracts are a pain, they are also an opportunity to correct your vision for life to need no glasses or almost no glasses. Seems a shame to pass that opportunity up to resolve what could be a relatively short term issue. But, I am aware of some that have done it.
2. You could get Lasik on your non cataract eye now and correct it to plano, or even correct it to be -1.50 D to give you mini-monovision. There are some issues however. One is that it is expensive, and you may develop a cataract in the eye soon, requiring surgery which means it was all for naught. The other problem is that having Lasik done creates a problem in measuring your eyes for an IOL due to the disruption of the cornea topography. It increases the chances of a miss on the IOL power calculation. If you were to consider this, and I would not, you should be sure to get your eye measured for an IOL first and keep a record of these measurements. Some of the IOL formula calculators accept pre refractive surgery measurements to improve the accuracy of the calculation.

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   This said, if it were me, I would use a contact lens solution in the unoperated eye to give you mini-monovision and essentially go eyeglasses free. Then you will find out if that is an alternative when the time comes to do cataract surgery in the second eye. Contacts cost in the order of $1 a day when you only need them for one eye, and they don't disrupt your cornea with incisions like Lasik does.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the inputs. I had an appointment with Surgeon this morning and here is the notes.

1. He confirmed cataract is only in one eye and mentioned no advantage to delay the cataract operation as we have to deal with the left eye -7.75 Rx with no cataract and right with cataract now or later.
2. Two options were

   a. Get right cataract done with no vision correction. In this case, I will be using my current glasses like before cataract and most of the near reading will be done by left eye with no cataract.

   b. Get right eye cataract done with close to zero vision correction. In this case, I would need to wear contact lens on left eye or have LASIK done on it as it would be impossible to leave right eye corrected and left eye at -7.75D with glasses for brain to process.

   Either way my near reading would rely on my non-cataract eye (left).

3. He mentioned he will be using Technis eyehance lens only as it was proven with his patients and also covered by insurance.
4. He did mention most people develop YAG after cataract and it is a simple laser procedure nothing to worry about.
5. He also mentioned there is nothing I can do now to simulate post surgery scenario with contact lenses. Best I could do is to try using contact lenses and see if I am able to handle.

My thoughts

If there is no advantage delaying, I will probably get this done sooner and try contact lens meanwhile. If the contacts do not work for me, I will have to decide before surgery whether I should get it corrected considering I will get LASIK on left or leave the right cataract vision uncorrected.

What do you guys think? really appreciate all the inputs.