Halos around headlights three weeks after surgery. Did I pick the wrong lens?

Three weeks out from my first eye and mostly delighted, print is sharp, crossword is back, no complaints in daylight.

But at night, every headlight and streetlamp has a ring around it, like looking at the moon through a thin cloud. I paid extra for a multifocal lens because I badly wanted rid of glasses after fifty years, and now I am lying awake wondering if I have bought myself a permanent light show. My daughter drove me home from dinner on Saturday because I did not fancy the wet road with all the rings.

Surgeon mentioned "some visual phenomena" at the consultation but it went past me at the time. Anyone with a multifocal further out than me, do the rings fade? And should I pick differently for the second eye? Second guessing myself rather badly this week.

Different lens, same rings, for what it's worth. I have plain monofocals in both eyes and I still had glare and faint halos for the first couple of months, wet nights were the worst. Somewhere around month three I realised I had stopped noticing them. The eye and the brain seem to need a season to make friends with the new lens, whichever type it is.

Three weeks is very early days. I would not be redesigning the plan for eye two off the back of week three.

My surgeon called it neuroadaptation and said months, not weeks, before judging anything. She was right in my case. Hold your nerve Ken.

A few general points that may steady this thread. Rings around lights are among the most common early findings after lens surgery, and with multifocal designs they are expected rather than a sign anything is wrong: the optics that give you both distances create concentric zones, and a point of light at night shows you those zones directly. For most people the effect is strongest in the early weeks and fades in prominence over roughly three to six months as the brain learns to filter it, exactly the adaptation June describes. The site's guide to glare and haloes after cataract surgery covers what typically settles, what can linger, and the small number of symptoms that should be reported promptly rather than watched.

On the second eye: that decision genuinely belongs in a conversation with your own surgeon once this eye has had time to settle, they can measure how you are actually adapting rather than guess from a forum post. Both matching multifocals and a deliberate mix have their place, and which suits you depends on findings none of us here can see.

What I would not do is drive at night before you feel safe doing so. Let your own confidence, and your surgeon's advice at review, set that timetable.

Update from month four, since I hated finding threads that just stopped. The rings are maybe a quarter of what they were, I notice them if I look for them and forget them if I don't. Drove home in the rain last week without a thought. Went ahead with the matching multifocal in the second eye in December and would do it again, no glasses anywhere in the house. Not saying my choice is your choice, but the fade is real.