Alzheimer's and vision

[Loopylu]

With my Mum it was her hearing. We kept changing her hearing aid batteries, having them cleaned, etc, even got new ones, her ‘hearing’ continued to be a problem. But she would get annoyed when asked if she could hear, I worked out in the end that she could ‘hear’ me, but struggled to make sense of what I was saying. Finally I wrote her notes (a follow on from the white board during the Covid distancing). Of the 2, her hearing or my husbands sight, for me the ‘hearing’ was worst as it made communication and feeling ‘connected’ to her so difficult. There sense of touch goes too, my husband can’t tell when he has small things in his fingers or hand and often holds me too hard, hurts me grabbing my arm …. I have to watch him round the grandchildren. This is a truly dreadful disease.

My father, who has Vascular dementia, also has both hearing and sight problems. Like you, I find the hearing loss incredibly hard and for exactly the same reasons you have said. Since his hearing has become worse I really feel a sense of loss as communication is incredibly hard and can cause all sorts of upsets when trying to have a conversation.
My dad says his glasses don't help his eyesight and he refuses to wear his hearing aids.

 

[Knitandpurl]

Maybe the hearing aids aren’t helping either and it’s cognition, but not wearing the glasses and hearing aids gives them a ‘reason’ to themselves (makes them feel better about it). My OH talks quite well , he spends some considerable time every day telling me (and anyone else who will listen), how he’s no worse than when he was diagnosed 5 years ago and can still do x y and z. None of which is true if course. Writing notes helped communication with my Mum, OH cannot read anymore so very glad that so far he can make some kind of sense of most of what’s said to him.

 

[Msolo]

I have found speaking slowly and clearly that seems to help, but trying to talk about things like what is in the paper or what is going on in the family he cannot get his head around it as he is not interested, vision is something that is more difficult as you cannot do anything about that the glasses he has are the best they can give him, he does nothing expect watch tv all day and says he cannot see the screen clearly, even with a big 60 inch screen. I think hearing is the worse because also cuts me off from having a conversation with him as we use to.

 

[Cardinal]

@Jaded'n'faded - I think you are right, so when he says 'what am I looking at' it is most likely that his eyes are sending the signals but the images are just not processed or understood properly. I know dementia affects everyone differently and it seems to have had the most impact on my Dad's vision/visual perception. Thanks for everyone who took the time to reply

Check with his memory clinic. There is a rare type of dementia that effects vision and depth perception. I have a friend who’s husband had this. There was nothing they could do to improve his vision but there were several things my friend did to help her husband. She met with a low vision specialist who gave her suggestions of products she could get and things she could do to make her husbands life a little easier.

 

[Neicy]

To see requires 2 things - eyes and a working brain. It's the brain that processes what the eyes see and in dementia that process breaks down. So spatial awareness/depth perception becomes a problem, often leading to falls, etc.

Other processing problems can include things like seeing a leaf on the grass as a bird, a shadow as a person, a dark-coloured mat as a hole in the ground or not being able to understand that the people on the TV are not in the room. Other people struggle to see things right in front of them. So you say, 'Your tea is on the table,' but the person first has to process what 'tea' might look like then try to identify it nearby. (And they need to hold onto that thought for long enough to have worked out they're looking for a cup/mug!) These are things a normal brain just does automatically - language = image - but for a person with dementia, everything has to be worked out from scratch.

Example: when my mum was in the care home and could still make it to the loo, she'd go into her ensuite but would fail to recognise the toilet even though she was standing in front of it. Just too much processing involved for her damaged brain.

Also, dementia can affect different bits of the brain more severely than others. Maybe your dad has particular damage in the visual cortex?

perfect explanation! My SO has no idea where to floor is, misses the mark when he is handed something, has no idea what a picture is, can’t read, hold a plate level, pee INTO the toilet, etc. it’s very frustrating to constantly follow him around cleaning up after him, making sure a chair hasn’t been left pulled out, wondering how I’m going to repair all the woodwork in the house because the walker gets rammed into it. This is not the retirement I envisioned.

 

[northumbrian_k]

Hi @Neicy and welcome to Dementia Support Forum. You will find this to be a helpful and friendly community of people who have experience of many aspects of dementia.You've made a great start by contributing to this thread. Mutual support from other members is the lifeblood of this forum. Please do keep posting. You can ask questions, join in with conversations, share with people who truly understand and let off steam when you need to.

 

[Gosling]

Hello @Neicy and just a welcome to this friendly and supportive forum from me also.
You are so right when you say this is not the kind of later life you had envisaged. Having to constantly be on your guard for trip hazards, health hazards etc...It's very very wearing.
Please do have a good look around the forums and do ask if there is anything that you feel members can help with. Hopefully you will already have seen how members understand here,

 

[SueC7]

Is the room bright enough for him when you are trying to show him things? Have you tried an illuminated magnifying glass?

Does he show any signs of hallucinating?
My mum is registered as Severely Sight Impaired. She started losing her sight before her dementia started, she started to hallucinate. I did some research and realised she had a recognised condition. "Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) causes people who have lost a lot of sight to see images that aren't there. Medically, these are known as hallucinations. CBS hallucinations are caused by sight loss and are not a sign that you have a mental health problem."
Before her dementia, once she knew what it was, she enjoyed the pictures she was seeing. She has some peripheral vision, one eye is fuzzy in the middle. Her ability to recognise faces has almost gone, she recognises the shape of a person more. Strangely she can still spot and pick up a tiny crumb on the table or even the floor.
She is also very hard of hearing and doesn't wear hearing aids. The two problems together mean that her world finishes about two feet away from her face. Anything outside of that, particularly if it's noisy, just confuses and upsets her and she can get quite aggressive.