Has anyone noticed that in the very early stages of dementia your LOs eyesight has fluctuated so that sometimes they can read and much of the time they cannot read? Lynn

Yes, Lynn. I remember that, for many years, my husband's glasses prescription would change from better to worse and better again. At one point, he was even told he did not require glasses to drive! He complains that he needs new glasses now but these bifocals are quite new [less than a year old] and I know that new glasses won't help the constant fluctuations in his vision. We do buy several pairs of the cheap reading glasses so he can change them off as required. Not that he can read any more, anyway, but he does like to look at the newspaper.

Thanks Pat. I am trying to help a friend whose mom is in the hospital right now. She does the show time thing well with her family so I went for a visit when no one else was around. She told me a few things that the family doesn't know and all sorts of red flags were going up for me. I am suggesting to my friend that they ask for the mom get a thorough neuro workup. She has several other symptoms as well as the fluctuating vision. Lynn

Vision disturbances occur in many neurodegenerative disorders.

My friend got a neuro visit for her MIL set up so it will be interesting to see what the dr. has to say. Hopefully not PDD, which would be my guess at the moment, not that I am a dr. but she has a number of observable symtoms......

Lynn
The eye problem with my hubby is huge........we've been through macular peel, retina detachment and now a cataract removal, not to mention at least 5 sets of new glasses in 18 months. He blames everything he is unable to cope with on his eye sight yet in actual fact he can SEE but can't comprehend what he's seeing. The Specialist is great and very understanding of the real problem but because hubby is so determined it takes a very tactful diagnosis to pacify the patient! Also some days are much better than others, but that is also part of the wretched disease!
Good luck .............Barb

Barb, we go through the same thing! I tell him, 'Honey, it's not your glasses--you just got those glasses. It's Lewy!'. And there's always something wrong with the door, his shavers, his chair, his bed...the list goes on. Everything is defective. So I just blame Lewy.
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Pat [64] married to Derek [80] for 34 years; husband dx PDD/LBD 2005, probably began 2002-2003; Stage 4. I am his caregiver at home.
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Hmm, that is interesting. My father just had both lenses removed, and exchanged by fake ones due to what we call grey star here. Now he sees stuff double sometimes. After reading this thread I guess we will never find out anymore what is Lewy and what are those surgeries.

Thanks for sharing.

Went through this with my MIL. Part of it is that spatial relations are off-they see curvy lines when we see straight.

I wasn't aware of fluctuating eyesight, but Mother went from being a voracious reader to never finishing a book -- pretty quickly. Then one day I saw her reading and she was running her finger along under the words. That was all back when things seemed relatively normal.

Garnet

My dad read 4 newspapers a day. Now he can't read at all. Sometimes his eyesight is ok, other times he doesn't know what he's seeing. His hearing is the same way. He is usually stone deaf, won't wear his hearing aids, and then his hearing can be so acute he can here you whisper on the other side of the room. This is a really strange disease with symptoms that come and go.
Lynn

Funny you should say that about the hearing. I noticed the same thing in my MIL. Sometimes she cannot hear out of her right ear and other times she is perfectly fine. 'Splains a lot! Funny disease

My husband has complained of "stopped up ears" for about 5-6 years. Which was probably around the onset. His eyesight is getting worse and worse. He was an avid reader and now we read for him. He loves baseball, but says sometimes he sees double players- luckily he can still follow baseball well enough that he can discount the additional players! HA

Do you notice fluctuations, like he can see well for a few minutes or more, or his hearing becomes really acute for some period of time?

Fluctuations? Absolutely! It seems that is the only constant theme to this entire disease process...it fluctuates! One day he's happy to report that he has no double vision, and two days later he complains again. Or he'll go for several days and not mention "stopped up ears" and then they're back. He also says that he can only read for about 10 minutes before the "words begin to melt together"... I wish there were some answers...very very frustrating