indifference to eyeglasses

Timmyd · July 11

When DW was diagnosed about 5 years ago, she was wearing contact lenses. Soon after diagnosis, she willingly changed to eyeglasses. Recently, she is increasingly indifferent to wearing her eyeglasses. She is now stage 6. Having been with her during her last two eye exams, I doubt her prescription has changed much. She has worn corrective lenses since she was a child and I know how much she has depended upon them throughout her life. I am not sure what my role is in this. I continue to offer her the glasses every few hours. Sometimes she will wear them for a few hours and other times she just immediately puts them down.

Any thoughts?

Jgirl57 · July 11

I think you are doing great. Offer them but don’t force the issue. I do think my DH takes his off glasses when his eyes feel dry or tired.

dcare45 · July 11

Hi Timmyd

We are going through that also. About 6.5 years in. DW doesn’t seem to care to wear them or not. She can’t read anymore but can occasionally pick out words from printed material without glasses which leads me to believe she can see without the glasses. I’m real protective of the glasses because her participation in an Optical exam would be pointless and she snapped the spare set. We wear them if we go away or to Adult Enrichment but I don’t worry about it too much around the house.

Goodlife2025 · July 11

We are close to your situation here as well. A difference has been as the day goes on DW will pick up glasses and put them on (on the top of her head). The other day she had somehow managed to get three pairs, two sunglasses and her regular glasses, all sitting on the top of her head. Now days I just reach up and help her with "that". She can hardly read anymore so the regular glasses have been less and less used over time. Sunglasses have been a surprise to me, she has always had such sensitivity to the sun but nowadays days doesn't seem to notice as much that the glasses she is wearing are not actually on her eyes.

Kat63 · July 11

My DH is stage 6, early 7. He will no longer wear his dentures or his glasses. The dentures disappeared about a year ago and i never found them. I have only given him soft food for some time, so not a big deal. He stopped wearing his glasses just a couple months ago. I tried for about a week to put them on in the morning and he would just take them back off so I stopped trying. Discarding their dentures and eyeglasses is listed as characteristics of Stage 6 on the DBAT scale.

Bowerbird · July 11

Alzheimer's can lead to changes in how the brain processes vision. She may be able to see, but cannot process what she's seeing, so in a way it may be all the same thing to her, with or without glasses.

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/diseases/alzheimers-disease-dementia-eye

jgreen · July 11

Dear @Timmyd

Visual changes are a big aspect of our LO’s losses in the dementia progression. It might be the time where eyeglasses aren’t going to make a difference. I am sharing an older video from Teepa Snow that gives good examples of visual decline and how that is affecting our LO’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaUsRa5kNyw

She has other videos. Just type in ‘visual changes in dementia’ or ‘Teepa Snow and visual changes’ as your search and I believe you will find several options.

I am noticing DH puts his head down to ‘see’ his plate when he eats now. Does not make much eye contact when we eat at the table. I have learned his ‘binoculars’ are the reason.

So sorry! And as @Jgirl57 offered, offer the eyeglasses but don’t force the issue. Sending you big hugs. 💝

[Deleted User] · July 11

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H1235 · July 11

My mom has always worn glasses. She had cataract surgery a year ago and now only needs glasses for reading (I really don’t think she does much reading anymore). I got her some readers and she said they worked well, but she hated that she had to find her glasses whenever she wanted to read something (it is a pain). She really wanted to buy a pair of bifocal glasses (clear on top and prescription for reading on the bottom). I put her off thinking it just made no sense to spend $500+ on glasses when the $10 readers was all that’s really needed. I was also concerned about her losing them and wondered if she would even wear them. She is in a nursing home now and on Medicaid. She convinced the visiting eye doctor this is what she needed and they were covered 100%. She gave me an I told you I needed glasses. I have only seen her wear them one time since she got them.

Biggles · July 12

Thankyou Timmyd for bringing the glasses issue up and the responses answer my questions. DH had his cataracts done 3 years ago his left eye has never been good probably because he fought the eye specialist when he was on the operating table. It took 5 people to hold him down to complete the opp, second eye he was put under. Anyway up until 6 months ago he was still wearing his glasses but now he wears them for a very short time and takes them off, he isn’t interested in putting them back on. I may just leave them off and not offer them to him. He loves his glasses, has about 6 old pairs puts them in cases and into the cupboard then takes them out and starts all over again but isn’t really interested in wearing them anymore.

psg712 · July 15

Over her last year, my mom often removed her glasses and just held them in her hand. Often dropped them on the floor. They were terribly scratched up but there was no way she could have cooperated meaningfully with an eye exam. Plus the expense of making new ones made no sense if she was just going to keep taking them off.

Sunfish47 · July 15

My DH had 2 pairs prescription eyeglasses (for distance and watching tv) from the eye dr. They were expensive. He has since lost one pair and I do try to keep track of the remaining pair if possible, and try to get him to wear them. But he always hides things (wallet, his money, eyeglasses, etc) from the imaginary people he’s convinced will steal from him during the night when he’s asleep. 😂🤣
DH also has several pairs of cheap readers from the dollar store that he will insist on wearing when watching tv or when we go out to go some place.
It seems to me that his vision has now changed such that he’s not seeing that well anymore - no matter if he’s wearing the dr prescribed eyeglasses or the dollar store readers or even no glasses at all.

Timmyd · July 16

I want to thank everyone for their comments on this subject. There have been a number of "gut punch" moments for me during this journey with DW: the formal diagnosis, when she could not be left alone, incontinence…. Not wanting to wear the glasses that she has always depended upon to see is yet another.🙁

persevere · July 16

Good discussion. Same situation here. I know she sees better with them but she doesn’t really seem to care. When we’re in the car sometimes I put her prescription sunglasses on her. But lately I’ve wondered if that’s a good idea or not since dark colors and shadows can cause dementia patients problems.

indifference to eyeglasses

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