Has anyone else had eye Dr. say that eyes are fine but vision issues are cognitive?

This happened to my MIL. She has lost her vision as a result of Alzheimer's. There isn't a remedy for it. It will get worse as the disease progresses. It really makes care and quality of life a bigger challenge.

My late husband had Lewy body dementia. Although his eyes tested fine more than once he had trouble with his "eyesight".
As his brain was deteriorating it was affecting how he saw things.
Let me use as an example, Have you ever looked for something really hard and found it was sitting right under your nose? In many ways that is how my husband's brain worked. He either couldn't "see" an object because his brain didn't recognize it, or he didn't know what the object was even though he could "see" it so the object was dismissed in his mind. I hope this makes some sense.
He would also complain that his eyes were giving him trouble yet there were times he couldn't see something sitting close by but could recognize a vehicle traveling down the road in front of our house. Oddly, our house sits a couple hundred feet from the road :/

Yes, my husband was unable to “see” things that were right in front of him. He couldn’t distinguish. He also lost naming, so saying pick up your fork had no meaning. Later he lost his peripheral vision. Teepa Snow has a good video about tunnel vision. Best wishes, it’s a hard disease.

The eyes might be working fine - after all, they are just a lens that receives light. But if the brain cannot process the image, then there are visual impairments. (This is quite common after a stroke, BTW.)

Ask about switching from the current medication to something else.

Campbec. This is interesting to me because I have been thinking my father has trouble processing what he is seeing, and hearing phone messages and automated answer and response systems.

My mom had numerous tests completed by a psychologist at the recommendation of her neurologist. One of the test sections was on visual cognitive measurement. She showed as having “visual dementia” meaning her brain isn’t correctly processing what she’s seeing. I’ve noticed issues in her reading clocks, scoreboards, CC on TV, etc. Visual dementia is a part of Alzheimer’s from what I’ve learned.

Yes I have and this person had a stroke from which he was able to get therapy & worked to get back to ambulating with a cane. He wanted to get his drivers license renewed (another entire issue). I accompanied him to the ophthalmologist office for his exam & be the person’s backup. It was a bad exam; the person due to the stroke damage had only half vision in each eye thus peripheral vision was gone. Long story short his eyes were fine but not getting the signals from the brain due to the diseased oxygen starved tissue where the CVA occurred.
Very disappointing as that gentleman won’t be able get a license ever again. I’m not a doctor & this is just my $0.02.

My husbands ability to look straight down has been lost. It takes an enormous amount of energy for the brain to keep the eyes focused or to correct a turned eye. Deteriorating eyesight is an early function that the brain will start to bypass and use the energy on something else

Thanks cwillie! There's a lot of good info there.

I found an article that explains how Alzheimer's can cause vision problems:

https://www.visionaware.org/info/for-seniors/health-and-aging/vision-loss-and-the-challenges-of-aging/alzheimer%27s-disease/how-alzheimer%E2%80%99s-disease-affects-vision-and-perception/12345

My Mom was tested and found that her Peripheral vision in her left eyes was caused by her Dementia.

Thanks cwillie! Yes she had a visual field test. The Dr. was pretty matter of fact that it's not an issue with her eyes. She had a brain CT a few yrs ago which didn't show anything unusual. It would make sense to me that your eyes can be affected the same way your speech and ability to find words can Like there s a disconnect and your brain can't process what your mouth should say or your eyes are seeing.

Did s/he do a visual field test? Has she had a brain scan to rule out a physical cause?

If the vision loss is due to her medication that is a pretty alarming side effect with a huge impact on her quality of life and I would be asking the prescribing doctor for changes.