Seeing famous actors e.g. Robin Williams, and Bruce Willis suffering from dementia made me wonder in later stages do the people still aware of death? We all know death because we know the process we learn from or it’s just that we instinctively aware of it?
I’m sorry for your loss and don’t want to take away from that significance, but I’d like to share some info. Just for general info so people can know what they’re seeing. Vision loss isn’t necessarily obvious to a fully-alert person. It’s not a black void in your vision, it’s a lack of image. A lack of image means a lack of signal, so your brain doesn’t see nothing, it processes nothing. You may be able to recognize a lack of vision if you know something is supposed to be there, but your brain will try to stitch together the information available. Point in case: both of your eyes have a blind spot a little up and a little outward from the center. It’s not just covered by your other eye because you still don’t see it when you close one eye. You can search it for a picture that partially disappears when getting closer.
I get occular migraines that involve distortion followed by central blindness in one eye. The “faces” I see are incredibly unnerving during those episodes. Last time, basically a 2" diagonal slice was removed from peoples faces at conversation distance from forehead to ear. Not a black spot, just gone with the remaining image stitched back together.
Indeed, the brain is very good at “filling in” holes in its senses. But in this case even after it was pointed out to him that he was missing part of his vision he didn’t seem to be capable of acknowledging or adapting to it, so it was a bit more than it just not being obvious. He seemed to be unable to comprehend that losing that part of his vision was something that was even possible. I suppose his brain was “filling in” more than just the hole in the vision itself. Since the damage was to the visual center of his brain rather than the eyes themselves this seemed like an understandable manifestation.
“Fortunately” by the time that happened he’d already become unable to walk on his own, so he didn’t end up crashing into stuff or otherwise having accidents. We just had to make sure to put the things that we brought to him over to his right side, where he could see them and interact with them more easily.
I’m sorry, friend. I could have worded my comment better for you to explain I just wanted to do a PSA. I lost one grandparent to alzheimers and another to dimentia. I can’t imagine what you went through, but I can understand what it’s like to watch someone lose themselves. I know what you mean by certain circumstances being fortunate by time they emerge. The alzheimers grandparent lost communication skills and seemed trapped in his body but the dimentia grandparent seemed aloof to her conditions. There was morbid comfort among us seeing her fade.
I hope you found comfort and peace somewhere along the way.
Thanks, don’t worry about the wording. I have enough distance from it at this point that I can discuss it in a largely clinical manner. I’m just hoping that the info has proven useful to others.