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I know many stroke patients have their vision affected by a stroke. My mom recently had a mild stroke which is affecting her vision. She feels her vision is unrelated to her stroke. My mom is focused related to her macular degeneration. I have tried to tell her it is related to the stroke.

A stroke affecting either side of the brain may cause problems with vision. This is because the visual pathways responsible for your sight involve both sides of the brain. For instance, a stroke can damage the occipital lobe, which is responsible for processing visual inputs. A stroke can also affect the brain stem, which handles visual balance, interpreting objects, and eye movements.

Vision problems that a person had before a stroke may also worsen after a stroke or add to any new visual impairment that it causes.

Several factors can affect your vision. They include what part of the brain was affected, how severe the stroke was, and how long before it was treated.

Common vision problems from stroke include:

• blurred vision
• loss of vision
• sensitivity to light
• seeing images that move
• seeing double images (called diplopia)
• sight loss in your field of vision

For example, someone who has had a stroke may lose a portion of their vision on one side. One may only see half of their normal vision in the right or left half of each eye’s field of vision. Sometimes, people might not realize or notice that they aren’t seeing a part of their normal field of vision.

Vision problems are very common after a stroke. In a study in 2019, about 60% of stroke patients have visual damage to some degree. However, the percentage of people who undergo signs varies widely among the types of loss.

I am grateful that my vision wasn’t affected by the strokes. I have poor sight without glasses or contacts. . I decided that I was not going to deal with contacts after the strokes.  Fortunately, I can see 20-20 with my glasses.