What could cause such a dramatic improvement in hyperopia?

Hi there,

I hope someone out there might have some answers but this is a strange one, so I'm not too sure.

Over the past 3 days my mother (62 yrs) has found her vision to be blurred when wearing her glasses watching TV. On taking off her glasses, she noticed that her sight was much better without the glasses. She tested her sight reading a newspaper and found she could read the larger print easily from a distance. As she was surprised at this development she visited her optician today. He tested her eyes and said he cannot believe the improvement in her vision, left eye particularly. He quizzed her about what she was doing differently and eventually recommended she see her GP immediately. ON examination of her eyes, he could find no variations or abnormalities.

She visited her GP this afternoon who on reading the referral from her optician said she had never heard of such a dramatic improvement before. She has made an urgent appointment for her with an Opthalmic surgeon and said she may need to then see a neurologist for a CAT and MRI scans.

Has anyone heard of this vision improvement before? Is it a precursor to some other illness. I see diabetes is often associated with vision, but vision damage, not improvement???

The only thing that perhaps might be a contributing factor is the fact she had an eyelid lift (blephoplasty?) 6 months ago. Having read the forums though, I didn't think that her upper eyelid were droopy enough to have caused her far sightedness. Am I wrong in this assumption?

I am really quite concerned about this as my first thoughts were perhaps there was some change in the brain that could have this side effect.

My mother has a crazy theory! We were on holidays recently and she got suncream in her eyes which caused her great discomfort for a day or two. Streaming, red, itchy eyes. She is wondering if perhaps her retina was burnt which might have had the same effect as Laser surgery (I know it sounds crazy, but we're clutching at straws here).

Any bright ideas, suggestions (and don't even go down the miracle route :)), observations or details of similar experiences would be greatly appreciated and welcomed.

Nicole