Need help with inability to use computer, read or watch TV
 

I have had PCS for 4 months, following a mild concussion which turned into a severe relapse 10 days later when I started pushing myself again.

I have been doing acupuncture, some cranial sacral work, nutrient IV's and supplements (fish oil, gingko, etc), but many of the PCS symptoms still persist.

I'm still unable to use a computer, watch TV or read for any length of time. I also can't be around crowds or more than a few close friends (can't handle complex social interaction).

I would like to know what others have done that helped with these types of symptoms (especially the computer, reading problems). I've seen some posts on vision therapy, but don't know if that's what I need - my actual vision is okay.

Thanks!

How do you know your eyes are okay?
 

Have you been to a neuro-ophthalmologist or a neuri-optometrist? That is the only way to know that your eyes are really okay. I had my eyes checked directly after my accident, and nothing was wrong with my actual eyes. It's the connection between your eyes and your brain that could be the problem. There are several possible treatments, including vision therapy.

I have to wear sunglasses all the time. I can only be on the computer for short amount of time, though it's getting better. I also use eyedrops, and that does help me. I had nine different things wrong with my vision per the neuro optometrist. Other people can speak to other possible reason for your symptoms, but it really could be your eyes.

Hello,
Perhaps if you explain a bit more what happens when you do these things... you say it's not your vision so what happens? Do you get a headache? My problems with computers, reading and tv are that my eyes get fatigued, blurry and sore and also my brain can't handle it and I get a headache or confused. I know my eyes are part of my problem though but maybe not yours.

The answer is probably as simple as.. don't do it until your brain feels it can handle it. Quiet environments with low stimulation are the best way to heal. As you get better overall, with proper nutrition, supplements, rest, then you will be able to tolerate all the things you mentioned a little bit longer and then longer as time goes on.

There may be suggestions to make some of those things a little easier or ease the symptoms you're getting so let us know what they are and we will see what others say.

CC

From my own recent experience of these symptoms going away, I restricted my TV viewing to 1 hour before bed, and limited my use of the computer to 10 minutes at a time. Also turning the brightness down on the devices is important as well.

My brain can't handle it (computer, reading, TV) and I also tend to get an achey feeling in the area behind the eyes and even deeper into the brain behind that. Sometimes the achiness is also on top of the head or near the forehead.

I also get fatigued from these activities, although I also have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome so I've had pretty severe fatigue from that for many years. But I'm much more tired since the head injury. My husband has been working from home for 4 months taking care of me.

I've been taking clonazepam and doxepin to help me sleep, because I started having severe sleep problems after the concussion. I wonder if these drugs might be making it harder to recover. But I need sleep to recover!

Can you tell me what is involved with the vision therapy? How do I know I need if I need it?

Thanks

Go to a neuro-optometrist or a neuro-opthamologist!
 

That is the only way to find out if your eyes are causing some of your problems. If you are having vision-related problems, they may give you glasses with prisms or prescribe vision therapy. Don't wait like i did! I wasted months of my recovery not knowing what was wrong and doing vestibular therapy when my eyes were really most of the problem!

I made an appointment with a neuro-optometrist to see if I need vision therapy.

I would think that the vision therapy doesn't address symptoms like inability to be in complex social situations (groups of more than 3 or so), or the extreme fatgue I've had with PCS. Did you have any of these other symptoms? Did vision therapy help with them or did they just go away?

Thanks

Getting prisms and doing vision therapy has been enormously helpful..lifechanging. But I still struggle with noise and public spaces. If you can reduce the brain load from vision dysfunction, you free more space for other cognitive activities. The noise factor is SLOWLT getting better..but still a huge challenge. I am trying to slowly expose myself to more and more noise to allow the brain to make new pathways. That is the only solution, I think. Build up the tolerance level. It really is about baby steps.

You will improve but it is hell getting there.
Hang in there!

That's great!
 

What other docs have you been to? Have you done any physical therapy?

Yes, I used to have cognitive problems and problems in crowded situations. I also even had problems having lunch with my friends/coworkers when I was still working. I would usually just be very quiet and be unable to follow the conversation. I just tried to fake my way through it. Apparently, my friends really noticed something was wrong, but didn't directly confront me about it. At the time, I was unaware that I had postconcussion syndrome. Anyway, it just took time truly resting for this these symptoms to go away. My vision issues are my only remaining symptoms. I have severe dizziness with certain movements and extreme light sensitivity. So take heart! If you treat yourself right, these symptoms can go away. I got gradually better over the course of six months of resting, though my cognitive symptoms lifted rather drastically.

I posted on the Hope and healing sticky giving some advice. Check it out if you're interested. Good luck to you. Let us know what the neuro-op says!

I have had the same problems for over a year and a half: severe eye strain, light senstivity, and severe sound sensitivity (among other things). I have to severely restrict reading, computer use, and TV. Check out these two threads I started awhile back on ways of making your computer more accessible:

Tips for working with light sensitivity:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread163832.html

Making your computer more accessible:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread166767.html

If you can afford it, it is worth getting deep pressure massage, especially around the shoulders, neck, and back. Tension in these muscles can create tension in the muscles in the face and temples, exacerbating eye strain. It might also be a good idea to try a good chiropractor--preferably one that you can get a good reference on.

Vision therapy and vestibular therapy are both worth a shot. Light and sound sensitivity can result from vestibular problems, as visual and auditory processing affect the vestibular system and vice versa (for example, that's why it's much easier to balance on one foot with your eyes open than with your eyes closed; your vision plays a role in balance).

The only other answer I can think of is rest, rest, and more rest. To preserve your sanity, see if you can tolerate listening to audiobooks and/or podcasts. You can download free audiobooks at librivox.org (they only have books that are in the public domain).

Feel free to PM me if you want to talk more about specifics.

Also, I forgot to mention two more things.

For light sensitivity, you should be able to get FL-41 tint lenses prescribed. These lenses are reddish in color, but they block out the blue wavelengths--the ones that cause me the most trouble.

If you use a PC, your computer should have a "high contrast black" setting. Right click on your desktop and go to "personalize." From there, you should be able to choose "high contrast black" as your display setting. This greatly reduces the amount of light entering yuor eyes when you use the computer.

Vision testing taxed my brain
 

I saw the vision doctor Sat. and she did about 45 minutes of testing. The next day, my brain felt a whole lot worse -- like it was taxed too much. I'm still in the process of recovering. Had to cancel the second testing session for this week and moved it to next week.

Did any of you with PCS who had vision testing done find that it "strained" your brain and set you back a bit?

I'm concerned because the next testing session is for 75 minutes. I'm also concerned that the therapy itself may be too taxing for my brain. What was your experience?

Yes...the testing was difficult but at the same time gave me hope that FINALLY there was something concrete I could do to get my brain better. I did home based vision therapy(very simple to the point of where I could tolerate it. Only a few minutes a day) and then went to in office sessions....usually with massive headaches at the beginning. Once I got prisms, it improved a lot. Still doing vision therapy and still determined to improve to help reading, etc. vision is a huge resource drain on the brain so if it is messed up, not a lot of extra brain energy to function on other things. Good luck. Take it very slow!

How long have you been doing the vision therapy? How much have you improved so far from the vision therapy?

I started home exercises very slowly (a wee bit - mimutes - every day or so) after my first visit to a neuro opthamologist 5 months post injury (a year ago). I saw a real vision therapist locally at 9 months post injury and did about 20 minutes a day. Still difficult at that time. One year post accident, i got prisms and THEN i made a lot of progress. I was finally able to read on the computer and function a bit more. Since adapting to the prisms, i have been able to write, read for longer periods, amd write on the computer (academic stuff). I now do computer programme vision therapy at home. Still need to improve! But HUGe difference from last year. Baby steps, but steps you probably need to take.
Vision is a huge part of this injury for many people.

Vision testing was extremely taxing for me. 1st neuro I saw wanted me to do vision therapy and was going to cost me thousands and provide no immediate relief.

2nd neuro opthamologist was able to prescribe blue tinted glasses that are retraining my eyes to work together. I noticed immediate relief. Dr. Said prisms would have been too much for me so people that aren't finding relief from prism should ask about getting blue tint lenses.

I know it sounds too good to be true that this really works, but my glasses are a miracle to me.

There are some free or cheap vision therapy apps for Ipad. I use them a lot. They can help and sounds like an Ipad would be cheaper than vision therapy for you!!

Hi Mokey-

Do you think you could provide some recommended apps for the iPad?

The vision therapy at home and in office does trigger headaches and eye strain.

Baby steps that lead to more accurate vision! I hope!

How do you know if you're a candidate for prism lenses or blue lenses?

I think my insurance is going to cover the vision therapy, but I'm looking for relief as soon as I can get it so I would be willing to try anything.

One quick thing that I did not see mentioned. I had/have all the same difficulties you listed. I actually used many of the tips listed by xanadu00 to help make my PC experience better.

One thing that I did not see mentioned that may be worth experimenting. I had compact fluroscent lights throughout my house and was advised to get rid of them by my behavioral optometrist and switch to regular incadescent bulbs. It made a huge difference when watching TV or computer. Something in regards to the dip in the color spectrum (green if I recall) for those types of bulbs that your brain cannot compensate for properly. Trying to remember what I was told so it could be incorrect.

At work now where I have that awful commercial lighting, I just have a table lamp above my space with a regular bulb and it helps alot along with f.Lux and workrave mentioned.

Just a side note, I did 5 months of vision therapy. Had another injury which upset my eyes again and had to do 2 more months. It made a huge difference, I also now wear a pair of prism glasses at work for my computer. I still get some issues in very busy public places (Costco, etc...)

Good luck!

The neuro had me try on some prism glasses of varying degree and had me walk back and forth and report symptoms. Since it was almost impossible for me to walk and triggered headaches, she knew to start with blue tint.

I don't think there are many Dr. Qualified to do this sort of testing. It's worth flying to a place that does this.

My insurance covered 70% of there evaluation(400$) but I paid 300 out of pocket for frames and lenses.

I have had issues with my vision for 13 months now. I am going to a neur opthomologist next week. I have been diagnosed with post traumatic vision syndrome. I watch t.v. for maybe 2 hours a day, computer about 45 minutes. Apparently it is quite common to have focus issues after a concussion. One issues was called convergence insufficiency (not sure about spelling), this is the inability to focus both eyes on one image (ie to read). I have been reading up on vision therapy and for some it is life changing and for others not much change. I find it extremely frustrating having to chase down alot of the information myself, but I have learned that self advocacy is key; without the ability to read or work on an computer I can not be employed. I very much want to get back to work, it is extremely stressful to live on disability. Not to mention how boring life is without being able to read or watch t.v.

I have had my eyes tested twice with nothing identified, however general eye doctor would not recognize the issue. It is really important to keep looking for more help and something that rings true for you. I also cannot go out in crowds, I find I cannot navigate if a bunch of people are walking towards me and the activity seems to wear me out.

Good Luck, but I would suggest googling post traumatic vision syndrome and see if it is a fit for you.

Hello, I have been suffering from Post Trauma vision syndrome for 20+ years. Over these 20 years, I've been misdiagnosed and placed in the hands of dozens of opthomologists who just say use warm compresses. Honestly, this forum is the first time I've seen other people who experience something remotely close to what ails me. I get the same pain that you do when looking at tv, cell phone, etc. but also my eyelids swell up and break out in styes. I've gotten a stye every week or every other week for 20+ years. I've never had a doctor talk to me about prism glasses or anything like that. They just see that the eye itself looks healthy and a brain scan shows nothing wrong. These posts actually give me a little bit of hope that I might get my life back, but the next step is figuring out what doctor to go to. I refuse to go to anymore eye doctors in Las Vegas, where I live. One of them is even listed as a neuro-optometrist, and he flat out told me my symptoms are physically impossible. I struggle to know where to turn next. There are specific eye care centers around the US such as Jules Stein in California and the opthomology department of Mayo Clinic. I will have to save up some dough to get there, but I don't know any other way to move forward.

Check out a functional neurology place like this. This guy explains the eye therapy at around 20 min in the podcast. http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/...-a-concussion/

Look at the sac odometry sectio
 

Sacrial therapy made me worse. The problem with having lunch with 3 or 4 people is it is to hard to keep up and too much stimulation. There is a big difference if here is just one or two. I am also quite with large numbers because I can not jump into conversations, the subject has moved on before you can get your head around it. My children are particularly rude saying you twenty minutes behind (there are four of them) and I just don't participate in conversation which lead to extreme isolation.

The crowd thing can also be depth perception, if I am in a crowd I can not navigate through a crowd, someone has to take the lead (and my hand) and bring through a crowd. Again with the crowd there is sensory overload and too much for your brain to handle.

I limit my computer to 1/2hour, you can also get coloured background that will calm you brain, making it easier. I have also been told that Apple computers have less "visual noise" and are easier to read. I have exceptional issues with facebook because I have to scan and scroll and my eyes get really tired quickly.

I have head that vision therapy is extremely helpful for some even life changing but unfortunately for me I have had minimal improvement. I do wear prism glasses for my mid line shift, which I have been told has improved but is still there.

Keep moving forward, you will find something that will work for you.