Vision issues?
 

I am wondering how many concussion related vision issues some of you had. How long did they last or were they permanent? I am 3 months Post concussion and my vision has really declined since my head injury. I have experienced blurred vision and light sensitivites like many of you, but the clarity of details has really taken a dive. is this common?

I had trouble with binocular vision and convergence insufficiency after my concussion. I had a Vision Efficiency Evaluation in which it was discovered. My medical eye exam (retina, visual acuity, etc) was all completely normal, but I understand brain injuries sometimes also cause problems with visual field, etc.

I did ten weeks of vision therapy, and they also had me using very low-power reading lenses for a few weeks. As the vision therapy progressed, I didn't need them any more.

My eye issues were definitely contributing to headaches. After the vision therapy, my headaches were less and I was able to do things like reading and driving without always immediately triggering a headache.

It's definitely worth getting your eyes checked, and I think it's also well worth seeing an optometrist who can do a Visual Efficiency Evaluation. I found mine at http://www.braininjuries.org

Good luck!

Confused.....
 

Hi Eowyn,
Thanks for the info. The crazy thing is I did see an Opthamologist yesterday who examined me, had her staff do the peripheal vision test, dilated my eyes etc.

She noted a few issues, prescribed eye drops for inflamation, prescrip for glasses (i only needed low strength readers before) and then proceeded to tell me that she doesn't feel my vision problems were caused by my injury. HUH? Really?

My eyesight decreased significantly, I have blurred vision, light sensitivity, pain behind my eyes and the symmetry (sp?) is off.....but this Doctor really thinks none of it was caused by my closed head injury. I should add this is a Workman's Comp paid Doctor. It really sucks to not be validated and still have to feel so lousy.

It sounds like you had a medical eye exam. Mine also was completely normal.

A Vision Efficiency Evaluation is different. The doctor will check depth perception, how well you can combine and hold two images as one, how well your eyes track a moving object, etc.

A simple check you can do at home is have someone wave their finger randomly in front of your face. You follow it with your eyes without moving your head. If your tracking looks "jagged," then that could indicate the presence of a vision efficiency problem.

My doctor did think that my issues may not have been directly caused by the injury -- that they might have been a pre-existing condition that was exacerbated by the brain injury. In other words, my brain had learned to compensate before the injury but was too overloaded afterwards to keep up.

Look for a referral on braininjuries.org to find an optometrist who does this type of testing.

I will ask about this. Thanks again:-)