Please help me
 

I'm doing traditional vision therapy and my eyestrain and light sensitivity is only getting worse! I keep improving in terms of the exercises I've been doing and tests that my doctor has done, so why is my pain only getting worse? On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm at a nine in terms of pain. I can no longer watch TV or really do anything without causing an increase of my pain. I'm supposed to drive two hours tomorrow to visit family, and I don't think I can do it. It's such a bummer!

The recent downturn occurred after my last vision therapy appointment. Then the following day I went to the doctor so I could get prism sunglasses finally, and he ran some tests on me, which were hard on my eyes. I felt terrible the rest of the day, and even worse The next day. Today, I just tried to do next to nothing, but even that is causing me pain.

When I started my therapy, my pain was at about six on a scale of 1 to 10. I'm just now afraid that I'm never going to get any better and I'm just going to keep getting worse. I stopped doing my eye exercises until I can talk to my doctor, but I'm just wishing I could research why this is happening and what to do about it.

Any advice or insight would be appreciated! What can i do or take to make this pain go away? Is there surgery or other therapies to deal with this kind of severe eye strain? I'd do anything to make it stop. Conciseness would also be appreciated, as I'm only writing this using voice to text and have trouble reading anything at the moment. Sorry I wasn't concise though! I tend to be long-winded when using voice to text!

Did you ask your doctor about this ? I know with vision therapy it can get worse if you go above your threshold which means that you would have to lower the number of repetitions. I haven't yet seen a neuroophtalmolgist yet. I wil on Wed. Maybe someone with more experience can comment on this.

Just curious, what kind of therapy are you doing specifically in relation to your light sensitivity?

Feel better.

Take care.

I am having the same problem
 

Hi,

I started with prism glasses and vision therapy a couple of weeks ago. I was

trying to space out the session and amounts but my eyes got worse. It was

suggested that I am doing too much and to back off.


I have not done anything but wear prism reading glasses 1- 1/2 hours per

day. I am not as bad.

On another occasion when I had my eyes checked, running some test for no

more than 1/2 hours I ended up with a migraine for 3 days. The neuro

opthomologist said that the testing must have hit on all the right areas for

me to react that way.


I was doing visual tracking, convergence exercise and gaze stabilization

exercises.

It could have been the testing that set you back and with everything it

takes a long time to recover.


I know I am looking for direction on what I should do next, my eyes have been

killing me.

Tomorrow I get my prism sunglasses.

Let me know how it goes.

Ask
 

Ask your therapist. You might be doing to much. That was me. I scaled back.
Su seb

DFayesMom,

I wonder if you may need to focus on moderating your symptoms rather than trying to eliminate them. The vision therapy sounds intense. Many therapists have an "I can fix this if the patient will just work hard and sacrifice enough" attitude. Maybe treating the visual issue with a moderate effort targeting improvements that allow you to find the sweet spot in effort where you can live without being overwhelmed by your symptoms. You may still experience symptoms but with work-arounds and such, you can minimize the stresses and triggers so your symptoms are manageable.

People appear focused on overcoming light sensitivity. I focus on skills to be functional and comfortable even though the light may still bother me. Recovery is not an all or nothing effort. It can go in stages. As I have said many times, there are NO quick fixes.

We don't have to overcome every symptom to recover to live our lives. My neuro was amazed at the intensity of my brain dysfunction yet the high level of function I can achieve. I will occasionally fall flat on my face as I trip over an ongoing symptom but I don't let the momentary failure define my life. I chalk it up to the injury, get up and move on.

I follow a blog of a TBI victim who refuses to accept that he has a new normal. He continually forces his life to fit the old normal. This appears to cause him great stress. He is continually focused on his struggles. This takes valuable energy from his day.

I have been doing landscape improvements to my yard. I could push through to get the job done. Instead, I am pacing myself and accomplishing small but complete steps. This can be very beneficial. We find reward and strength by these little accomplishments.

Whether it is learning to tolerate prism glasses or how to reduce the light that makes it into our brain, these are small but valuable accomplishments.

I am not trying to be critical of others efforts nor downplay the seriousness of their symptoms. I am just concerned that in some cases, there may be a risk of over treatment that never allows the person to rest. I know I need to work to moderate my life to find a manageable sweet spot. I am not symptoms free. I just am able to manage symptoms to usually keep them tolerable. I have bad days but with my years of experience, most of my bad days are behind me. The first few years were a roller coaster of miserableness.

This can't be my new normal
 

I have been dealing with these issues getting worse and worse for months now despite all my efforts to moderate my symptoms – no computer, limited iphone usage, hat and glasses at all times outside, sunglasses at all times inside. Now that I am where I am, I see that it was wrongheaded of me to continue my vision therapy.


My concern now is how do I get back to a level of pain that is manageable? What I am experiencing now is not. I'm just scared that this is my new normal, because it's too much. It's more than I can handle. I cannot minimize these symptoms, because the only thing that helps at all is having my eyes closed. I can't live the rest of my life with my eyes closed.


Right now, my husband is out of town and I'm the sole caretaker for our daughter. I'm supposed to drive 2 hoirs to visit my parents today, but I don't think I can do it. They said they would come pick us up tomorrow but I just don't know how to cope with this.

Driving
 

Driving two hours is almost always too much for me. I too hope that this is not my new normal. Once a month I need to drive 75 minutes and it is too much. Don't do it if you don't have to. It's not worth it.

I just keep trying more therapy. Now I'm trying healing touch. And learning more work arounds. I'm still waiting to see the neuro opthamologist in July. I completely understand how you feel. I was feeling good on Friday and I walked into a noisy busy restaurant and I felt like I was at disneyworld xfunhouse x 10. Couldn't stay there one minute.

Sometimes it's just helpful to know that someone else "gets it". Before this I was super woman and it took months for me to understand what was going on in my head. Hang in there. I'll be thinking of you!
Su seb

I'm sorry to hear about your backsliding. I suffered from extreme photophobia and eye strain for a very long time. I still have both symptoms, but they are VERY gradually improving. I expect that once your eyes are allowed to rest, you will gradually heal as well.

Like you, I did vision therapy and it did not help, though I did not experience the sorts of setbacks you are dealing with.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Ask your doctor if you can go on a muscle relaxer for the eye strain. I went on Flexeril 10 mg/day and it has helped my eye strain more than anything else I've done, by far.

2. Fill a sock with rice and heat it in the microwave. Apply heat to eyes and the back of the neck. This will help relieve tension and may help a bit with the eye strain.

3. If you can afford it, get massage therapy and have them focus on your neck and shoulders.

4. Download text-to-voice software. Natural Reader is free. Text Aloud has more features but costs money.

http://www.naturalreaders.com/download.php

5. Listen to audiobooks. If you can't afford to buy them, Librivox.org has free audiobooks for books that are in the public domain.

http://librivox.org/

6. See if you can get glasses tinted with FL-41. This tint filters out blue wavelengths and really helps me with my photophobia.

Feel free to send me a PM if you have any specific questions or would like to discuss this further.

I have prism lenses and do daily vision exercises coupled with weekly sessions at the Binocular Clinic.

The first 2-3 months my pain was intolerable, often triggering migraines. I took tramadol for the migraines, and sometimes I had vertigo with migraines. No fun.

I was told to work towards threshold, but not to put myself in pain. I would ice, take advil and rest my eyes to manage the pain.

Now in month 5, I have tapered off from daily to three times a week exercises. I need to drive my sons around, and I couldn't with daily exercises.

Then two weeks ago, my son was in the hospital with a bacterial infection and a good friend passed away from metastatised breast cancer, so I took a two week break from all eye exercises and clinic.

Last week I went into the clinic after this long break, and I didn't have a migraine after the session! And I haven't had one doing my exercises!

For me, I have learned to not work too hard and not to worry too much. There are days when I only read and look at the computer for 1 hour total.

So I walk, bake, try to talk with my sons. If I don't rest my eyes, then, as Mark says, my symptoms flare.

What does your neuro-ophthalmologist say?

Neuro Op
 

He told me to stop doing the exercises, use a cold compress four times a day to reduce inflammation, and use eyedrops (like I don't already do that), on addition to just resting. I also made an appointment to see him next week.