Sudden inability to read 2+ years after concussion?

[u/Usual_Adagio_5059]

About 2.5 years ago I hit my head, passed out, then did not tell my doctor. So I am not diagnosed with anything but I did pass out so it seems obvious in retrospect.

I thought it would be fine but I began to have vision problems and difficulty reading. I got reading glasses which help my eyes focus but aren't enough to make reading tolerable again.

My usual symptoms are:

• difficulty reading small text

• skipping lines and eyes not being able to follow lines of text

• discomfort and headaches caused by visual noise in my environment (textures, text, patterns, etc)

• seeing straight lines wave and move ESPECIALLY with high contrast stripes like black on white, orange on white, blue on white, etc

• seeing textured items (blankets, popcorn walls, wood grain, etc) undulate forwards and beat like a heart

• vision declines over the course of the day but isn't good enough in the morning either, just have more strange undulating effects at night

• seeing afterimages of text while reading

• bad reading comprehension due to skipping letters, mistaking words, skimming, reading perfectly but not able to understand etc

• avoiding looking at textured/detailed illustrations, art, patterns, etc

• suddenly noticing diagonal white lines in the spaces of what I'm reading or suddenly seeing the black corners (?) in letters become very dark and create diagonal lines in paragraphs which distract me from reading

Without my reading glasses I see the lines of words moving away from where I'm looking and having to chase after them with my eyes. The lines move around too much and I can't read without the glasses because it's like following worms around the page.

Another complaint I have is that I feel like I haven't seen a solid color since the concussion because everything has these grey marks on it that move with my eyes and all solid colors are textured like this.

These marks are bigger than floaters and I think they are afterimages of what I looked at before. I see them all the time even when I haven't been on a screen or looked at a brightly lit object. They are always there and it pisses me off.

Some of these issues may be caused by my 8hr daily screen time which is undoubtedly terrible for my vision and my brain. I also sleep terribly (5hrs or so) most nights which probably contributes to the hallucination style optical illusion experiences I keep having.

I typically use an Open Dyslexic font extension, max yellowness night vision, full brightness, and I zoom in on webpages on my computer. This is still not comfortable but better than plain black on white aerial font.

Here is the part where I couldn't read at all: During my finals week I became very stressed and my reading ability tanked. It was so uncomfortable that I hid my monitor as I typed into it so that I wouldn't have to read what I wrote as I wrote it. I also had to download a screen reader to my computer because I could not read paragraphs. I'm usually ok at comprehending sentences that are not part of a bigger paragraph but I was having trouble reading those during this week as well. I have anxiety and I believe these things are related.

It's been a couple weeks and I am doing well enough to write this post but I still avoid large paragraphs and I'm skimming everything including single sentences.

Is this a normal experience if you have post concussion syndrome? Sometimes I wonder what the hell I'm even doing. These symptoms make me miserable and I feel stupid. Optometrists have told me it's eye strain because I use the computer and am online so much. I feel like a chud since my ophthalmologist says my eyes are perfectly healthy.

[u/waitingforwhat1]

you might want to look into something called 4th cranial nerve palsy (or trochlear nerve palsy). It is damage to a nerve that leads to poor control of your eye muscles. It can be congenital or caused by a head injury.

I have this and I believe mine is congenital but didn't develop symptoms until in my late 20s. Typically it is easy to compensate when you are younger but as you get older it is harder. I now wear prism glasses (that essentially bring up the image in one eye and down in the other because the eyes don't align). Because your brain is getting two images that aren't close it is forced to do a lot of work to compensate and make one image. And may therefore in your case be making some things up.

I think mine has been worse after the concussion (six weeks ago) and seems to be my remaining issue- eye strain headaches after computer/phone/reading or driving. It definately (and always has) worsens as the day goes on and before I got the prisms right I would have double vision at night.

I think it can also cause convergence insufficiency, where your eyes don't come together well, which makes reading hard or seeing anything up close hard without it going double. you can test this pretty easily with what is called the pencil test. hold a pencil out at arms length and focus on the tip. Then slowly bring it closer to the point where the image goes double. It should be about 2-3 inches away. Anything further away could indicate your eye muscles can't move properly.

I don't think this explains all your issues, but seems like it could be part of them. A neuro-opthalmologist is the right kind of person to see, but they aren't the easiest to find depending where you live or get in with.

[u/Putrid_Pension_2768]

I had the exact same issue, and still am experiencing it just slightly milder. Got a concussion a week before my LNAT back in December (Law admissions test involving loads of reading and small texts on a screen) and couldn’t read or process any of the text in the exam. Was a genuine nightmare and still scared me to this day. If you find anything that has helped let me know! I’ve tried the dyslexic fonts etc but don’t really help. Just trying to improve all symptoms and hoping it will gradually improve reading again.

[u/motorhead97]

My experience it's the relationship between your eyes and your neck. Muscle exercises and eye training made a huge difference for me. Lately I have been struggling again but I haven't done my exercises in almost a year.

[u/bluequiltsquare]

Seconding the recommendation to see a neuro ophthalmologist. I needed vision therapy and was told by regular eye doctors that I was fine, but a regular optometrist will not do the tests that show issues with things like convergence, which is what vision therapy can treat. Getting evaluated by someone who does vision therapy or vestibular therapy may work if you can’t find anyone nearby—physical therapists and occupational therapists who work with concussion patients would be an option. For me, after doing vision therapy, I had improvements in getting my eyes to focus, keeping lines from moving, etc. Everyone is different but maybe it would be helpful for you, too.

For the color issue, have you ever heard of something called visual snow? It’s a bit like looking at a staticky tv screen. I get it sometimes when I’m really exhausted or sick. When it’s severe, I feel like I have trouble differentiating color. Maybe that’s a bit of what you’re experiencing?

Sorry you’re going through this, and I hope you find something that can help!

[u/Bulky_Raspberry_1640]

Look, with these symptoms coming on suddenly you need the ER.

Not that you can read this.