Wow Vision Therapy Blog

After a Winter Accident Disoriented Her Vision, Vision Therapy Helped Her Feel Normal Again

When someone experiences a traumatic brain injury, many different aspects of life become difficult. However, visual complications are the most common complaints. Following a concussion – for example – things like reading often become difficult. Text on a page may become blurry or even drift apart, becoming double. Words may also move or jump around. For many, these symptoms decrease reading speed, comprehension and attention. And when these visual problems persist, everything in life is affected. No one knows this better than Francesca.

In 2013, Francesca was on her way to hang out with friends during a snowy winter day. At the time, she was a senior in college, looking forward to graduating and starting her career. As she was approaching her friend’s house, Francesca slipped on black ice. Unable to catch herself, Francesca hit the back of her head on the cement. Noticing that she took a nasty fall, Francesca’s friends came out to help her up. Brushing off the snow and ice, Francesca noticed that something wasn’t right. Everything just seemed a little off. Nonetheless, Francesca carried on with her day, assuming everything would go away on its own. 

Over the next 18 months, Francesca experienced a range of symptoms that affected her abilities in school and daily life. As she put it, “My symptoms ranged from having trouble remembering words, numbers, memories – you name it – to difficulty concentrating, eye pain, dizziness, and the words bouncing around when I read.” Things that used come easy like grocery shopping was extremely challenging. This is something Francesca says, “..was the worst because I’d get extremely overstimulated.”

When someone experiences several visual disturbances daily, life can get quite tiring. For Francesca, she said, “Sometimes, my symptoms would take me out for days. It was extremely hard to interact with others even though I’m pretty extroverted.”

After a year a half of dealing with these complications, Francesca received a formal concussion diagnosis. Although it was nice to find out why she was dealing with the problems as a result of her fall, she was eager to fix these problems so she could return to school and graduate. After doing research online, Francesca found Wow Vision Therapy and schedule a Vision Rehabilitation Evaluation with the Grand Rapids, MI team. 

After working with the Wow Vision Therapy team, Francesca started to notice many different aspects of her life returning to normal. As she put it, “Vision therapy gave me my life back! I’ve got my ability to organize life again and think academically. The best way I can describe it is that I feel normal again. It feels amazing to be able to be myself again after so many years of such debilitating symptoms!”

After treatment, Francesca went on to start her own company and return to a normal life.

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