The Therapy You Never Knew You Needed with Dr. Jacqueline Theis, Neuro-Optometrist

Are you fatigued after using your eyes? Since your brain injury do you feel anxious in crowds or grocery stores? Are you dizzy or do you get headaches? Does reading bring on symptoms? Do you have trouble tolerating screens even when you take breaks? Is it hard to pay attention? You may need neuro-optometry! 20-30% of brain injury survivors have symptoms caused by oculomotor disturbances that do not self-resolve! Join us with Dr. Jacqueline Theis to learn more about this overlooked profession. We discuss visual processing and how therapy may help you with your lingering symptoms. We were both shocked to learn how much this field can help with many of our ongoing symptoms, you may be too!Covered in this episode:Differences between types of eye doctors&nbsp;Ophthalmology: they go to medical school where they learn a little bit about a lot of the body systems.&nbsp; Then they specialize in surgery and diseases of the eyes.&nbsp; They are MDs who specialize in the eyeOptometry: after undergrad they go to optometry school where they learn a lot about the eye and how other body systems impact the eye.&nbsp; They can then choose to go to school longer for specialities like primary care, contact lenses, pediatrics, or neuro optometry.Neuro Optometry: works with atypical visual complaints.&nbsp; Your eyeball looks normal but visual processing is interupted.&nbsp; Typically subtle symptoms&nbsp;&nbsp;Neuro ophthalmologist: medical doctors that can fix structural eye issues with surgeryNeuro optometry: manages vision rehabilitation and vision therapy that can’t be fixed by surgery or medicine.&nbsp; They can also make glasses that help accommodate for visual or eye tracking issues post neurological event&nbsp;&nbsp;What Can Neuro Optometrists Help With?The signs and symptoms of vision issues post concussion or mild TBI can be very subtle.&nbsp; Providers don’t even know all the signs and symptoms to be looking forIf you complain of double vision, blurry vision, or light sensitivity you’ll definitely get a referral to an eye doctor.&nbsp; The eye doctor will look at the eyeball for structural issues and most of the time the eyeball is fine.In the last 5-10 years they have found that common symptoms that are screened for iin brain injury get sent to other providers but are actually related to visionSymptoms of visual disturbances post brain injuryFatigue with reading and eye useGetting anxiety in crowded areas or grocery storesDizzinessHeadache&nbsp;InattentionJaci aims to educate providers about screening for eye movements in patients with ongoing symptoms like those above (symptoms beyond 4 weeks).&nbsp;If symptoms don’t self resolve in 4 weeks, there is rehab that can be done to help.&nbsp;&nbsp;There is actually something that can be done and you can get better!!How do the eyes cause anxiety and cognitive problems? Vision uses your whole brainImagine a soccer ball moving left to right in front of you.&nbsp; The light signal from the ball moves to the retina, it transitions it into a chemical signal and sends it down the optic nerve all the way to the back of the brain to the occipital lobe.&nbsp;&nbsp;The occipital lobe sorts the information and then sends it the part of the brain that needs to respond to it.&nbsp;&nbsp;It gets sent to the temporal lobe which identifies what the object is.&nbsp;&nbsp;<li...