Visual Symptom: Vision appears to have a 30-degree angle in the bottom right quadrant of eye.

Date of Incident: Beginning in late 2017 – mild neurological symptoms appeared, July 2019 - meningioma found, November 2019 – craniotomy.

Duration of Symptoms: My symptoms resolved about 4 1/2 months after my tumor was removed. I have slightly less acuity in my left eye, but it is not really noticeable.

I always thought I was medically uncomplicated. Then I learned there was a slow-growing, benign meningioma in the center of my brain that was pressing on my stem.

Beginning in 2017, I had mild neurological symptoms: coughing fits with swallowing, fatigue, a feeling of fullness, mild hearing loss in one ear, occasional dizziness, slow verbal and mental processing and the vision in my left eye became just a little less clear, even with glasses. I was being scanned for something else when we found the meningioma.

Removing the tumor required a craniotomy behind my ear. When I woke up in the neuro ICU, I could hear better, my language was crisper and my swallowing difficulties were resolved. I could remember a sequence of numbers and listen to and comprehend my audiobooks at faster speeds. Yet my eyes wouldn’t align. I could see well out of either eye alone, but when I tried to use both eyes together, I had double vision. My surgeon told me my fourth cranial nerve had been impacted, but not severed, and I had a better than 50% chance the vision would resolve on its own within 6 weeks to 6 months. 

Four months out now, I often see normally. The double vision returns if I am overly tired or if I’ve been doing too much visual work. When that happens, I patch my left eye to rest it for a few hours.

Was this image helpful? Consider contributing to support the project.

Visual Symptom: Convergence issues. Movement appears like a slow-motion movie. Words appear to have an extra dimension and some will disappear while reading.

Date of Incident: March 2019

Duration of Symptoms: 13 months, but now feels fully recovered.

My concussion made feel more compassion to those with head injuries. It made me understand my body better, too.

While playing in a soccer game last year, Virginia was struck by a ball at close range, giving her a concussion.

Today, she sits on the sidelines, watching her friends play. It’s like watching a movie in slow motion. Her love of reading has waned because the letters appear with an extra dimension and words seemingly disappear because her brain fails to process every single one. Fine print blurs into one giant blob. And her concentration and memory are still impaired. She’s also struggled with feeling off-balance, fatigue, nausea, headaches and dizziness.

Virginia is working with a vision therapist for visual and cognitive training to rebuild new neuro-networks. She may have to sit quietly on the sidelines with a friendly smile now, but her passion helping others better understand the impact of concussion is shaping her life as she considers her future.

Was this image helpful? Consider contributing to support the project.

Photo of Martha: Randy Young

Visual Symptoms: Convergence issues and motion sensitivity. She describes her vision appearing like a 3D movie without the glasses.

Date of Incident: July 2002, February 2016, February 2018

Duration of Symptoms: Still slightly symptomatic, but visual and vestibular issues have resolved.

My sense of self felt challenged as my physical and mental boundaries shifted and I learned a new normal.

A head-on car collision at age 24 knocked the wind out of me, puncturing my left lung, and fracturing my collarbone, great toe, and talus bone under my ankle. So much was going on that nobody noticed I also had a concussion.

Fast forward 14 years and I hit my head going into the crawlspace. This second experience helped make sense of the symptoms I experienced years earlier while bringing a new set of symptoms -- visual impairments. Everything looked like a 3D movie does when you’re not wearing glasses, and there was an extra dimension to it that was further away from me. Two years later, I was rear-ended and concussed again, which retriggered numerous symptoms including the visual ones I’d had before.

After each of my three concussions, the months of required recovery took a toll. As I allowed my body to rest, I struggled with the self-imposed isolation. I’m grateful for my previous discipline as a collegiate runner and current trail runner, which encouraged to keep pushing to improve and to watch for my body signals when it needed to stop, rest to keep healing. Additionally, being out on the trails near my house, helped me with balance, challenging my system to determine depth while nourishing my spirit on short walks.

Was this image helpful? Consider contributing to support the project.

Visual Symptom: Light sensitivity, especially headlights from cars both day and night.

Date of Incident: April 2019

Duration of Symptoms: Still symptomatic.

Before my injury, I did not fully understand the blessing of being able to do what is considered the simple things in life, such as being able to independently care for myself. It has made me grateful for all of the aspects of my life, such as family, friends, and the ability to have a functioning body.

Entering the shuttle van for work, Tracey struck the top of her head and began falling. Though she caught herself before hitting the sidewalk, she suffered a concussion and whiplash.

An active and passionate yogi, Tracey was active and fit prior to the fall. She now experiences headaches; pain in her neck, back and around her right eye socket; dizziness; anxiety; a shooting pain inside her left ear; and a burning sensation in the center of her head that occasionally radiates outward to include the entire back half of her skull. Light causes her extreme pain, so she is careful of being out during the day and is unable to be out in the when headlights and night-time light is too bright. She wears purple-tinted prism glasses with special tape along the inside to provide relief and help her figure out where she is in relation to her surroundings.

Was this image helpful? Consider contributing to support the project.

Visual Symptom: Feeling overwhelmed and once removed from situations. Too much to process and take in.

Date of Incident: August 2018

Duration of Symptoms: Still symptomatic.

I no longer feel smart and often feel frazzled, raw and impaired.

A single mother of three girls, Mandy juggles taking care of their needs, her business practice and her own needs as she slowly heals from a concussion resulting from a car accident. But now she feels like she’s observing life from a distance rather than participating in it actively.

At the grand opening of a new bike park, Mandy watched her daughters enjoying the event. She wanted to get involved, but it was just too draining physically, emotionally. She is often exhausted from the motion and stimulation. Instead of being the active and involved mom she used to be, now she feels once-removed from situations because there’s too much to process.

Per Mandy, “even though I once rode the 36 mile Virginia Creeper on my mountain bike, I can't ride my bike at all since the wreck because I get so dizzy. 

I was an athlete my whole life. I earned 11 varsity letters in high school at Grimsley (varsity tennis all 4 years, basketball 3 years, soccer 2 years, softball 2 years). I even won intramural championships at UNC. My girls are playing all of these sports now, and I had dreamed of coaching them someday, but I get so dizzy running around that I can't. If I turn my head too fast, I feel like I am going to faint. Not being able to effectively play sports with my kids is heartbreaking.... I end up sitting on the sidelines, longing to jump in and help.”

Was this image helpful? Consider contributing to support the project.

Visual Symptom: Light sensitivity and she described everything as “feeling swimmy and shimmery.” Eventual ocular migraine onset.

Date of Incident: 2007/2008

Duration of Symptoms: Initial onset of visual issues lasted 3-5 days and then gradually faded over a few weeks. However, ocular migraines have happened periodically over the years since then.

It was very humbling. You really cannot do anything for a while. Everything hurt… reading, tv, podcasts. You realize that you go through much of life on autopilot, but actually your body is working really hard for you to do what it does every day that you may not see. You really take for granted what your body is doing.

A devoted rugby player, Jana sustained a concussion in a game, which affected her for several weeks. After being seen at the hospital, things appeared so painfully bright she preferred sitting in a dark room. Her vision was also shimmery, like heat coming off of the street on a steamy hot day. A passionate animal lover, her rabbit helped bring comfort as she healed.

Driving was particularly difficult. Things she had taken for granted were suddenly difficult to handle. You’re steering, you have to remember to put your foot on the gas and move it over to the brake. You need to stay in your lane. There’s a dog over here on your left. You’re approaching a cross walk where are people stepping out into the road to cross. There’s other cars. There are headlights. There are taillights. How fast am I going? What street am I on? Where am I headed? The radio has to be off so I can concentrate.

Was this image helpful? Consider contributing to support the project.

Visual Symptom: Light sensitivity – described colors as being especially bright and vision was blurry down the central midline for several days initially.

Date of Incident: August 2017

Duration of Symptoms: Still slightly symptomatic, though visual issues have resolved.

Now, over two-years out, I realize that the concussion had a significant impact on me, both my physical health, but more profoundly, my ability to concentrate, and, possibly some depression I’m not letting that shape my identity, but it certainly could have if I didn’t have grit, resilience and the support of many.

A focused and motivated individual, Dora never dreamed that going out on a run would turn her world upside down. Yet on a 2017 run she tripped on the sidewalk, landing on her chin and getting a concussion.

As an accomplished physical therapist, teacher and mother, Dora didn’t have time to let an injury slow her down. She had people who relied on her daily, including her daughter and students. But just over 24 hours’ after the fall, Dora was nauseated. She was becoming extremely sensitive to light and her central vision started blurring. A trip to urgent care and then to a hospital emergency department were the first steps in her long journey of recovery.

Was this image helpful? Consider contributing to support the project.

In my photographic series, What Lies Beneath: Traumatic Brain Injury, I explore the intersection of visual representation and bodily trauma. Mild TBIs are commonly called concussions, however, there is not much that is mild about them.

Approximately 90% of all concussion patients experience some type of visual impairment, typically described by the medical community as blurry or double vision. But that’s not an accurate representation of what most of us experience. The words superimposed on the photograph are used by TBI patients to describe their emotions and experiences related to their injury.

Was this image helpful? Consider contributing to support the project.