Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Concussion: Seeing the X


In a previous article I mentioned that "I can't see the X."
It is a strange sentience to say but those who have had certain physical therapy exercises understand what I mean. Those of you who haven't I'll try to explain.

My son told me my "View Master was broken."
Remember  View Masters?
You put the picture disc into what look like binoculars and click through the pictures to read the story.

My son's description I think is correct to describe one of the causes of the physical side effects of a concussion.

Part of the problem is my eyesight. Normally if you look at something, because our eyes are next to each other the image each eye sees is combined together in your brain to see one image. My brain is not combining the pictures my eyes see of anything from the tip of my nose to about four feet away. Looking at this computer screen for example, my brain is recording images from each eye rather than the combined image. My brain is therefore processing double the information and I get fatigued a lot faster than someone without a concussion. There is a simple way to understand what I'm talking about. -=Take a yardstick or anything else that is abut four feet long. 
=Use a marker or tape and make an X about two inches from one end, another X about three inches from that, one more X about four inches from that mark, and another about 12 inches from that last X. =Place the tip of the stick with the X near the end to the tip of your nose.
=First look at the X furthest away and stare at it intently.
=Eventually you should see two images of the stick and they will cross right where you have the X marked.
=Look at the next closest X to your face for the same thing to happen.
=Continue until you get to the X closest to your nose.
=At this point you will naturally be cross eyed to anyone looking at your face. 

When I do this test, my right eye (the side of my head that was struck) does not move toward the left eye so I'm not cross eyed. Where you might see both images crossing at the X, I see parallel images. Since I'm seeing parallel images my brain is recording two images and hence why I get overloaded so fast.
My son called it server fatigue.
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Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy



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