Occupational Therapist Regains Independence and Driving Ability After Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Speaker 0: And the more research that I did, it was pretty clear that this is where people go to get better. Hi. My name is Rachel Einstadt. I'm from Alexandria, Virginia. I'm 30 years old and an occupational therapist. I had been in a car accident in the fall of twenty twenty two and ended up with a head and a neck injury and didn't realize how many of my symptoms were related to visual problems. Knew things weren't right, but I didn't know how bad they were until I went to vision first and then I had the evaluation. I was pretty much non functional at this point where I couldn't look at a computer screen and look down at the keyboard and then look back up at the computer screen without having a raging headache. I also didn't trust myself to be able to get up and walk across the room and sit down accurately in the chair without missing the chair. Well, at that point, I had already lost my job, and I was pretty fearful of losing my entire livelihood and my independence. I did end up going to an optometrist. They actually said that I didn't need any form of vision therapy because my eyes worked well enough together and they did recommend prism glasses. I ended up graduating out of them pretty fast because I still wasn't functional. I'm still working with my vision first. My visual tolerance and stamina was very terrible. My eyes could only function for a short time period before my brain would just shut down and I would have to lay down, close my eyes, blindfold. It would be a stretch for me to be able to prepare a meal, cook a meal, and by that time my eyes were pretty much done and I wouldn't be able to eat and clean up the meal. But now going through vision therapy, I can tolerate so much more. So like I can look at water where before if I looked at water, I was so nauseated. I wanted to throw up then and there, and the whole world booed. Like, I couldn't look out my windows because the leaves on the trees shook, and the shadows with the sunshine irritated me so much that I couldn't look out there. Now I can drive to a salsa dance lesson, have that lesson, and then safely drive back home. Like, if you're not trusting your depth perception or you're missing something or you see something out of the corner of your eye, That's not normal. And I was taking, like, six naps a day, and that's not functional. You can't make it through life like that. If your eyes feel dry or if they hurt, that's not normal. And so all these things that we might tell ourselves, no. No. No. It's okay. Like, it'll be fine. It'll get better. Like, no. None of that stuff is normal. Just go get the evaluation because a lot of times this stuff can be remedied and rehabbed through, and then you have a way better quality of life.