Hit my head falling off my (not moving) bicycle a couple of months ago and have been suffering from severe nausea triggered by lights, high contrast and moving things since then.
I'm seeing a physiotherapist specialized in head injury recovery and have exercises to do (which I do) and I know I'm in a much better position than many people this amount of time out from a head injury but I'm also slowly going crazy and am miserable.
My sleep is disrupted (currently 1am having slept all day) and I can't seem to sort it out but it was sort of messed up from long covid before my injury anyway.
I'm working reduced hours but my work involves staring at a computer screen and my work laptop is the number one thing that sets off my nausea, my desktop monitor doesn't do it as badly but does still eventually, so I'm becoming more and more reluctant to look at it.
This job has been kind of a disaster from the start, too, because when I started a year ago I got covid round one three days in, with significant fatigue for several months afterwards. Then once I was finally back to like 80% the actual work situation was... Not ideal, setting off my cPTSD (unrelated and managed but not fun) and resulting in me taking two weeks stress leave in september and then I got covid round two in November. So I've generally been a bloody terrible employee. My manager is a well meaning mess (he's a big part of what set off the PTSD) so I really don't know what to do there.
I don't know. I'd just like to hear that this situation won't be forever? Or that if it is it can be managed. Or something.
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capibaras
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Gosh you have a lot to deal with there and I'm sorry to hear about it.
I can share with you some thoughts that I hope you might find helpful.
I also had a bike accident and had / have a tangled spaghetti of things to deal with. I find it helpful to reflect on things and try to untangle things a bit. It's not possible to completely untangle life's components so it just needs untangling enough to find a way forward. For example, reflect on how much nausea comes from visual stimulus and how much might be present even without that and so might have another cause like work.
I really benefitted from specialists in balance and dizziness. Do visual things that cause nausea also afect your sense of balance? I was shocked how bad my balance was when it was first tested by standing on one foot. You might find it useful to look into vestibular symptoms, visual vertigo and balance. Headway.org.uk has useful info as do other places.
What I can say is that I've had awful nausea and dizziness AND it has got a lot better but it does a long time. I'm two years on and still working hard at vestibular rehab.
I could go on writing forever so I'll try and highlight things... I've really got benefits from psychology doctors and mindfulness practice. Personally I use an app called Headspace and it's really helped with mentally figuring things out. Emotional levelness is basis I need to build rehab on.
I'm fortunate that it really is just nausea, and it very much is just when I've got something visual aggravating it. The worst by far is the work laptop which it's only a count of two before I start heaving, other things like the monitor (now I've turned the contrast and brightness right down) are worse depending on what I'm looking at and what I'm doing but take a while to build up. I go from 0/10 nauseous to about a 6 or 7/10 when my eyes/brain have had enough and my stomach starts heaving, though I typically have to look away for a few seconds for it to start but I can feel it building up the longer I'm looking at the thing that's causing it. I've had to leave stores and skip pages in a comic I was reading on my phone (my phone typically doesn't set it off, thank goodness.)
Soon after my injury I had a little dizziness but it cleared up relatively quickly and I can ride my bike again as well as stand on one leg etc. just fine so balance isn't more of an issue than it's ever been (it's never been fantastic but I've had no significant issues) and this has been confirmed with an assessment by my physiotherapist.
I'll have a look into mindfulness exercises, they're worth trying at least
Appreciate you might have done this and got the t-shirt but, have you tried talking to a pharmacist about anti nausea meds? There are quite a few out there and some might really help
Always worth bringing up (but I seriously appreciate the note, nothing worse than being asked for the hundredth time by someone who isn't aware it could be the hundredth time) but yes, I've tried a few. One set if anything made it worse (melt on the tongue kind with revolting berry flavour) the current ones seem to help somewhat but it's hard to tell since unless it's aggravated I don't have any nausea.
It's a rough thing to go there. Dizziness and nausea were part of the symptoms I had - I couldn't look at anything black or white or read without ending up with my head in a bucket.
I found just low contrast wasn't enough - what worked for me was to switch colours - yes. Green on green.
I read some years later that green is the easiest colour for us to see.
Anyway maybe give it a shot and see if it helps.
There are also neuro optometrists/opthamologists who look at the way the brain and the eyes work together to see, maybe checking out one of them may help. They can put prisms in glasses that can help, and also have some options for coloured lenses that some people really find helpful and others not so much.
It's only been a couple of months and that makes your injury super fresh. A lot of healing happens in the first 3 years or so, and then does continue after that just not as fast.
I will also mention that avoiding doing things that use up a lot of brain power can help a lot, and if you save the brain power for work that might be wise. High energy activities are things like reading, being on the computer, and talking on the telephone, and watching tv. We do some of those things without really thinking, but these days you really have to get a good feel for what wears you out fast.
The other thing that can help is resting - and I mean in a darkened room no phone no tv no radio - and maybe meditate - which means not focussing on anything and being ok with your brain doing whatever.
Take naps.
Look in to pomodoros. This is a technique used by big business as a productivity thing, but also helps us a lot. So, you work 20 minutes, rest 5 and then do that again. After the 3rd 20 minute period, you rest for 30 minutes. You may have to vary the time, as maybe 20 minutes at a go is enough.
Pacing is a huge topic, and takes time to figure out for you.
Do remember though, your brain heals when at rest and while sleeping. Distrupted sleep is common, which is why naps help. Sleeping is better than not sleeping and don't drive yourself nuts over sleep hygiene. You may find you need a nap after work or some activity - take it! (Sleep hygiene is more for non brain injured people.)
I have tried lots of things, and there is more, and I feel at the moment that these are the things I can think of that I guess may be more useful to you. Everyone is unique and also a bit the same. That is why it can be frustrating , no one can say definitely do this and this exactly , more or less.
Found the setting to put a green filter over everything on my phone (looked through the spectrum of colours and green is definitely the best for me, too) and I'll look to do it on my monitor tomorrow, thank you heaps for that tip. Also found an extra setting to further dim the screen which will help, too.
Yeah, I've been doing that kind of pacing. My manager (while trying desperately not to be invasive, like I said, well meaning, just hopeless) has asked what I've been doing when I've been taking the breaks (I've been doing 20 minutes work, 10 minutes break) and the answer is "shutting my eyes and not thinking" which feels utterly ridiculous, but I think you're on the money with saying that things like sleep hygiene are for people without brain injuries, a break where I tidy things or make a cup of tea or chat to someone is a cute idea, but not something I can necessarily manage.
Thank you, just hearing from people who get it helps, particularly when I know I'm still very close to my injury in the scale of these things
I can recommend asking to be referred to an opthamologist, as Leaf suggests. I had issues with computer screens for a long time after my head injury, which was caused by a visual disturbance , and several others have mentioned problems with vision post injury. So it might be worth having a specialist check your vision and eye movements to see if that is causing your nausea?
I had balance problems initially after my head injury so was referred to a balance clinic. After a few months the staff at the balance clinic told me I had made a full recovery, but I still felt dizzy and nauseous, especially walking to and from work in the dark, looking up or swinging my head side to side, or working at a computer.
I paid to see a behavioural opthamologist, who found I had nystagmus when I looked to the left, and a big misalignment of 8 dioptres in the focal plane of my eyes. This meant that every time I scrolled up or down the screen, or moved my head when looking at something it was out of focus, and my brain had to work overtime to focus.
The good news is that with vision stabilisation exercises my visual problems slowly but steadily improved, and now, though its not perfect, with adjustments it rarely impacts on my life anymore.
wow!! See y suffering!! N all we’ve got to deal with is a TBI?!! U going/ been through the mill!! Hope y find this community refreshing?!! I find that whatever frustrates me , sit back take a long deep sigh…..& SMILE!!!! Amazing relief?!!! Beats coffee by the gallon, 20 cigarettes, or something else?. Healthier too!! Oh of course, the down side is others may think y gone totally!! Just set light to the straight jacket before they try to strap y in it!! Welcome!!
I take anti nausea meds daily ( cyclizine hydrochloride - prescription) as I can’t cope otherwise. They then allow me to ‘live my life’. I know my injury differs from yours but it may just be enough to take the ‘edge’ off so you can manage it a bit as time goes on? You can hopefully then gradually reduce them as symptoms reduce. I’m down to 1 a day now not 3.
I was/still am very photosensitive too - sunglasses for me!
You are having a really hard time. Yes, it does get better.
I already had eye problems before the fall and head injury.. I was referred to a neuro opthalmologist. They're giving me injections into the eye, to treat the underlying condition - which is improving.
What is also improving is the nausea related to sight, which began after the head injury.
The green filter works. I discovered it, and now have one.
I'm now just over a year out from the injury. Still can't do social things very well.
And yet improving in so many ways. I need reminders of how much I have improved.
See if you can start a daily log of what you did.
And rest means rest. Eyes closed, no inputs, no interactions, dark room, lying down rest. Someone in this platform told me. Invaluable.
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Old head injury, looking for anything I can do to improve my quality of life! 
Deciding, family stress and head injury!!!
Feeling at a dead end.
Compensation claim
How many people work after a bad head injury?
