Dear Marci,

I am curious about how you are doing. I am a 48 year old physician who has been
on the
cusp of giving up my practice. I have been in 7 motor vehicle accidents ( none
of them my
fault as in several I wasn't even driving!). The worst one was 10 years ago
when my 4
children and I were hit by a drunk driver. After 2 or 3 or these accidents I
noted that I was
unable to retain anything that I read, which was confirmed on neuropsych
testing. After
about 3 years, things improved but I noticed that I could remember much more if
I read at
night. In retrospect, I think it was because I read with a low level of
incandescent light
before I went to sleep. About 4 years ago, I moved to a new office which had
absolutely
no natural light. I drove my staff crazy with changing fluorescent tubes,
painting walls
different colors, but I still couldn't work for more than a morning without
feeling totally
fatigued and had to switch to an alternate day schedule. The final blow was
computerizing our office. I immediately noticed that I could not recall
anything about my
patients that I read on the computer, whereas before I could remember anything
about
anybody. I assumed that it was merely a new modality and that it would get
easier. In
fact, the opposite has occurred, to the point that I have gone from being able
to easily see
25 patients a day to struggling trying to see 8, and even then, I am struggling
to do their
charts when I get home. Purely by luck, my son was required to have an
updated
educational assessment so that he could continue to get extra time for exams
because of
a reading disability. No big surprise that he tested positive for Irlen
Syndrome but I was
blown away by how severe mine is. My daughter has also tested positive and I
suspect
that my mother has it as well. I realize that there must be a genetic
predisposition here,
and I would suspect that you might find some other members of your family that
have less
severe symptoms than you do. However, I have no doubt that I could read very
well in
medical school and that my head/neck injuries played a huge part in accentuating
my
genetic predisposition. What amazes me is that even as a physician who is very
in tune to
the effects of pain on my proprioception and energy level, I totally missed the
boat on
linking the light sensitivity to my symptoms. Likewise with my 2 children.

I would be very interested in staying in touch with you. Although I first heard
of Irlen
syndrome a few years ago, th personal impact has only hit in the past 2 weeks.
We are
now struggling to deal with purchasing Irlen lenses for all three of us. As
well, I am now
faced with trying to remove every fluorescent tube from our office (the building
recently
replaced every incandescent flood with energy effecient flurescent floods!) I
am not sure
how I am going to deal with the computer issue yet.....

Good luck in your endeavors. I am going to pursue things from a medical end as
well.
Because of my injuries, I have become involved with a group call the Advanced
Spinal Care
group in Calgary, and also Dr. Chris Centeno in Denver. I am forwarding
information on
Irlen's syndrome related to whiplash injuries to one of my contacts in Calgary.
I think that
we should do a screening study to see if the syndrome is more common in neck
injury/
concussion patients than the general population.

Keep in touch. sharon v.--- In glimmercoloredfilterglasses@yahoogroups.com,
"mhawkins405" <mhawkins@...> wrote:
>
> Hi, I am 49 years old and a teacher. Two and 1/2 years ago I was in a
> serious roll-over auto accident as a passenger in June. The car I was
> riding in was older and the shoulder harness did not fit well or hold
> me in place. I was slung like a rag doll and had multiple head
> injuries. My nose has been rebuilt, I have had under eye surgery and
> my jaw surgery. The fall after the wreck I was enrolled in graduate
> classes at night. It was then that I realized how much overhead
> lights bothered me. I read my assigned text and could not recall it.
> I thought I had forgotten to but my highlighting proved otherwise. I
> have found the paperwork involved in teaching to be more
> overwhelming. Have severe headaches and have been diagnosed with post
> concusive brain trauma and severe photo-phobia. I feel like I have
> litterally been fighting bllindly to complete my masters. I started
> copying everthing on light blue paper, I felt crazy. Reading the
> introductory text was both a relief that others could confirm that
> what I experience is real and scary that there could be worse to
> come. It seems that everything listed applied to me. Is there anyone
> who could tell me more about trauma induced Irlen's? Or Irlen's that
> becomes manifest as an adult. It is more difficult for me to think at
> times, and I feel foggy. I am not sure if I can continue to teach.
> Any information would be helpful. I probably won't proof read this
> and appologise in advance for errors, it seems I make more of them
> these days.
> Thank you, Marci
>