Mark - you're right in that I'm not having the same kind of cognitive problems right now that I used to. After my first few concussions, when I was in the ER, I couldn't read. Words on a page wouldn't make sense and it was really...frustrating to say the least. Like I knew what a word was, but when I read a sentence I wouldn't understand what the sentence was trying to say. The day or so after my first concussion when I was in an accident, I tried to email my boss. I knew that I wanted to tell him that I was in an accident, but the email didn't make any sense. Even now sometimes I mix up words when I'm speaking out loud, but it's less frequent. Now it usually only happens if I'm totally mentally exhausted. I can tell when that happens, I'll have to stop whatever I'm doing and lay down with my eyes closed for an hour or so, even if it's mid conversation.

After my injury 3 weeks ago, I couldn't make verbal sentences either, I was just muttering nonsense. In my head I wasn't sure what I was trying to say, but memory of that day is spotty at best. Even still, it wasn't as bad as my first two concussions.

It's still a little easier for me to write things than speak them, since I can re-read a few times through what I'm trying to communicate and make sure it comes across right. But yes, right now I'm not having serious cognitive problems, the past 3 days or so it's been mostly dizziness, nausea, and pretty bad fatigue. Typing things like this or looking at a screen or watching a movie makes my head hurt so I can't do it for very long.

I used to work as a programmer, so I guess I used to spend a lot of time online lol After my first few concussions, I would look at code that I had written in the past and it wouldn't make sense to me. Like I might be able to understand bits and pieces, but the big picture of what I was trying to do wouldn't make sense and I would get frustrated. Right now I can do some things, it's gotten a little better as the months have gone on, but I can't focus on a project for more than an hour or so before I have to lay down for a while, usually for several hours. Sometimes I can get up and do another hour of work before it relapses.

The past two days I've been mostly laying in a dark room listening to an audiobook and occasionally checking and replying to emails (and this forum). I have done CBTI courses in the past, but I don't think the girl running the program knew what she was doing. I would be interested in trying that again.

I think that my brain (or people maybe in my situation) does exacerbate symptoms. So maybe it's a little of both, while I'm still dealing with PCS and the fact that my brain is so sensitive that my brain is amplifying the effects that I get when triggered, even only slightly. I think I'm going to try to fly out tomorrow, I'm going to take a klonopin on the uber over to try to dull those neurons. If I get to the airport and have a total collapse then I'll have to get back to the hotel and try again in a week or two, but I think it's worth the shot.

BTW: The book I've been listening to is called "The brain's way of healing", it's on neuroplasticity, some of you out there might be familiar with it. I think it's pretty good so far. It's given me some hope that maybe I can eventually re-wire my brain to recover from this, or at least reduce a lot of the symptoms...which in the end, is what really matters.