It has now been 21 weeks since my injury. Some more good news to report:

- I am having less trouble reading text and processing information overall.

- I have had less of a craving for sugar and have lost some weight.

- Headaches are pretty faint at this point most of the time

- I am handling cannabis and caffeine MUCH better. Before, I would get surges of anxiety from cannabis soon after smoking which might last 20-30 minutes, and with coffee I would get anxiety later in the day and feel mentally vanquished and prone to powerful crying spells the next day.

But in less than a week I have had 3 cups of coffee with no crying spells yet! The degree of anxiety/dread is also less and seems to occur in noticeably shorter bursts, like my brain is very slowly learning how to function again and is able to tolerate these external influences. I am also noticing fewer after effects.

One of the things I've been doing to recover has been taking long bike rides of 15-25 miles. I have a road bike and finally broke it out this summer. I have probably done a few hundred miles in the last month or so. It seems that moderate intensity exercise for longer durations (~2 hours) is doing more for my condition than more intense episodes of running for shorter durations (~1 hour). It could also just be a coincidence.

It still looks like a long road ahead until complete recovery takes place. I may very well actually seek treatment at Cognitive FX in about a month's time. I had a consultation on the phone several weeks ago. Thankfully I have family to support me financially for most of the cost.

I have debated whether or not it is worth going but I am genuinely interested in both knowing what parts of my brain are injured or not working well and improving as much as is possible. I have read as much as I possibly can about them here and wherever else and it seems legitimate to me overall. It will be very interesting to report back if I go through with everything. I should add that although undiagnosed, I likely have a history of several other concussions and many subconcussive blows as well, the worst impact being when I fainted about 7 years ago and hit my head on a tile floor.

I am still taking hemp oil most days of the week and it really does help. I had a class reunion several weeks back and had 4 servings of alcohol throughout the day. By taking extra hemp oil I was able to concentrate and interact with people very well overall and actually had a really nice time being with everyone, feeling mostly small and manageable amounts of anxiety that day and sometimes none. Hemp oil has been a true blessing throughout this and I recommend anyone with PCS give it a try.

So I'm almost 6 months in and I am still dealing with symptoms, but compared to when I first joined things are slowly and incrementally looking up.