Hockey and Lucy,

have you printed out Dr Glen Johnson's TBI Survival Guide? It is the best. Go to www.tbiguide.com. Have your friends and family read it.

Lucy, when you try to explain to others, maybe you can compare your condition to walking around and not knowing when the lights are going to go out, but knowing they will.

An explanation I have used is from when I was still driving. I would stop at a stop sign where the crossing traffic did not have to stop. I'd look left and see where the cars were. I would then look right and see the cars. But, I had already forgotten where the cars to the left are. I would try to look back and forth buy turning my head from side to side very quickly. This only made things worse.

Once, I was driving my wife's stick shift car. In was in a yield-right turn lanes. I needed to check the oncoming traffic, work the brake, the clutch, and gas pedal. This overwhelmed me. Too many simultaneous efforts. I had to wait til there were not any cars at all.

Or I explain that I do not have any visual memory. I know there is a wall and table behind me, but I cannot visualize them.

Or maybe you can compare it to juggling balls. I can only juggle one ball, not two and not even try to think about juggling three balls.

This forum and another I follow are the only places I can appear normal. I can type out a comment and reread it and edit it so that the final result look normal. I think this is why I tend to be so long winded, or long in words.

We are more help to each other than the best doctors.