Lucy and Mark,

Thank you for your replying to my post.

Lucy my employer is aware of the injury as I did report it as a work related injury and Workers Compensation is paying for my visits to the neurologist. What I am perhaps remiss in doing is not being open with my employer as to how much the injury has impacted my life and ability to carry out my job related duties. I have been open and honest with my GP and neurologist as it would be foolish to hide my ailments from them and expect them to help me. Yes, with hindsight I should have taken more than one week off post injury. I was confident that I was going to be better soon and figured I would just work through it as I did not want to appear that I was "milking" what appeared to be a minor injury. I do not know if my employer has been communicating with my physicians, but if they have, then they will know that I'm not doing as well as I try to appear to be.

Mark, it's funny you mention the caffeine...I hadn't used it in over 15 years until my injury last April because it could and at times did trigger an anxiety attack. After my injury I have had regular coffee in small amounts on a daily basis for the brain fog caused by the accident. I've taken Xanax for 17 years now and never had the benzo fatigue. My wife was VERY surprised when I took up coffee again after so many years of not even touching decaf. As long as I am careful, a small cup off coffee does help me make it through the work day. Any more and I get to feeling somewhat anxious and uncomfortable.

I eat a very healthy diet and take folic acid together with a timed release B-complex vitamin daily to keep my homocysteine levels down as I have coronary artery disease that was treated with stents in July of 2009. Although I am a vegetarian and might be low on B-12.

Thanks again Lucy and Mark...it's a blessing to be able to share this battle with others who know what I'm going through. BTW, my neuro wants to put me on Elavil if my cardiologist agrees to it...it seems that Elavil can affect heart rate and induce an arrhythmia in some individuals.