I was rear ended in March of 2010 and got a concussion. I was diagnosed with a concussion and was told it might be a few days before I felt better. Throughout the first week I lost the ability to speak coherently. I could not construct a sentence properly and obscure and irrelevent phrases would be scattered throughout my speech. I could not find words, would substitute wrong words, and then get angry when someone couldn't understand me. My balance was affected and I started walking with on hand out to the side to keep my balance. I had the typical headaches, earpain, and intolerence of noise and stimilation and busyness.

I worked very hard and had a lot of support in the first 6 months or so. After 10 months I was able to return to work part time in a limited capacity. I'm a police officer in a tough city. My family and coworkers were amazed at my recovery and some told me that they never thought I'd be able to live independently again much less return to work.

I have now been working full time on my own for 7 months, and without any restrictions for the past 4 months.

All of that means that I have recovered greatly but I still struggle so much. Most noticable to others are my change in personality, ability to handle stress, and how quick I am to anger and mood changes.

Most noticable to me is my inability to find ideas or memories especially placing those in context. I get "lost" when I try to find a memory or read a book. Thinking is so much more difficult. I used to be able to read a James Patterson type book in a few hours with complete comprehension and recall. Now I struggle to read one over several weeks and usually have to reread parts of it and look back over it to remember what happens.

Whenever I'm overly tired my symptoms get worse. When I'm really stressed, tired, or sick I have so many symptoms that I can't function.

My doctor calls this a depleted cognitive reserve and says that I need to rebuild my "brain buffer."

Has anyone else heard of this? Does anyone have any suggestions on anything I can try to keep improving my functioning?

Thanks for letting me share. Due to the nature of my job, its not like I can share with anyone that I still struggle so much.