RedWing88,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. I fully understand what you are going through and sympathize with you.

AAAmy makes some good points but is commenting as an observer.

Regarding cognitive thinking skills,,, Lumosity may help but you need to be cautious. It also can easily deplete your "cognitive reserve" as your doctor calls it.

My first recommendation is for you to have a full battery NeuroPsychological Assessment. Was your accident while on the job? If so, it means you are likely limited to Work Comp benefits unless your state allows you to file a claim against the other driver even when you are injured while on the job.

Your proper diagnosis should have been concussion with whiplash. This can greatly complicate the simple concussion injury.

Your situation sounds similar to John Byler's as he recounts in "You Look Great" as his YouTube video series describes. Check You Tube for "You Look Great." It is 6 videos that take about an hour total. Your family and friends should view it too.

I have heard of "reserve" but not "brain buffer. "

Your brain may have used up its reserve. This reserve is the brains ability to utilize under-utilized areas to make up for losses. Think of it as a 8 lane highway. During commute hour, all 8 lanes are busy. During normal times, the traffic could easily flow smoothly on 4 lanes. At midnight, it could work on just 1 or 2 lanes.

Your 8 lane brain has been reduced to 4 lanes during normal times and only 1 or 2 lanes when you are under stress. This causes the traffic jam of thoughts. The question is whether you can restore it to 8 lane function. This depends on the level of injury. There are very limited ways of determining if your brain can rebuild the damaged 4 lanes.

To add to you situation, I would assume that you have experienced a fair number of sub-concussive impacts during your life, both in sports and during POST training and retraining. Add the constant repetition of minor blast concussions from maintaining firearm proficiency and your brain has likely seen a considerable amount of sub-concussive impacts. Add to that any prior concussions and your cumulative injury can become quite a problem.

All this to say that further recovery will likely be a combination of two modes. Cognitive training may be of help but needs to be carefully done so as to not overload your brain. The more important task will be learning some work-arounds and other accommodations and coping skills.

Minimizing stress should be your first objective. As a cop, that will be a tough one. The common stress reliever of a beer or such will be counterproductive as it causes chemical stress on the brain. A single serving may be tolerated but not much more. Caffeine is also a brain stressor. Again, a single serving per day, early in your day is recommended.

There are many work-arounds and accommodations to help with specific struggles. Word finding, memory recall, contextualizing memories, etc, are all common PCS symptoms. Your description of your own struggles sounds like you have stolen my brain. Been there, doing that.

The reading issue sounds familiar too. To show you how work-arounds can help, I'll explain a reading work around.

Take a piece of paper and cut a wide slit in it so you can see a few lines of print in your book. Holding this over the pages, slide it down the page as you read. This will allow your eyes to see the lines you are reading and about to read. The reduced visual image may help you read the book.

Reading fiction may continue to be a struggle, even with this work-around. I can not read fiction anymore. My brain can not keep all of the details in memory. I also struggle with overly descriptive sentences. Too many issues variable to try to combine into one image. This is a result of losing 'digit span' capabilities.

A mature] adult] mind] should] be able] to process] and hold] for combined processing] as many] as 8 items] (digits)] without difficulty]. Many] can do] many more]. The first sentence has 12 digits. The second sentence has 3 or 4. I used the ] bracket to show each digit in the first sentence.

If James Patterson uses too many complex and overly descriptive sentences, I can understand your struggle. You likely have to read the text three or four times to follow the story.

When you are reading, if you can read without having to reread a sentence, continue reading. once you start to reread sentences, your brain has reached cognitive fatigue and you should stop. You may be able to relax, close your eyes for a few minutes and resume reading. The key point is to avoid the fatigue. The medical term for this is 'over-attending.' Your brain is trying to attend to more than it has the ability to process at that moment.

There is lots more I can tell you. I've been living with this condition for almost 12 years. But, I have probably overloaded you already.

Print out this post so you can read it again later. Highlight the things that are making sense. Write down some questions for a later post.

And lastly, try to realize that you are running a marathon, not a sprint. You can and will need to learn many new skills to regain the rest of your life.

My best to you.