Originally Posted by Mark in Idaho

Jaystar,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear of your many concussions.

I think you have figured it out. You are suffering from Multiple Impact Syndrome. It cause each successive concussion to do more damage with a greater amount of prolonged symptoms.

First, I need to help you understand a bit about impacts to the head. A concussion with LOC (Loss of Consciousness) is not a mild concussion. The concussions you note are likely only the tip of the iceberg. You have likely suffered many more concussion in almost 19 years of soccer. Plus, you have suffered an untold number of sub-concussive impacts.

A sub-concussive impact is any impact to the brain that does not cause immediate or even next day symptoms. Heading the ball is almost always a sub-concussive impact (SCI). The worst SCI's in soccer come from heading drills. The repeated impacts during a short period of time can be more damaging that a concussion.

You say you don't have insurance but it sounds like you have suffered more than one concussion during college soccer. In my view, this puts the college on the hook for your continuing care for you current PCS as a result of last year's concussion. The online concussion tests, likely ImPACT or CNS-VS, tell me that your trainer has been using poor information for managing concussions and return to play decisions.

I doubt you have true loss of memory of your childhood or teen years. More likely you have difficulty focusing so you can remember. Your brain is overwhelmed with visual and auditory stimulation preventing you from focusing to recall your past.

To better understand your condition, you need to have a NeuroPsych Assessment (NPA) done. Your soccer team/college should be footing the bill for a full work-up. An NPA will help you define what functions workj and which are damaged. You likely have very poor immediate and short term visual and auditory memory functions. Welcome to the club.

There are many ways you can learn to work with and around your memory limitations. There are 3 kinds of memory. Immediate ( 1 second to 5 or 10 minutes after an event) short term (the few hours after an event) and long term (next day memory). You probably are poor at immediate and short term which makes converting short term memories to long term memories more difficult. There are ways to help you long term memory work better.

There are also memories called "over-learned skills." These are things like tying your shoes, driving a car, remembering family and friends, etc. These memories are stored in multiple places in your memory so they can be accessed many different ways. These still work fine or you would not be talking, typing, driving, etc.

Geting a full NPA will go a long way toward helping you understand how to use your strengths to help you weaknesses.

There are a number of things you need to do for the immediate future.

First, you should not be driving. You are too much of a risk to yourself, your passengers, and the other vehicles and pedestrians. If someone where to honk a horn as a collision is imminent, your brain will likely overload and freeze up and you will lose the ability to make decisions about controlling your car. I know this problem very well as it has caused me to have to severely limit my driving.

Second, you need to lower the stimulation levels of your daily environment. It sounds like you have too much on your plate for your current condition. I doubt you have spent any time with quiet rest to help your brain recover from your last impact. It needs a few months of quiet rest. Minimal driving and only during low traffic periods when you are at the top of your mental game. This should probably be after a few weeks of quiet rest.

You should learn how to use something like an iPAD for daily schedules and reminders. There is even an app that will speak for you or show a line of text when you get stressed and get tongue tied. I know of others who get tongue tied in stressful situations who use it successfully.

You should create a short statement on a small slip of paper to keep with your driver's license to use when you get foggy brained and need to explain that your have suffered a brain injury and may get flustered or even over-react loudly when confronted. I have been denied boarding at the airport because I reacted to an overly aggressive TSA agent. 2 other times, I came close to being denied. Now, I always have my brain injury slip ready
to hand to a cop or TSA.

There are lots of other tips and advice for you to consider like nutritional supplements to help you brain detoxify, heal and tolerate stress.

The most important thing for you to understand is this. If you avoid stressing your brain, you likely have decades before you see any more problems from your concussion history. You have lots of time to recover and learn to moderate your symptoms. In time, you should be able to do some running with good shoes and after learning a better/smoother running gait. But that time is in the future. When you feel good enough to try some running/exercise, I an others can give you some tips.

There are lots of tips available to help you with your most difficult struggles. Just tell us what they are and you will get lots of support.

My best to you.