I just wanted to update the board on how things are going.

I've been to a chiropractor a few times in the past three weeks.

Because of those treatments, most of my neck and spine pain are gone.

I finally did see a TBI Neuro, who prescribed two MRIs: one of the cervical spine and the other of the brain, which I had two weeks ago. My Neuro seems really good.

Today, I had a neuropsychiatric evaluation, which took about 2- 2 1/2 hours. Strangely enough, my mathematical skills were fairly high. My verbal skills were average, but across all tests, I had a slow reaction time, and my recall of figures was poor.

There was one test where I was given a list of words, and I had to recall them. I tested poorly, and my learning curve was fairly flat. That didn't worry me too too much, because I have never been good at remembering sequences of things, even in HS, college, and grad school. In school, if I had a list of things to remember like: cat, hat, justice, and tremble, I would remember the initials "CHJT" and figure out the words from there. Never a strong suit.

My "consolidation" is poor. I've been mediocre at that even before my fall, but it's definitely worse now.

Though he didn't test specifically for other forms of memory, he said it's fairly obvious I have superior long- and medium-term memory and that I am highly intelligent. (I needed to hear that!!!) There were some things that tested fine on the computer that, when he probed in paper tests, it was evident I had deficits.

I think if I had taken the tests last week, I might have done better--I was off on Friday and I think I overdid cleaning my apartment, which got me tired and *foggier* until today. But I would have to say that, nonetheless, today was a broadly *average* day for the last four months...

More important, though, they found multiple contusions in my brain on my MRI. I am not sure if they said cortical or not, but, in any case, they were "non-hemorrhagic" and consistent with concussion/ coup-contrecoup and/ or multiple concussions.

[The above description was provided by the Neuropsychologist, who read the report with me; I have not spoken to the Neuro yet (I speak to him later this week), but the contusions are there.]

The Neurospsych said he would classify the deficits overall as "mild," and said outcomes (after therapy) are usually good, but he was doubtful I would hit my pre-fall scores.

He recommended INTENSE reading every day (not sure I agree, but I think it's a good idea to read until my comprehension wanes). He also recommended cardio exercise three times a week for 30 minutes to make my brain's consumption of energy more efficient.

Also, I should be sure to eat enough.

Lastly, he recommends cognitive therapy, which I start on Saturday morning; its aim is to help me relearn/ compensate for my deficits.

Please keep me in your prayers,

Tom