For the first time in my life I'm scared of something bad happening to me. I'm nearly 50 years old and a veteran of Desert Storm so I've seen things that most people haven't and I've always been strong.

Now to my issues. About 10 months ago I fell of the roof of my one story ranch home. In landed on a concrete patio with all the force on my back and my head snapping back with great force. My wife rushed me to the nearest hospital and then I was sent by ambulance to a hospital with a trauma center. I cracked the back of my skull from basically ear to ear and had bleeding on the brain. Thankfully the bleeding subsided and they didn't have to open me up. I spent numerous days in the hospital and was out of work for a month with severe headaches and uncontrollable dizziness. I went through therapy for my dizziness and after awhile things got better. Can't recall the therapy but it had something to do with loose crystals or what I like to say my rocks in my head were knocked loose. Through it all during the past 10 months I've experienced headaches and some dizziness but I've dealt with it.

Now let's fast forward to last week at work. Something was left on the floor that shouldn't have been there and it was confirmed as a safety hazard after I tripped on it. That's right, I tripped on it and went head first into a wall. The force was hard enough to crack the wall. I was taken to the emergency room and given all tests that were required for head, neck and back injuries. It came back that I had aneck and back sprain and fortunatly no cracked skull or bleeding on the brain. I have a pretty good bump on the side of my head and the doctor said I suffered a concussion.

That sounds like good news but since then I've had severe headaches and dizziness which the doctor said would probably happen. What has me worried now is memory loss, slurred speech and stuttering. My wife wife says I ask her the same things 10 minutes after I asked the initial question. On the phone she and my friends said they have noticed stuttering and slurred speach. I can deal with some physical pain but this mental aspect has me scared beyond belief.

I'm in a job that I feel at some point I'm going to be pressured into returning and to perform at my same previous level. My job requires lots of correspondence through letters and emails and in just the past few days some of my emails have been somewhat incoherent. I'm not back at work but these emails have been through friends. I'm also required to use a computer most of the day and at night I receive phone calls on it job that require split second decisions to be made. My job is important to me and I love it.

I go to my family doctor tomorrow and I know he's going to tell me to stay away from work for a period of time. This may sound crazy but I'm thinking of telling him I'm better. I was wondering if I could just ride this out and hope to get better on my own.

My wife is a nurse and she has told me the seriousness of two brain injuries so close together in time some I'm no fool about this but I'm also bull-headed and I've always drove myself to get better.

Lately I've gone on line and from what I've read I know how serious this is. Again getting back to work and showing my employer I'm not trying to take advantage of them has me on the edge. There were numerous witnesses to the accident and all agree that the company was negligent by creating a fall hazard. Do you think I could have long term problems with this? The first accident from the roof was very serious. In factthe doctors told me I was lucky I didn't die. When I do go back to work and if I have mental lapses I'm worried the company will take action against me. I hope someone can help me sort this all out.

I hope this is coherent enough. I've proofread and had my daughter look at it so please excuse any mistakes.

Thanks for your time.