I had been in a bunch of engagements where I might have formed a traumatic brain injury.

I had been in a bunch of engagements

where I might have formed a traumatic brain injury,

but when I was in Iraq, I was blown up by a suicide bomber.

And I didn't know.

When I came back in from that patrol, I didn't seek any help

or anything like that.

We got the trucks ready and we went to sleep.

We hit the sack 'cause we had another patrol the next day

that we knew we had to do and it was eight hours away.

So I didn't know until probably a year

to two years after I got back out.

I went back to school and I realized

that I was having problems taking tests.

A lot of the tasks that other students take for granted,

they were hard for me.

When I read a book, I couldn't remember what I just wrote

or just read.

For tests, it was hard trying to recall memories and all that.

And so I expressed some of that, some of those frustrations

to my other peers, whether it was face to face,

over a beer or over Facebook.

Sometimes it was a phone call at two o'clock in the morning,

I expressed that to some of the other guys that had been there,

been through the same experience.

And in doing that, I found out that that four of them had gone

to the VA because they were having the exact same problems.

And they had been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury.

I had no idea what the hell a traumatic brain injury was.

But they told me that if I don't go in, it's going to get worse.

So I went in 'cause my memory, it's not very good.

I went in and started learning about it,

started understanding it and through the course of going

to the VA, as frustrating as it was,

'cause the VA is not the quickest organization

but they did get me the help that I needed.

They plugged me into tons of resources.

But they also plugged me into the knowledge

of what exactly it was.