I was reading about my arachnoid cyst and military duty in Iraq. I do not remember being directly injured, however, mortars and rockets did land near me and I can remember feeling the blast wave feeling like it was going through me. I started having a pain in my eye like being stabbed with an ice pick and then my hands and feet went numb. I went to an EENT and then had a number of MRI s with the arachnoid cyst diagnosis. I went through a fenestration of the cyst in April 2015 and then subsequence cognitive therapy. I still have short term memory loss. After the operation I was diagnosed with diabetes and GH deficiency. I retired from job with a university a few weeks ago because I didn t feel I could do the job as I used to. I never went to the VA for assessment because I didn t think there was a correlation and I was going to the Cleveland Clinic which is a good hospital. I was in a Ph.D. program and left because I didn t feel I could do the work anymore. I have 4 graduate degrees and a number of A.S. s and B.A. s. About a year ago I had extreme emotions that I related to the cyst. The fenestration seems to have worked well on the hands and feet, and the eye pain is greatly reduced. The short term memory is a significant problem. Does this sound normal for this type of cyst and is there anything else that I can do?