More and more I’m finding new things after my surgery. Either new perspectives on things, strange quirks associated with surgery, and just post-headache life in general. I thought I’d share a few about differences between pre and post headache life.
1. My alcohol tolerance has gone to complete crap
This one makes the least sense to me. I’d been on Hydromorphone and Hydromorphcotin daily for 2 years, and built up a tolerance to it over time to the point that on my minimal dose, I could actually have a bit of alcohol with it. I’m going to add a disclaimer here: There are tons, and I mean TONS, of reasons to not drink while on meds. Don’t do what Donna does. Seriously. Listen to your doctors folks.
Now that I’m drug free, for some ungodly reason, a single beer makes me unreasonably tipsy. How does this even make sense? Alcohol and narcotics are supposed to wreck you, but remove narcotics from the equation and my body decides it’s instantly happy hour. I have this mental image of my liver and kidneys saying: “Hey, thanks for making us stop processing all those drugs! To celebrate, let’s take the day off and just let that liquor right into your blood stream!”
2. Your scars aren’t as noticeable as you think they are.
When you get a scar, it’s the most noticeable thing in the world to you. Like a shining beacon of light that, no matter how much covering up you do, will be the first thing anyone sees about you. I was never concerned about the cosmetic side of things in regards to the surgery. I knew I’d have scars, bumps, and all the rest, but they were always prominent to me, so I braced for the questions about it.
The lack of people not noticing any change, in my mind, was absolutely hilarious. Sure, some of it can be chalked up to being polite and not saying anything. My more honest (and blunt) friends would sometimes make a comment about that “giant zit” on my forehead. I can now chalk up some of people staring at my chest as looking at my scar, but aside from that, it became obvious that they were not as prominent as I thought they were. I’m sure come bikini season it will be more apparent since you’ll be able to see a perfect rectangle above my chest. But honestly, many people didn’t even notice when I shaved half my head. Literally, 60% of my hair shaved down, and people actually mentioned that they didn’t notice the change. So if anyone reading this is going to be going through surgery, remember that however big you think your scars are, they are significantly less noticeable than you probably think they are.
3. Head rubs are amazing
Ever gone for a head massage? If you haven’t, you seriously need to try it. One amazing thing that has happened post op is when my head was shaved, suddenly people wanted to play with it. Which means head rubs. Best. Side Effect. Ever.
4. My sweet tooth has apparently fallen out of my head.
I’ve heard people make the argument saying that if you stay away from sweets long enough, you’ll stop craving them. I’ve also heard people call this complete bullshit.
Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know if there is any kind of science behind it. What I can tell you is that after 2.5 years of no sweets outside of things pumped full of sugar alcohols, super sweet things are never high up on my craving list. Do I still enjoy sweet things? Sure, a bit. Special occasion, in small doses. However there are things I don’t think I’ll ever go back to. Coke tastes like syrup. Given the option of dessert, I’ll take another glass of wine (and promptly fall over thanks to my new found intolerance).
5. A large portion of the population can be freaked out by things under your skin.
Before I start, I’m going to point back to #2 on this list and say once again that most people don’t notice anything different. Now to add the amendment “unless you point it out”.
Don’t want to gross people out? Don’t draw attention to it. Want to cause someone’s skin to crawl? Move something under the skin and watch them flip the hell out.
So far I’ve made my Mom recoil in terror by having her touch a wire and telling her what it is. I’ve watched a group of grown men squirm in their seats as they watched a video where I pushed on my forehead lead. Former coworkers having to look away, unable to watch as my battery pack moves.
I have to admit, I have a lot of fun with it. I take a great, evil pleasure out of watching people squirm. I guess the only real drawback would be having to add “Can’t be freaked out by things under my skin” to a list of qualities I’d look for in a potential mate, otherwise dating is going to get really awkward, really fast.
Eat, Sleep, Geek, Repeat 