iarecylon

Hi! In 2007, my husband broke his neck when he landed incorrectly, attempting a backflip.

After his injury, 2 months in a hospital, and extensive surgeries, he had a 100% personality change, by all accounts. He wasn't a super angry, bitter guy anymore, but turned into a kind, gentle sweetheart. We've done some research, and this seems like a common thing to go from polar ends of the personality spectrum following a traumatic injury to the neck or spine. Any major personality changes in your experience?

Yeah, I started being called slut and whore around age 10 because I'd already developed breasts. No one seemed to care that I never even kissed a boy until much, much later, or that I was a virgin until I was with my first husband at age 20. It freaking sucked.

And right after posting, I saw that answer. :P

The spouse likes to tell people that breaking his neck was the best thing that ever happened to him because of that. Now, you couldn't find a more pleasant, cheerful person, but according to everyone else, he was pretty much a dick before.

Anyway, I'll think happy thoughts for you and yours, and please accept these hugs from Utah: love

You have the coolest job ever! I'm a little jealous!

You mentioned the rats are sniffing out TB in samples in a lab. Would a rat be able to determine TB in a living patient? So could a doctor put a rat on their chest and get some kind of feedback that "This guy's really sick" or "This lady doesn't have it"? I ask because I worked in an office in the US that got exposed to TB from a client that was very sick when they came in for a meeting, and we ended up having a 3 week process to deal with it because we all had to be tested a few days post-exposure, and then a second time a week or so after the first. It was a long, crappy process, but a necessary one - TB is no joke - but I wonder if maybe there would be a better, more cost-effective method.

Me too! Life improved so much after I changed schools, mostly because the new school uniform included a baggy sweater. Made it easier to hide that way.