Kabob, shoe, Pomeranian

Nicholas Hopper
UWRT 1102
Professor Agosta
March 14, 2016
Is Brain Surgery Changing Us?
Have you ever heard of anyone having to get brain surgery and then they acted differently
after they had surgery? Have you ever heard of anyone acting differently from a brain injury?
The reason that I ask is because I have heard stories of many people acting differently after they
had brain surgery. I chose to look more into these stories to find out on my own whether they
were true or not. I have looked at many articles on brain surgery and realized that this a common
reoccurring thing that happens to people all around the world. Not only that, it happens to people
that get brain injuries and have brain trauma, which lead me to expand my research to look into
identity and personality change after brain surgery, brain injury, and also brain trauma. I have
researched background information on this topic as well as in-depth articles that talk about a time
that this has happened. I have also gone and analyzed a blog of a man who talks about his brain
surgery both before it happens and after, I will be using this as a primary source of information to
determine whether there is a difference or not.
Brain surgery is a very common thing, especially in the United States. Hundreds of
thousands of people in the United States will require brain surgery in a year, and even more
people will have brain injuries. The causes for them having brain surgery will vary, however, the
number one cause for requiring brain surgery is getting a brain tumor and having to get it
removed. People have also required brain surgery because of a bad car accident, getting hit too
hard in the head, and also getting shot. The different causes are endless, and people every year
find new ways to have brain surgery or at least have a brain injury. Now out of these hundreds of
thousands of people, it is impossible to determine which ones had identity or personality change.
Nobody really knows why people change after brain surgery and injuries; however, some people
have seen a change in themselves or have seen a change in someone they know. These people
have posted and had new articles written to tell their story, these are the people that we can look
at to conclude if brain surgery or a brain injury can change a persons identity or their
personality.

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There are many things that people should suspect after getting brain surgery, many of
these things will only apply to a select few of them while there might apply to everyone.
Everyone feels a little differently after getting brain surgery, its more obvious in some more than
others, but most things will be only temporary and last only a few weeks after the brain surgery.
It is very obvious that after the surgery that the person will be in pain. They will be extremely
tired and it will take a while to recover. Some of the things that people do not know that could
happen could be personality changes. There has been reported cases of people getting confused
after brain surgery and acting differently than before. According to The Everywhereist, Your
senses might reset. Rand told me about this, and it still amazes me: whenever the brain is
touched or traumatized, your senses are affected. In my case, I noticed that my already strong
sense of smell was now basically super-human. Another thing that could happen to someone
after they had brain surgery is them getting confused t the little things such as what language
they are speaking. One of the biggest side effects of getting brain surgery is short-term and longterm memory loss, and this is something that some people can never get back.
Many times it is not the person who actually got the surgery that sees a change in their
personality or identity, but it is the people that surround that person such as friends and loved
ones. One example of this happening is a couple that has been married for 40 years. Ten years
into their marriage, the wife had to get brain surgery and then thirty years after that the husband
has told the story of how he had to fall in love with his wife all over again. The husband, Jim,
grew very fond of his wifes characteristics and then grew fond of new characteristics that
appeared after the brain surgery. Jim has stated that over the years, I think because of the
surgery, she's had some of the traits that we really appreciated from her, have gone by the
wayside There are many characteristics that she has currently that she didn't have when we got
married She's a different person. When asked to give examples of how his wife is different he
could not give many examples because he said that there were a lot of small things that added up.
However, some of the more permanent changes in his wifes identity are that she does not seem
to be as outgoing as she once was. Also, he noticed that it was difficult or her to remember
things, short and long-term. Another thing that changed about his wife is that they stopped
traveling as much. Before the brain surgery they were frequent travelers and loved to explore, but
after her surgery, they seemed to never find time or did not feel up to exploring like they used to.
However, just recently they have come to do I more often and getting back into the tradition.

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There are many ways to require brain surgery and to get a brain injury as well as there are
many different ways a persons identity and personality can change. Because no one knows why
some people change after brain surgery or brain injuries we cannot determine whether it is a
specific cause, such as brain tumors or tragic brain rattling. The magnitude of these changes can
vary as much as the possible causes for brain surgery or injury. A person that has more done to
her brain is more likely to have more changes and it is most likely that these changes would be of
a greater magnitude than someone who had less done to their brain. If the reason for brain
surgery happens to be a tumor, the size of the tumor would influence changes in a persons
personality as well as the location of the tumor. People should not fear for these changes, they
are very unlikely to happen and most changes go away after several weeks.
Andrew Walker is just a normal guy up until he was told by his doctor that he had a
growth in his brain and it had to be removed. Andrew was surely shocked when he heard this
news and after a while, he got the idea to start a blog to write down his thoughts through this
process, before and after the brain surgery. I took a first-hand look at these blogs to decide for
myself whether there was a change or not. There was not much to conclude from these posts,
they did not fully show Andrews identity for me to see much change, but I believe there were a
couple of things that did change about him. The beginning posts were of what was going on and
appointments with the doctor before the surgery; he talked about the preparation for the brain
surgery. After the brain surgery, he started posting how he was feeling and the recovery from the
brain surgery. Some of the things that I noticed was that he was not posting as frequently as he
used to. Before the brain surgery he was posting about every day, sometimes twice in one day,
but then after the surgery he seemed to change and stopped posting as frequently. This could just
because he was recovering from a surgery and was tired and did not have time, or it could be that
he just did not see the point in blogging anymore. He did continue to blog months after his
surgery and the blog posts after the surgery, while not as frequent, were in more detailing than
before and he seemed to be writing much, much more than he would have before the surgery. I
also saw that his posts seemed more professional than before in the way that we would write
more and in a more structured way and before he would just briefly cover what he was doing and
his postings did not have much structure to them. All of these things might seem small, but this is
all that can be concluded from the blog, he could have much more severe changes or he could be
exactly the same. I believe that his identity did change, and while it was not as severe as it could

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be this can be used to conclude that more people like him could experience a change in their
personalities and identities in much more noticeable ways.
There is enough evidence to show that people can change after a brain injury or brain
surgery, and the people that get affected, experience different changes at different magnitudes.
There are clearly consequences, in fact, you could say there are two types of consequences, good
consequences and bad ones. Having a brain injury can cause people to suddenly has emotional
and physical problems. These problems can include, but are not limited to, agitation, volatile
emotions, memory impairment, verbal attacks, physical aggression, and impaired impulse
control. (Cromer). Having a brain injury could also make you go into depression and have OCD
or anxiety for no visible reason. Although many people suffer from some of these negative side
effects there are some people that get lucky. People like Jason Padgett, who became a
mathematical genius, or Orlando Serrell, who can do the most complex calculations after getting
hit in the head with a baseball, or someone like Derek Amado, who dove into a pool and got a
concussion along with musical talents that he didnt have before. These people were some of the
lucky few that got amazing gifts; they had very little knowledge of any of their new skills before
and then they suddenly knew everything about it. Jason Padgett sold furniture and was a college
drop-out before he got robbed and beat up which lead to him getting a concussion and he now
sees the world through mathematical equations and is one of the only people who can draw
approximations of fractals.
In conclusion, it is very unlikely that someone would happen to experience change into
their personality or identity from a brain injury or surgery, especially one that would be
permanent. However, it has been known to happen in some cases; many people see changes in
themselves and others after they have either brain surgery or a brain injury. It is not something to
fear, it can be bad but it could also be a gift. The brain stores all the information about a person,
their favorite color, favorite TV show, and what they like to do. If something tragic happens to a
persons brain it could change a few things.

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Work Cited
"20 Things You Can Expect After Brain Surgery." The Everywhereist. N.p., 28 Aug. 2013. Web.
28 Mar. 2016.
"The People Who Become Geniuses After Brain Trauma." Curiosity.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30
Mar. 2016.
Cromer, Janet M. "After Brain Injury: The Dark Side of Personality Change Part I." Psychology
Today. N.p., 09 Mar. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
Lewis, By Tanya. "A Beautiful Mind: Brain Injury Turns Man into Math Genius." LiveScience.
TechMedia Network, 05 May 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
Peterson, Sarah. "Husband Shares Story of Wife's Personality Change after Brain Surgery."
Deseret News. N.p., 08 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
Siegfried, Juliette. "Brain-Surgery.com.". Brain-Surgery, n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
Walker, Andrew. "My Brain Surgery Blog." My Brain Surgery Blog. Blogger, Aug.-Sept. 2011.
Web. 30 Mar. 2016.