It had never occurred to me until last week's surgery that vomiting after waking up in recovery isn't a given. I've puked every single time I've had surgery on my ear going back to when I had tubes put in at probably 5 years old. I woke up from my first implant surgery in 2006 wondering why I had to even ask the nurse for a receptacle while trying to hold it in before she got it to me. Mentioning the fact last week to the anesthesiologist made all the difference.

Anyway, reflecting on past surgeries dredged up the lost memory of how the anesthesiologists back when I was 5 years old would ask me what scented gas I wanted to knock me out. I don't remember the options other than probably "cherry," because from the get-go I developed a deep aversion for that sweet smelling gas due to its effects on me. Just the fact it was even sweet smelling elicited revulsion.

The gas always induced deep psychedelic visual and auditory hallucinations that I'd experience until going unconscious and there were some lingering auditory effects in the weeks following recovery. It seemed like they got worse each time. Waking up puking and spending the day exhaling the gas out of my body, smelling it over and over just rounded out that whole hellish ride. The last three I had in elementary school added two painful, burning shots to the buttocks just prior to being wheeled off to surgery. Kids like the one that threw a basketball at my head in the school gym while waiting inside for the bus home due to a snow storm had no idea what they set in motion anytime they whacked my head, cost me more hearing, and put me through the above ordeal yet again. (One by basketball, one by piece of fruit thrown at head, one by wrestling with me and knocking my head against the ground, one by lunging back while playing on the school bus knocking my head with hers.)

Now I'm wondering if anyone else out there ever experienced these hallucinations while being gassed.