My Life Feels Totally Different Now

Get The Whole Story: Please check the Microvascular Decompression tag page to hear all the updates about my MVD surgery.

I record this podcast to let people know when bad things happen you don't have to quit. You can keep going. I’ve learned things along the way. I started out thinking that I was sick but now I know that I am in recovery.

My life feels totally different now

I have a lot more energy and I am much more present. I'm able to think complicated thoughts.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

JOHN HOPPIN: Welcome to the What's The Matter With Me? Podcast, "My life feels totally different now"

Thank you for tuning in to the What's The Matter With Me? Podcast.

My name is John. I'm 40 years old, husband, father of two, small business owner, radio DJ, podcaster. I have multiple sclerosis, so I made this podcast to share what I'm going through. What's The Matter With Me? is an MS podcast, and it's also about other things. I'm not a medical professional. Don't take this for medical advice. And if you need medical advice, ask your healthcare provider.

RECAP

Recap, last episode I had surgery, and I began my recovery. Past episodes can be downloaded on Apple Podcasts, whatsthematterwithme.org, or wherever you get it. Go get it there!

WHY I MAKE THIS PODCAST

I record this podcast to let people know that when bad things happen they don't have to quit. You can keep going. It's not the end of the world. I've learned some things along the way. I started out thinking that I was a sick person, something wrong, and now I know that I'm in recovery.

recovery continues -

So, recovery continues for me. They drilled a hole in my head. There was no blood vessel to decompress, so they partly cut my trigeminal nerve. It's a little bit … It feels different. I'm not taking anymore pain medication, Tylenol, anything related to the surgery, or craniotomy, or anything that like that. I'm pretty much recovered. I went to the doctor yesterday and they said I'm doing great and I was recovering really well. My chest hair starting to grow back, and it's still itchy and horrible.

I take less pills every day

I don't have any pain at all from trigeminal neuralgia after the surgery. So I've been dropping a pill every three days, and I think I only have one pill left. I'm on my last pill, so I quit refilling carbamazepine and gabapentin, which are powerful painkillers for trigeminal neuralgia. They made me sleepy. They made running a business and raising my family difficult because I became fatigued and dull. A lot of people have been saying it seems like my eyes are brighter. That's kind of crazy to think about. But I feel like the fog has lifted. It's great feeling.

My life feels different

I have a lot more energy. I'm hitting the gym more often, a little harder, few minutes longer, and it's great. I feel like I live a whole new life.

Back on the air

I told you I wanted to get back on KFJC. I was working toward that. Well, I've filled in twice, which is a goal I had. I did two 2:00 to 6:00 PM shifts. I programmed both of them, kind of shot it from the hip.

The first one was droney, kind of sleepy. I played a lot of Liz Harris' Grouper and Nivhek projects. Liz went to UC Berkeley, and I would hang out with her. We'd go to the Ruby Room on Wednesday nights. And later, actually, she was living at the Huffin House when I lived there for a little bit of time. That's a house above a machine shop in Oakland.

The second show I did was Chicago, Midwestern, hardcore sounds, bands like Lungfish, Naked Raygun, Big Black, and Reptile House. I didn't know any of these bands. I just saw an Instagram posts talking about Lungfish, and I started kind of nosing around the internet looking through the library and learning about Chicago, Midwestern dischord-type music. It's great to be a KFJC digging in the crates learning about bands, listening to records.

It's October, and it's fundraiser time so I've had to make twi...