Hi, just wondering if anyone who has had a transplant, if they have had any personality changes or changes in their likes and dislikes since transplant.
I used to love chocolate, now can’t stand it! After my op I wanted to smoke desperately, age 55 and a total non-smoker and always had been, never smoked, ever! Until 55!
Love sweets now, strawberry pencil in particular, never ate anything like that before!
I’ve become incredibly chatty, talk to everyone, whether they want to talk to me or not, become more opinionated and dont suffer fools anymore and actually show I’m not happy, whereas before, I never said anything!
What’s that all about?!
Anyone else like me? Even a little bit? 😘
Written by
Dawnejoy
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I made a good friend in Addenbrookes when we did assessment together, i’m 6 weeks ahead of him transplant wise and we speak regularly on the phone. He called me one day to ask if changes were possible after transplant, he told me has gone from being a microwave meal man to a first class cook and that he had answered all the questions on who wants to be a millionaire when before he’d get none. He was really struggling getting his head round it, he does make me laugh.
As for me, i’m kinder, more considerate and avoid all conflict, that’s probably more to do with quitting alcohol than transplant though.
I’m like Will and am more easy going. I used to hate down escalators and need to hold on to someone when using them. Now I’m fine and don’t think I’ll fall.
I can't get enough tea and I never drank it before .... As for the confidence it never was a problem, but my honesty is brutal now if people like it or not I couldn't give a shit ... Life is too short and I think after everything we go through pre transplant it would be daft not to expect drastic changes but I see it as a plus 😁
I have also been more angry but I am slowly sorting that it's not a nice quality and I don't have time to waste being it x
Mmm tea 😋. I'm off to make a chamomile, rose and honey tea, hopefully it will help me sleep. Don't see it happening though after several naps during the day, last one being 5-7pm 😩
Wouldn't say my personality has changed, still witty and at times a little sarcastic 😏
Hi, thanks for your reply, I too, think we go through a lot, both pre and post transplant, but I didn’t expect to have a complete aboutface over things like chocolate or coffee, that’s just weird!🤣🤣😘
So strange you are saying this, my hubbys always liked a wee bit chocolate and one coffee in the morning. Now he wouldn’t thank anyone for chocolate and he’s drinking coffee like it’s going out of fashion. Hhhmmm
Hi x if any chocolate had been left laying around, ie fridge, cupboard, it wasn’t safe at all from me and I was a tea drinker. Post op, initially if my husband even breathed chocolate on me, I would feel physically sick 🤢 I can look at chocolate now but don’t find it appealing in the least. Strawberry pencils on the other hand, may seriously become extinct because of my addiction to them! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 rarely drink tea now as much prefer coffee! Totally bizarre! Love to know more about my donor and his likes and dislikes 🤣😘
I have not had a transplant yet, but have had to take a blood transfusion and felt creepy, skin crawled, and I generally felt like someone else was inside me. I know that sounds nuts, but it was real. I also got high blood pressure out of nowhere for about a month afterward and always had very low pressure. Also, I wanted to eat cheeseburgers, I was driven to do so.
Hi, thanks for response 😊 I’ve never felt like that over blood transfusion, so can’t comment on that, but do understand about feeling driven to do something as that’s how I felt about smoking as suddenly I was desperate to smoke and I smoked, not as a novice, but as someone who had smoked all their lives! 🤣🤣😘 now I need to quit!🤣🤣🤣🤣😘
Hi Mary, I hope your husband gets the call soon if he is on the waiting list and I’m glad you found the topic and answers interesting. The reason for the question was because all bar one person experienced feeling a change, but hers was short lived, so just felt that maybe I was imaging the changes. It’s nice to know I’m not alone. 😊😘
My son told me the same, but it was from some newspaper article rather than from a reliable source, but I’m sure there is truth behind the article.
I did speak to my liaison nurse, she told me that there had been evidence of ‘muscle memory’ in heart transplant patients, but that it was rare, so who knows! 😊😘
There's a book called 'the hands of orloc' and several film adaptations including 'Hands of a Stranger' and even a short in a Simpsons episode based on it about a man who receives a double hand transplant from a murderer and develops murderous intentions themselves as a result!
In the Simpsons episode it's a hair transplant instead that you can see here - youtu.be/LZ1A5Bi_9KE
It's all fiction of course though!!!
Big changes in your life are bound to have some effect on your personality and behaviour.
Hi Dave, maybe it’s just a result of huge amounts of sedation and pain relief that just changes brain wiring somehow, who know? What I did learn from 8 days in ICU is that the brain can convince you of absolutely anything, no matter how odd they are the feelings and emotions felt and left behind once lucid again are as real as any other memory. So maybe my mind just did it all! 😊😘
I’ve posted previously that know seem to have a very short fuse. Things frustrate me a lot quicker than they used to, especially other people’s opinions which are nearly always (always always) wrong 😏
Pre transplant lived of tea, had fads where I binged on bananas, then apples
Post transplant hate tea and coffee, lost urge for any fruit, seem more less patient at strangers pushing in or just being there! Mind you love to chat to them
Hate stodgy food i.e. mash potatoes. Not really sure any more on what food is my favourite.
Seems to me, that the things we really liked and would choose over other things, have had a complete 180 def change of direction 🤣🤣😘
Dawne
“I’ve become incredibly chatty, talk to everyone, whether they want to talk to me or not, become more opinionated and dont suffer fools anymore and actually show I’m not happy, whereas before, I never said anything!”
That’s me to a tee. Never spoke to anyone anywhere except at work. Now my wife want to know why I don’t shut up tallking to anyone and everyone on bus, train, hospital, doctor, consultant (glad to get rid of me), dentist (yes honestly), anywhere! Had some very very interesting conversations though and some umm rather weird ones. Ah well 😁
Hi PhiloMilo, my thoughts exactly, the changes are fine as they are know my new preferences 🤣 just think it’s totally bizarre tho and must admit to feeling happy that others are like me 😊
Incidentally my husband now calls me the ‘hello woman’ and is always asking me if I know people when I randomly speak to strangers especially when standing in a queue 🤣🤣🤣😘
I seem to have lost most of my sense of smell but maybe that's the meds. I've become a lot more emotional. I find that sad stories and sad films can bring me to tears.
Must be difficult jojo if there are no spare seats to move to. Be a good idea to keep a perfume soaked tissue in your pocket on trips out and pretend you've got a cold, lol.
Hi, alfredthegreat, I can’t watch a thriller unless I’ve watched it before or someone has told me about it in detail, can’t stand the tension and sometimes, where there is no speech, have actually turned the sound off, as the ‘background music’ is even too much and just raises the tension and if it’s too tense, I actually have to leave the room. Used to enjoy a good thriller with a good twist in the tail. Now, it’s more likely to be family films, Disney or Pixar! 🤣🤣🤣🤣😘
Hi Dawnejoy. My only problem with thrillers or horrors is that if they are too scary then I might have to accompany my wife to the bathroom in the middle of the night, lol. Now Disney films................I can even well up watching them! I watched 'Marley and me' yesterday.......not easy. I used to have a ckuckle at my wife watching the weepy bits in films and pass her the tissues and tell her they are only acting, there's a camera crew there! Now I have to try and tell myself that.......and do I listen!!? I try to cover my emotions with a cough, lol.
First couple of months following transplant, I felt everybody had a bad breath, could smell it from miles away 😷. It stopped once the steroids stopped so must have been that.
As for being emotional, nobody before or post transplant can watch Rose letting go of Jack on Titanic and not shed a tear. There was plenty of room on that door for both of them though. Jack didn't have to die 😉
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Change of life style.
Change in body shape post transplant
Cirrhosis but no change in bloodwork 
Diet change.
Another scared person!
