This is an odd one… but has anybody else developed totally new skills, abilities, likes, etc… post decompression surgery? I did! Just two new “skills.” One was - now I love coffee! Before Chiari surgery, I could not stand even the smell of coffee. For 50 years, I detested coffee. For the life of me, I wished I didn’t. I worked in several third-world countries where water was unsafe to drink (especially decades ago) and coffee was always the safest drink offered. It was made with boiled water - making it safer, anyway. I always turned it down because I couldn’t stand the taste. Well, no I LOVE IT! IT all happened after my surgery! What’s with that??? Another skill - even more fun than coffee… I am able to compose music scores! Prior to Chiari debilitation, I was an illustrator. I could draw. I illustrated lots of literacy materials overseas. Although I loved listening to instrumental music, I could never come up with my own. Not any more!!! Again - since post Chiari surgery, I hear fully orchestrated instrumentals in my head all the time! I’ve since composed - and used soundtrack software - 150 soundtracks for a media department in NC. It has been SO FUN. But - this all happened after the surgery. I’m trying to wrap my head around it. How did a decompression surgery connect up “other” brain synapsis?!? I’m wonder if this sort of thing has happened to anybody else??? -Beth R