Sensory Dissonance and Home Surgery

I cut off the pad of my left index finger while attempting to divide a Parmesan chunk with an overly sharp knife. There was plenty of blood.

Two weeks later it is all healed--sort of. I succeeded in reattaching the severed bit of skin and muscle but the graft is uneven. The reattached bit itself has no feeling whatsoever but the area surrounding it seems to have become hypersensitive. Is it realigned nerves or a mental mirage like a microscopic version of phantom limb syndrome?

I run the finger across my stubble. The sensory dissonance between the numb and the hyper-sensitive areas is too intense and I am forced to stop. People have a difficult time holding diametric thoughts in their mind at the same time, it causes mental friction. To experience two diametric versions of a surface that I run the finger across is also a uncomfortable sensation. You should feel this.

I wish I could loan you my finger so you could experience the unsettling weirdness.


.