Bears vs. Babies: A Visual Primer to Post-Craniotomy Tiredness

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If you are not yet familiar with the game Bears vs. Babies, stop right now, click this link, and go buy it. It’s from the creator of The Oatmeal, who also made the most excellent game Exploding Kittens, which you should also buy, as it will enrich your existence.

It’s been a little over two weeks since my craniotomy, and much of the time I feel shockingly normal. And then I get desperately tired (my meds are not letting me sleep much), my skull starts to feel uneven,  and I start to feel a bit … off. These monster cards from Bears vs. Babies give a visual approximation of how I often feel during the course of a social outing.

Stage One:

Happy Squid is participating in conversation with both eyes of approximately the same size and pupil dilation and focused in the same direction. Eyes, mouth, and forehead are all coordinated in appropriate social responses. Yay!

Stage Two: 

Piggy is tiring from having to focus on your words and face, and his eyes are starting to spread apart with slightly different dilations. Piggy hopes you don’t notice.

Stage Three: 

Barracuda’s eyes might be swiveling on separate stalks and scaring small children. Or his eyes could be boring into your head – it’s hard to know what they’re doing. Barracuda wishes for the sweet relief of sleep that rarely comes because of the anti-brain-swelling steroids, but please keep talking so we can both pretend he's actually a Happy Squid.

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