this is probably a weird thing to say - but I have to wonder if you ever had surgery.

This is so interesting to me, that you would ask this. The biggest surgery I have ever had, thankfully, was the removal of my wisdom teeth. And though waking from that was not nearly strange to this degree, it still had that sensation of... looking at yourself from outside yourself, sort of feeling and seeing and hearing everything, but not getting the full effect of it. The fact that you compared the story to that is... such a wonderful thing for me to hear. Thank you for seeing it so realistically. *hugs*