I will say that before I had the surgery... I spoke with the anesthesiologist just to give him a "heads-up" that if my body seems to stress out while I'm under, it might be because I could be reacting to some of the sounds I'm subconsciously hearing. I told him about my misophonia - which he found interesting - but he said he didn't think I'd respond to anything while under the anesthesia. (I figured it couldn't hurt to let him know about it, just in case...)
The surgery went really quickly (I went under at 6 a.m., woke up at 6:30 a.m. and was home resting by 8:30 a.m.) I took it easy for a couple of days - and was relieved that my cockatiel was quiet the whole time I was home. (Don't think I could've handled him whining at me while I was trying to recoup.)
I went back to work five days later and discovered that they moved my belongings to a cubicle in a newly renovated area of the building. I'll admit... It's been a nice change so far. Much quieter than where I had been sitting (especially since I don't have to listen to my neighbor playing his speakers out loud - like a mosquito in my ear), but it also has similar drawbacks to studying in a public library. When the rare trigger occurs now, it's even more noticeable. Most of my neighboring cubicles are very quiet but the day I got back... One of the people who sits in the other half of the building came into our space loudly clicking his pen... Over and over... I went over to him and discretely asked him to please stop clicking his pen. He gave me this weird look and when I got back to my cubicle - just 10 feet away, he deliberately clicked it a couple of times more while looking right in my eyes.
This was very surprising because from the moment I started at this firm, he was one of the most welcoming people there. But when I went to speak with him one-to-one at his desk... Not only did I notice his cubicle mate staring at me while clicking his pen (I'm sure he told his buddy what happened), but then he snapped back at me, "This is an open office environment! Do you expect EVERYONE to comply with your needs?" I was SHOCKED to say the least! Everyone else to whom I spoke of my condition was very compassionate, but here was someone who had been so nice to me and as soon as I try to explain to him about my condition, he became like a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. Very disappointing.
Afterwards, I went back to my desk and thought to myself - what if one of the other people in the office who gets seizures - or anyone else in the office who may have a medical condition for that matter - had asked him to stop doing something because it was triggering them? Would he have reacted so callously?
I put those thoughts aside and just said to myself that he's just being a bully - maybe because he was embarrassed that I asked him to stop (although I tried to be discrete by whispering my request in his ear instead of out loud for everyone to hear). I haven't had to work with him on a project yet and as long as that stays the case... I'm just going to avoid him from now on...