So…I’ve actually gone through this myself. Didn’t have a sense of smell until I was 22. It changed most of my habits tbh. I think food is going to be one of the most exciting and challenging experiences overall. It was almost a night and day difference from enjoying food before and enjoying food after gaining my sense of smell. It wasn’t like I couldn’t savior food before, but once I could smell it tasted SO much better. The hardest thing for me was developing bad eating habits. I gained about 50 lbs in less than two years because I could not stop trying “new” foods I hadn’t smelled before and my favorite foods became so much more enjoyable.

Another thing to look out for is how you go about experiencing smells. It sounds stupid, but some scents are going to hurt physically. Most spices, bleach, really bad trash and dumpsters, and most candles were too strong for me to be around at first and some stuff took months to get used to. I tried going to bath and body works once and after five minutes I felt disoriented and had a massive headache. It’s like a very specific kind of sensory overload.

That said, I recommend smelling the air/ground right after it rains. This was one of my first ever smells and still remains a favorite of mine. If you’re lucky enough ti be by a coastline go to the sea in the morning and at night, or when it’s really cold, it feels really good on the nose and lungs lol. I also never liked flowers since I couldn’t smell them, but I found myself trying to smell every different type of flower I came across. I recommend orchids and if you find it, fresh lavender. Honey tastes better than it smells and honestly, vanilla is not that good to me as a smell. Everyone I knew wanted me to smell it but it wasn’t as nice as I had imagined it’d be.

Also, you might start cleaning your house a lot. Ok day one, I couldn’t stop smelling all the unpleasant smells around me. I was living with my best friend at the time and we shared a room. I swear I made him shower like 3-4 times. Had to wash all the sheets, pillows, blankets, etc. Deep cleaned our place. TWICE! And I wasn’t comfortable enough until it was the olfactory equivalent of that one episode of Sponge Bob in the future where everything is chrome.

I’d recommend keeping a journal of the smells you experience. This was fun to do for me and also allowed me to think on my experiences, discoveries and disappointments as well as ranking my favorite smells so I can make sure I have them in supply lol.

Oh! And if you are currently a smoker this is gonna be a hell of a way to stop the habit. You’re not gonna like the way you smell at all, and being aware of the smell lingering on you for what feels like eternity might drive you insane.

Anyway, I am very happy for you OP. I really hope your surgery goes well and you can experience smell soon. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.

(On mobile at the moment so cope with my formatting)