This.. wow.. how would you go through life like this? Not just because of the danger but because of how disconnected from the rest of humanity you would be.
Though I suppose I'd take this "disability". It'd mean never having a migraine again.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Yeah twinky it's really hard to imagine isn't it? Imagine going through your life wondering what pain is becuase you've never felt it.. wondering what the big deal is... when she's an adult will she take checking herself over seriously? It's not like an infection will hurt so why should she care? They SAY it's dangerous but will she believe that?
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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After my father had brain aneurysms, he lost the ability to feel heat and pain. Don't remember if it was everywhere or just his hands. Anyway, he's doing something in the kitchen, puts his hand on one of the elements on the stove, and smells his burning flesh. He got third degree burns in a ring pattern on his hand.
Yep, not feeling pain would be a bad thing.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I got my head severly mutilated 6 years back or so and since then I have no sensation of anything in most areas.
For me it's been rather annoying- I've hit my head since and it's bled and needed attention and I didn't notice until I felt blood on my forehead. I will get headaches and only later on realize that it's because I hit my head hard on something.
It's something I've had to get used to, and I still hurt myself by accident without noticing.
The poor girl and her parents (and teachers). It will be an interesting childhood/life for her.
Posts: 944 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Has anybody here read Ringworld? This reminds me of the girl who is so lucky that she has never been hurt at all through her life.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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She can feel touch; those are different nerve receptors. What she can't feel is heat, cold, or pain.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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According to the article it's just pain, heat, and cold that she can't feel, Twinky. She can feel everything else normally.
This would be a really horrible condition to have. Imagine not being able to feel the ache of, say, an infected appendix. I wonder, when she gets sick, does she feel bad? I know that with me, actual physical pain is only a tiny part of how I feel when I've got the flu or something.
I wonder if this would be a help or a hinderance for her in childbirth (assuming she lives long enough for that to be an issue)?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Oh man...I can just immaging it... "Push!" "Why?" "Uhhh...."
Yeah...I hope she develops some kind of careful personality...Of course, I'm sure she'll have a future in extreme sports. If you're not afraid of the pain from breaking your leg, why not try that trick?
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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That made me think of warming cold toes up on someone... and then I realized that not only can she accidentally burn herself, but she'd be at a highly increased risk of frostbite, too. I think she lived somewhere warm, but goodness! Puts a while new meaning on not knowing enough to come in out of the cold...
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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My understanding of pain is that it is the ability to recognize and react to extremes of anything: pressure, heat, cold, etc. Thus I imagine she can feel warmth but not burning heat, cold but not frostbite, pressure but not pain.
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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There's a really interesting book on this disease (mostly about leprosy, though they talk about CIPA too) called The Gift of Pain by Dr. Paul Brand.
It makes you look at suffering pain in a whole new way.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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That article brings a whole new meaning to the word "routine checkup". Poor girl will get sick of doctors really fast.
Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Terrifying, is what this is. Imagine having to watch your baby all the time because she could easily gnaw her own fingers or tongue to mutilation. She could scratch her eyes bloody the way other kids poke their bellybuttons.
I read of a 3-yo girl with this condition recently; she wears swim goggles and mittens constantly, or she pokes at her eyes. One eye is grotesquely swollen from self-inflicted injuries.
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But she'll be able to learn. She'll be told by her parents at what point something (even herself) is starting to injure her...she will start to put together other warning signs. It will be hard, hard work for the parents, and then for her, but not impossible to live with.
Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
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The thing that hit me was this: "The untreatable disease also makes Ashlyn incapable of sensing extreme temperatures — hot or cold — disabling her body's ability to cool itself by sweating."
I guess that being from a really hot climate, the idea of not being able to sweat is pretty scary to me.
Posts: 5879 | Registered: Apr 2001
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You know, I would be willing to trade the chance of heatstroke and even death for the bliss of never again having to sweat.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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My friend Brian from college had something similar but not as sever. He could not feel cold. Well... not on his outside...he could tell it was cold out when he took a deep breath. Apparently his lungs still had working cold sensors. He's walk around the dead of winter in boxers. lol! Posts: 4953 | Registered: Jan 2004
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I rarely sweat and it's awful. I've passed out from heat exhaustion countless times. It's also intensely uncomfortable.
There was a book or a piece in an anthology called The Boy Who Could Feel No Pain. It was very sad - his parents were very poor and they had to rig a virtual moat around his bed because rats would bite him in his sleep and he wouldn't wake up. Did anyone else read that? I can't remember who wrote it.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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I'm pretty twinky was asking the same question. According to the article and the link, yes. Pain receptors are highly specialized, and that's the kind that were knocked out.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Isn't that similar to leprosy? They can't feel it when they bump into things, a million little daily impacts that they don't feel like the rest of us do, break down their body so that instead of healing it just sort of... re-absorbs itself... *shudders*
Posts: 23 | Registered: Oct 2004
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