In one episode of "Mystery Diagnosis" there was a young boy who didn't cry. The parents were at first surprised by this even when he was teething. One day while feeding him they noticed a large amount of blood, got scared and rushed him to the doctors/hospital. As it turns out he had bitten off a huge chunk of his tongue. He didn't cry and didn't appear bothered in the least. The video clip I included this week is of a young girl named Ashlyn Blocker. She is a teenager now but the video is of when she was younger. Hope you enjoyed this week's topic and will leave you with a question. What kinds of treatment would you consider might help these individuals?
Sunday, October 14, 2012
No pain?
Imagine you could feel no pain. At first this seems like a great trait but in reality we rely on pain receptors for various functions. Pain lets us know if something is dangerous. We develop strong memories to the pain and learn to avoid it in the future. Pain also lets us know we are hungry. Imagin exercising and pulling a muscle and not feel it, we would probably further hurt ourselves. The book mentioned a boy who could feel no pain but didn't go into much detail. This is condition called Hereditary Sensory Autonomic Neuropathy a.k.a. Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (CIPA). Causes are related to nerve fibers not reaching or branching epidermis. In fact it is far more complicated than that but basicly it is developmental defect. It is new and fairly rare because it is still being researched into. Individuals who have this condition live to about 25 years old. This is a big reason why not much was known about this condition and is difficult to research. As babies, those with this condition rarely cry. They don't feel hunger pains, teething pains, or simple bumps and falls. So you can imagine a child could seriously hurt themselves and parents wouldn't know they were hurt. Children with this condition have to take extra precautions by wearing a helmet, pads and be monitored.
In one episode of "Mystery Diagnosis" there was a young boy who didn't cry. The parents were at first surprised by this even when he was teething. One day while feeding him they noticed a large amount of blood, got scared and rushed him to the doctors/hospital. As it turns out he had bitten off a huge chunk of his tongue. He didn't cry and didn't appear bothered in the least. The video clip I included this week is of a young girl named Ashlyn Blocker. She is a teenager now but the video is of when she was younger. Hope you enjoyed this week's topic and will leave you with a question. What kinds of treatment would you consider might help these individuals?
In one episode of "Mystery Diagnosis" there was a young boy who didn't cry. The parents were at first surprised by this even when he was teething. One day while feeding him they noticed a large amount of blood, got scared and rushed him to the doctors/hospital. As it turns out he had bitten off a huge chunk of his tongue. He didn't cry and didn't appear bothered in the least. The video clip I included this week is of a young girl named Ashlyn Blocker. She is a teenager now but the video is of when she was younger. Hope you enjoyed this week's topic and will leave you with a question. What kinds of treatment would you consider might help these individuals?
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3 comments:
Excellent post Jeanette, you are totally right on the fact that we do need pain to know how are bodies doing. Lord knows that if I exercised for 5 hours a day without feeling any kind of pain, inwardly I would probably be doing some serious damage without even knowing it.
It would be great though to not have pain, but we need it so no point in having thoughts of not having it haha. Oh and I loved the video it was really interesting, I really enjoyed it!
I've heard about this before. I remember hearing about one kid whose parents said they would accidentally touch a hot stove and not know it. I guess we take our ability to feel pain for granted sometimes, huh?
Why is it that these people only live to be about 25? Does the condition cause early death or do they tend to die from accidents?
This is only semi-related, but I had a friend in high school who had a tiny spot on her forehead where she couldn't feel any pain. It was a really tiny spot, too. Like, smaller than the head of a nail. Anyway, one time, she demonstrated by sticking a safety pin into her forehead. She didn't do it deep enough for it to bleed or anything, but it was definitely enough for anyone else to feel it. So yea, that's my lame, semi-relevant story.
Stevan, they on the average would live to about 25 because they became too clumsy or to daredevil like. They didn't learn that there are consequences to getting hurt because they don't feel it. At this point the understanding is the condition doesn't kill them like say cancer does but I'm sure it's being researched further. Thanks for reading
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