Life without pain
What would you do in order not to feel pain? It might sound
like a movie or a military experiment to create a super soldier never to feel
pain in the combat field in order to win a war, but in reality there is a
disorder known as hereditary sensory autonomic neuropathy (HSAN). Sometimes
when people feel pain they might complain or ask why do we have to feel pain? Why
does are body react to pain? In reality pain is what keeps us alive and keeps
you from doing reckless activities that can kill you or harm yourself. Feeling pain
is just a way of life living without pain is something like a curse since you
will never know a limit to control yourself.
HSAN is a group of
genetic disorders characterized by 5 different degrees of sensory loss with
varying degrees of autonomic dysfunction it affects the development of sensory
and autonomic nerves. The type 1 is one of the most common condition usually starts
at early childhood or adulthood and is characterized by nerve abnormalities in
the legs and feet, many people with this condition have tingling, weakness, and
a reduced ability to feel pain and sense hot and cold. Without having this the
child without supervision will be exposed to the dangerous of like and would
have to be looked after since they will not be able to control themselves from
causing harm to their own bodies.
As the disorder
progresses the sensory abnormalities can affect the hands, arms, shoulders,
abdomen and spread to the whole body. Individual also experience muscle wasting
and weakness as they get older. It also affects the body’s reflexes from
protecting its self from harm as you already know when something is going to
hit you in the face your body will automatically raise an arm or move one way
or the other to avoid getting hit but in this case it will not and will be
exposed to dangers that could be avoided. So their bodies will not be able to distinguish
pain and since it is not seeing or feeling the pain the person will be at a
higher risk of causing harm to their body.
This condition is in most cases inherited by a parent which
means that an affected person has one parent with the condition. This disorder
will take patience from the parents so that they could support the child and
help them from doing causing harm to themselves also they will need to examine
the child daily to make sure they do not have any cut and blisters that could
get infected and if not treated could lead to something much serious. I see
this as something very sad that could happen to someone so you ng because as a
child all you want to do it have fun and play around and you know while playing
you will get hurt and injured but that is just a way of life you will learn
from your mistake and be prepared in the future not to do the same things or avoid
doing something because there will be consequences, but with this disorder I
see it as stealing a child’s childhood with less life learning experiences so
life without pain will be more like a curse than a cure.
You would think that it's better to not feel pain at all but after I saw a couple of videos of how that disease actually affects a kid, it made me rethink of my opinion. I saw a kid who had HSAN and it was extremely dangerous for the child to be unattended. She would hurt herself constantly, like scratch her retina and fall and hurt herself. I can see how this disease could be even fatal because they don't feel like there are any boundaries.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of HSAN until now, and I could only imagine how scary living life must be for people who have this hereditary condition. As a kid, I remember always getting scrapes or bruises on my knees and elbows and intentionally trying not to cry in front of my friends so I wouldn't seem like a crybaby. After learning about HSAN and how it affects our body and lack of sensation however, it seems as though kids with this condition wouldn't have to worry about holding back any tears in order to seem cool.
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