Monday, December 11, 2006

So now we are on this topic of pain. I was watching Oprah Primetime just now and the episode featured kids with three kind of hereditary disorders. CIPA(congenital insensitive to pain), Tourette Syndrome and one baby has a pair of conjoined legs. Then of course, there were the usual discussions with the sufferers of these disorders. Except that it appears to be a little ironic to use 'suffer' in the first case because the patient can't feel any pain actually, which is what causes the pain in a way. Oh! the irony of life you say.

Anyway, I thought it sounded interesting to have CIPA. There is this genetic mutation that prevents the formation of the nerve cells responsible for transmitting the signals of pain, heat and cold. Then you could go through life, pain-free, with no phobia for needles, and no friends to laugh at you when you express any fear for pain. Alright the latter was not so applicable but who cares. However, as the mother of the patient shared about how hard it is for the girl to live healthily, my views began to change. She reminded the audience that they don't know how lucky they are, to be able to feel pain. Again you say, the irony of life.

The little girl can't feel anything, which in a way means that she could keep on doing things to hurt herself without knowing how grave it is. She poked her finger INTO her eye which nearly caused her to be blind. She grabbed a burning light bulb that gave her a second degree burn. And when she was a baby, she nearly chewed her fingers up. It is as hard for the family as it can be and although they are handling it beyond themselves, the struggles are ever so evident.

Tourette Syndrome is an inherited neurological disorder with onset in childhood. People suffering from this have physical and vocal tics. A tic is a sudden, repetitive, stereotyped, nonrhythmic, involuntary movement (motor tic) or sound (phonic tic) that involves discrete groups of muscles. They usually have OCD(Obsessive-compulsive disorder) and they can't control what they do sometimes. For some, they can be shaking their heads without wanting to; for others, it may be blinking of their eyes, coughing or twitching of the leg or hand.

It is not life threatening in a way as compared to the first but people with Tourette Syndrome suffer a lot. The kids get mocked by friends in school, they received impatience, teasing and prejudice constantly. It is a struggle, to be treated as a normal person when they are actually a normal person already. The social stigma and it takes a lot out of a kid to handle this properly. There is no cure for it but medication can help. The severity of the tics decreases for most children as they pass through adolescence, and extreme Tourette's in adulthood is a rarity.

From the ways the kids chatted with Oprah, you can see their level of maturity goes beyond what is required for their age. It has been hard growing up and living with this disorder. I got to salute them for living so well with it, despite of many hiccups along the tough road. This should put some of us to shame, with no neurological disorders or biological mutations, we should be living life to the fullest. Some of us are not even living. Then again, it depends a lot on your definition of living.

That aside, I kind of like Oprah Primetime, it's captivating in an interesting way. I am not huge on talk shows but this is beginning to change. So I was reading about Tourette Syndrome and OCD, I came across OCPD. The latter differs from the first by the fact that is it not stress-related, just a personality disorder. And it is really counted as a medical condition if it interferes with the patient's ability to live a normal life. People with OCPD stress the need for perfection in the things they do to a point where it can get a little extreme.

I like arranging things the way I want them to be. Straight, rigid, neat and never out of line. It can get a little obessive at times, and I can spend hours arranging my cd rack or books rack. The article that talked about OCPD suggested that 'Perfectly aligning objects at complete, absolute right angles' can be a sign.

Oh no! I do that all the time! When I was young, I will take a long time to pack my schoolbag. I need all the books to be arrange in a order of the tallest to the shortest. I still do it now though, just that I don't have a lot of books to carry. Then when I started to own cds, I insisted on arranged them in a right angle with respect to the rack. They must be straight, definitely and should never appear to be out of the line. I remember if my sister borrowed the cd and put it back hastily, I will get mad that the cd is not arranged in right angle and will take time to arrange it back. And my handwriting! I was absolutely stupid when I was young. Whenever I sit for my exam, I always write so neatly that I ran out of time to answer the last few questions. That is dumb I know but I have a nagging and tugging feeling if I write not so neatly. Then I will go back and rectify the 'problem'. It was only when I got bigger that I realised answering ALL the questions is more important than answering SOME of the questions NEATLY. I still do it now and then sometimes. The most recent one being my Econs paper, wasted quite some time writing neatly, stupid I know, but I can't help it.

Anyhow, it is definitely not a problem for me. I became more of a slob(relative to when I was young) now that I got older. I like being at home, can I be home all day? And I miss michelle! Random.