importance of pain.

Today at work I dropped my mug and oatmeal in the hallway for no reason. They were in separate hands and I simply dropped them both while walking. The mug shattered on the hard floor and without thinking, I went to pick it up. It was not pretty- my thumb splattered blood on my oatmeal bowl and I bled through bandages all day.

I wondered if it was possible to simply get rid of pain- why do we need it anyway? It only causes "pain" and suffering, right? But wait. Congenital insensitivity to pain, or CIP, is a recessive disorder where the patient cannot feel pain, heat or cold and is caused by a defective gene coding for a Na+ channel. Often times, infants with CIP will go undiagnosed until they hurt themselves and fail to respond. In a case like Ashlyn's, she has to be checked from head to toe every day to make sure she hasn't unknowingly hurt herself. So pain has a purpose, acting to alert us when our bodies have life-threatening injuries that require attention.

A better alternative may be that we replace the sensation of pain with another, something specific yet not as "painful" like tingly ears or an itchy chin. You would be aware of the damage to your body without having to suffer the consequences.

I found it interesting that many articles mention CIP patients can feel emotional pain- I'd think emotional pain and physical pain are two separate things, but perhaps it's questionable.

no thumb wrestling for a while

As for my day, it began to look up in late afternoon with a text from M: "Picking up Chick-fil-A, want anything?" In addition, I walked into the department kitchen to find cookies and hot cocoa. Fingers crossed for no clumsiness tomorrow, the biggest Pepero day in the history of this Korean pseudo-Valentine's Day's (11.11.11) & Veteran's day!