Ants are annoying, nasty, little buggers, but fire ants? A whole different class of insect.
I have a lesion from a fire ant bite on my right thumb knuckle right now, and the pain from it – both initially and over the next few days as it healed – felt like a burn from a splatter of hot grease from my iron skillet. Fortunately, I only had a few bites.
Nathan, on the other hand, was bitten hundreds of times.
That’s right. HUNDREDS. His entire right hand well above the wrist and an area of his right leg from mid-calf stretching up to mid-thigh resemble a mild case of neurofibromatosis, with dozens of other bites on his left hand, arm, and leg, his neck and upper chest area, and even a few on his face.
Imagine how you would react if fire ants were biting you all over your body (or, if you aren’t “blessed” with this vile species in your area, consider the grease splatter analogy instead). I’m not certain what my reaction would be, but I know what it wouldn’t be. I wouldn’t stroll over to the nearest adult, calmly say her name to get her attention, and then when she looked up, hold out my hands and say ,”This.”
But with fire ants swarming over his body, that’s exactly what Nathan did.
I leapt into action, of course, stripping him down on the spot and rushing him inside to bathe him, slather him in chemicals, and dose him with Benadryl and ibuprofen. He’s not allergic (Thank you, Lord!), but the sheer volume of bites were enough to inflame his skin and (eventually, several hours later) cause him to vomit. Through it all, he never cried – or, for that matter, even whimpered.
He’s always had a high pain tolerance, but this is unreal.
Have you ever had a cat? We had two different cats who each lived to an advanced age. The thing about cats is that by the time they let you know something’s wrong with them, something’s REALLY wrong. Nathan is like a cat in that respect – he doesn’t react to pain or discomfort quickly, and his reaction is much less intense than it should be. It’s common for people with Down syndrome. According to a 2000 study published in The Lancet, people with Down syndrome “express pain or discomfort more slowly and less precisely than the general population.”
That’s a little – no, a lot – scary.
We all try to avoid pain – physical and emotional – but pain is necessary. Pain warns us that something is wrong, whether an action that needs to be corrected, or a disease that needs to be treated. But if an individual’s pain signals are muffled or delayed, things can go awry pretty quickly. The hundreds of ant bites on Nathan’s body are one example; the burn Sarah Kate received last fall is another.
As the mom of not one, but two, children with faulty pain systems, I’m at a loss as to what to do … and I fear what may come.
My son has an extremely high pain tolerance as well, when he was 8 he fell off his top bunk and injured his shoulder, it had a single bruise and some swelling but he wasn’t complaining so I gave him some tylenol and didn’t think much of it. Two days later he couldn’t even move it, but still didn’t complain of pain. When I took him to the doctor his shoulder was dislocated, the doctor was astonished. He said it was the type of injury that people rushed to the ER for and he routinely gave morphine for the severe pain it causes. After that I always looked for other indicators of injury or illness rather than relying on pain, fever, swelling, redness.
It may be hereditary for us, I also have a high pain tolerance. When my first baby was born I stayed at home until the last minute waiting for it to hurt more, I arrived 1 hour before the baby was born. Recently my wrist was feeling really sore so I wrapped it and rested it for a few days, when I went for a routine checkup I mentioned it and my doctor took an x-ray, turns out I had stress fractures in my arm. I remembered it hurting when I was lifting some heavy furniture but it wasn’t a lot of pain so I didn’t stop, now my arm is in a cast. So, not feeling a lot of pain can seem like a great thing but it can be really dangerous.
So scary! I suspect Nathan also has that “perfect storm” genetic makeup – both Mr. Andi and I have high pain tolerance, though thankfully no major malfunctions. When I was in labor with Nathan, I called ahead to the hospital (only a mile from the house) and told them I thought I *might* need to come in. They told me to come on. When I arrived a few minutes later, they whisked me back immediately, like they were ready to operate right away (2nd C-section). The nurse told me that when they relayed the message to my doctor, who happened to be there delivering another baby at that time, that I was on the way in he told them to be ready for me. As she told it, his exact words were, “She doesn’t complain about anything, so if she’s coming in she’s definitely having the baby!”
I have CP, and a fairly high pain tolerance as well, although I’m not sure if the two factors are related. When I was in high school gym class, I managed to break my foot while running around the track, although I walked around on it for about 2 weeks before realizing something was wrong. It was just a stress fracture, but since then I’ve realized I need to be more careful when it comes to noticing how my legs/feet handle pain.
I’ve never heard specifically that CP leads to a high pain tolerance, but when Sarah Kate was burned last year we were told that sometimes the affected areas (in her case, legs) have reduced sensitivity. They said it might (but also might not) be related to the rhizotomy she had.
Hiya – I’m so sorry for your encounter with the evil fire ant! I grew up in a place that had them as well (spent most of my adolescence dropping Amdro on their mounds), and if you want to get rid of that pain fast, bleach or peroxide will work if you can get it on the blister within an hour or less. I used to use a q-tip to dab the blisters. You’ll still have those, but it won’t burn and itch nearly as much. Works much better even than benedryl cream. Poor Nathan probably has too many bites right now for that to be safe, even if it weren’t too late, but it might help in the future. My little brother kicked over one of the mounds the first time we saw one – what little kid wouldn’t want to? – and ended up in the same situation, with the addition of a lot of screaming. I’ve got a lot of reduced sensitivity on one side due to a car accident, but I definitely still notice when I get a fire ant bite – for me, if it’s a small sharp pain like that it’s much more bothersome than a broader more diffuse one like a hard bump.
Nathan is lucky to have not-that-serious symptoms for that amount of fire ant stings. Some people get a fever from one sting. I have never been stung by fire ants and I hope I never will be.
Absolutely. If he were allergic, he might have died.
I have this issue. I have impaired sensation from having CP and spina bifida. And must check skin frequently. And especially be careful when repairing broadcast equipment and audio gear. I have had a few burns from stray solder whilst running repairs.
Ouch! Soldering doesn’t seem like a great option for someone with reduced sensitivity! 🙂