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Ashlyn
Blocker is 13 years old and has never felt pain -physical pain that is.
She has “congenital insensitivity to pain,” meaning that although she
can feel pressure and temperature up to a point, but not pain. Her
condition is thought to be caused by a gene mutation. While the
inability to feel pain may sound like a nice disability, it's caused all
kinds of problems for a child growing up without feedback in an
injurious world.
There was the time she burned the
flesh off the palms of her hands when she was 2. John was using a
pressure-washer in the driveway and left its motor running; in the
moments that they took their eyes off her, Ashlyn walked over and put
her hands on the muffler. When she lifted them up the skin was seared
away. There was the one about the fire ants that swarmed her in the
backyard, biting her over a hundred times while she looked at them and
yelled: “Bugs! Bugs!” There was the time she broke her ankle and ran
around on it for two days before her parents realized something was
wrong. They told these stories as casually as they talked about
Tristen’s softball games or their son Dereck’s golf skills, but it was
clear they were still struggling after all these years with how to keep
Ashlyn safe.
Ashlyn's parents founded Camp Painless
But Hopeful in Georgia, to connect others with the condition, a few who
also tell their stories in this article at the
New York Times.
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