Non Fiction: The Hazards of Growing up Painlessly

In the article “The Hazards of Growing up Painlessly” there is a girl named Ashlyn Blocker. She doesn’t feel pain. She feels certain things like hugs and holding hands but she doesn’t feel pain. The author of the article is named Justin Heckert. He explains how it can be dangerous to not feel pain. You can burn yourself and be internally bleeding and not even be aware of it. What if she gets stabbed in the back? She might not even notice.

The first time that Ashlyn really had experience with her disease was when she was cooking noodles. She was stirring it with a spoon and the spoon fell. She reached for it and didn’t feel any pain when she put her hand in the boiling hot water.

Ashlyn gets questions all the time about her not being able to feel pain. People always come up to her especially in school. She has to explain the same thing over and over again. It must get so tiring. Her friends don’t look at her differently than an average girl. Ashlyn basically has a normal teenage girl life except for her difference that she cannot feel pain. She still eats meals and does homework and plays with her friends.. When Ashlyn was born she didn’t make any sound. She was a very quiet baby and she didn’t make all that much of a fuss. That told a lot about her. Although it seems like a cool thing to not be able to feel any pain, its also very dangerous. Ashlyn has a lot of dangers of growing up without feeling pain. She could be dying and not even know it

One of the most interesting parts to me was “At school, she was once asked if she was Superman. Could she feel a punch to the face? Could she walk across burning coals as if she were walking on grass? Would it hurt if she were stabbed in the arm? The answers are no, no, yes, no.” I think that is really interesting. I mean I couldn’t imagine having to deal with that. I would always be constantly worried about myself, wondering if anything is wrong with me.

I think that it’s kind of interesting that the doctors didn’t help a lot. In the article it said that when Ashlyn was younger they took a lot of tests and nothing really came up to help them to see what’s going on. They said that they were the only ones that have this disease so they don’t know what to do. They didn’t have any cures or anything and they kind of left the family all on their own. The only advice they gave her was to keep an eye on her.

After reading this article I want to know more. I find this article really interesting and fascinating. I want to know what happens next to Ashlyn. Will there be a cure for her disease? What will the doctors do if they do anything? I think Ashlyn doesn’t deserve to feel no pain. I mean I think everyone wouldn’t mind having I higher tolerance for pain, but I don’t think anyone would actually not want to feel pain. I think the doctors should do more research and really find out what’s going on with Ashlyn. She deserves it.