Have you ever known a person who claims to have never had an upset stomach?
I know such a person.
In a conversation with a friend the other day I was gobsmacked to hear her claim to have never had a stomach ache or a digestive upset of any kind. She’s in her 70s, by the way, and not the least bit cognitively challenged. So I figure she’s telling the truth.
Is this even possible? Have you ever heard of such a thing?
It reminds me of people who claim they’ve never had a headache or never had a cold, and it doesn’t seem to just be braggadocio. It seems to me that they inhabit a different body universe.
Can we trust The Daily Mail on this?:
Respiratory diseases expert Professor Ron Eccles, who heads the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University, is convinced that genetics are the reason some people never catch the cold virus.
He says: ‘We are each born with a unique immune system, akin to a fingerprint. Those who don’t suffer colds are probably infected with the virus, but their immune system kills it so they don’t develop symptoms.’
I suppose.
Do you detect a note of envy here?
I also have a relative who had three children and never had a labor pain. But she’s had plenty of stomach aches. The Daily Mail also has something to say about the painless labor phenomenon. There are some people who generally don’t feel pain:
The mother of two, now 72, has never had a headache. She didn’t realise she had broken her arm for three days, only discovered she’d suffered an enormous flesh-tearing burn hours after spilling boiling coffee on herself and happily continued her walks in the Scottish mountains on an arthritic hip bone that had all but disintegrated. ‘I regularly burn and cut myself badly and I don’t know I’m doing it,’ she says.
That’s not the case with my relative, who has normal pain perceptions, but just not in labor. I can’t explain it. Nor did it have anything to do with using the Lamaze method. I did all those exercises prior to childbirth, and as far as I can tell they did zilch to help with labor pain.
But I bet you don’t want to hear my labor story. All I’ll say about it now is my claim to labor fame is that my baby was born en caul:
When a baby is born “en caul,” it means they emerge from the womb still encased (at least partially) in the amniotic sac that helped sustain them for the last nine months. These births are exceedingly rare because the fluid-filled amniotic sac usually ruptures at some point during labor.
They are also known as “mermaid” births, and are estimated to occur in about one in 80,000 births. And this isn’t the same as being born in a caul, just the membrane – as David Copperfield claimed for himself – but we’re talking the entire kit-and-caboodle including all the fluid.
I wouldn’t say never, but I very, very seldom get an upset stomach.
My husband has a very high pain tolerance. He had emergency surgeries for a nearly-burst appendix and for a nearly-gangrenous gallbladder, in each case complaining of “discomfort.”
There is the rare person who is congenitally insensitive to things that always cause pain. But they do not feel it.
Were you advised by elderly relatives to keep the caul? I’ve read stories of people believing them to have magical properties.
Dwaz:
Someone else must have gotten that caul, because I never saw it. But I had other things on my mind at the time. 🙂
I have never had a headache in my life. My wife stares at me in disbelief every time I share this little tidbit.
Never bothered by poison ivy, and lord knows I had enough opportunities as a child.
In dealing with bodies and things like pain, everyone is different. Some things are inherent and others are learned. Not ever having a headache or stomach ache I believe is inherent. You can develop a tolerance for pain. I’ve busted myself up so much over the years (starting at 5) that my doctor is amazed I’m not in a wheelchair. My PT says I’m “resilient”. I just hurt every day. Stealing from Bruce Springsteen, you can get used to anything, sooner or later it just becomes your life. Ask any construction tradesman.
Apparently, keeping the dried out caul was supposed to ensure your house never burned down. My dad was apparently born with a caul and my grandmother kept it in an envelope in a metal box. I now have that metal box. I’ve never opened the envelope. But I have to say that no one’s house ever burned down.
Is your friend from a farming family?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni0YfrSK570
Yes, there are a lot of superstions around caul babies. One says that they might grow up to be saints, another says they are gifted with second sight or the ability to see ghosts. I’ve heard one that claims that if the child keeps the caul, then s/he will never drown. Didn’t work for that one guy on the Titanic, but YMMV.
A caul is a portion of the amniotic sac covering baby’s face and head, so it must be removed immediately so baby can take its first breath.
en caul is a failure to puncture the amniotic sac when cervix is dilated and mother remains in labor. Does not speak well of the obstetrician!
I’ve known two women who claimed to have no pain in labor. One had five children, the other three.
My wife, who still has not gotten Covid, has an incredible immune system. She rarely gets colds of flus. She is also a redhead and seems to share the pain threshold anomalies that many gingers claim:
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/study-finds-link-between-red-hair-pain-threshold
She is also a redhead and seems to share the pain threshold anomalies that many gingers claim:
Rufus T. Firefly:
Arrr! That’s good old Viking blood.
One can’t be bothered by the trifling pain of a broken limb whilst there’s good pillaging to be done. 🙂
Rufus, I’ve not had covid either, and in my almost 67 years can count on one hand the number of colds/flu I’ve had. Not a redhead, though my hair is almost unimaginably thick!
I had an emergency surgery a few years back and more than one nurse remarked about how little of the morphine I used. Some thought there must be something wrong with the indicator. I guess I have a high pain threshold too, though I certainly feel pain!
No pain?
Ouch! (Reminds me of that ghoulish character in the “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” series…you know, the one who had to be power-stapled to the floor, only he didn’t know it till he looked down.)
There are varying levels. At various medical points,I have not taken the proffered pain meds because I didn’t need them. These were in circumstances where the med people were surprised.
Not gritting teeth; just not interested.
But not without a level which could cause me to swear.
The redhead pain tolerance thing cuts both ways.
Cicero:
The obstetrician came in for a cameo at the very end of labor, just for the actual delivery. He didn’t have much knowledge about the rest of the labor, as far as I know. When the baby was crowning, I heard the doctor say something like, “Oh, look at this!” and then he punctured the sac and explained that he had seen the whole fluid-filled sac. The amniotic fluid came out and the baby was delivered. That was his role,
However, the nurse who supervised my labor was awful in a host of ways. One error she made is that I had some bleeding, and she insisted it was the waters breaking. I said it absolutely was not; it was bleeding. She insisted it was the waters. Turned out I was right.
My daughter and I both are quite resistant to pain.
I’ll feel it if it’s intense but really don’t care. Whenever I had teeth extracted, dentist shot me up (I’m not stupid), but I never fill the pain meds. Even when I had four molars removed, no subsequent meds.
My daughter delivered a surrogate baby for a couple and she didn’t care if they were in the room during. The husband remarked “Shouldn’t there be yelling or something?”. Ob replied “This woman’s a machine at childbirth.”
We both feel pain. It’s just more of a ‘sensation’ than something traumatic.
Oligonicella:
Your comment brings to mind the movie scene from Lawrence of Arabia. T.E. Lawrence and the matches ….
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TvQViPBAvPk&pp=ygUcbGF3cmVuY2Ugb2YgYXJhYmlhIGl0IGh1cnRzIA%3D%3D
Oligonicella:
Not sure that “pain” is the right word for something that’s perceived as “just a sensation.” Pain is very noxious, and can be extremely noxious. There’s a reason for that – ordinarily, we are meant to avoid it (a burn, a cut, a broken bone) and to also consider it a warning that if we persist in whatever is giving us pain we will damage ourselves. People who have no sensation of pain often do great damage to themselves. It sounds as though you and your daughter are perhaps halfway on the pain continuum, with pain sensations that are very attenuated but not entirely absent. I’m not sure, though, because even mild pain is noxious to a certain degree and is not a mere “sensation” – except, perhaps, to some sort of yogi master.
Oligonicella,
My childhood dentist didn’t believe in Novocain for fillings and I learned to sit still and remain calm when having dental work done. As an adult, I typically try to talk dentists and doctors into no anesthetic if possible. I’ve had two dentists who trusted me enough to try and then went along with it for me subsequently when they saw I can sit still and not interfere with them when they are doing painful work. For some procedures they insist but I always try to convince them to allow me to remain awake. I am pretty good with pain, I do not like the sensation of feeling numb and I am very uncomfortable with being put under.
Pain meds do not do much for me; oxycontin, opiates. I remain in pain but my mood is crummy. I’ve had three procedures that were invasive enough to require some post-op pain medication but I’ve never taken any beyond the first 24 hours. I would rather hurt, even a lot, than feel numb, foggy or fuzzy. What’s amazing is I will tell the Drs. I will not take the pain medication yet they still send me home with at least a month’s worth of pills. On follow ups I’ll bring the unused container back and try to give it to them, but they refuse to take it.
Regarding neo’s statement; “noxious.” So far I haven’t had any pain that affected my personality to a point where I didn’t remain cooperative and kind. I had a fall that shattered a major limb and the pain was severe enough that I thought I might pass out a few times, but I was able to remain polite, even joke with the physicians.
But children screaming or crying violently, especially my own children? I think, for me, that’s the “noxious” neo writes about. I can’t think clearly. It’s very difficult for me to remain calm. Time slows to a crawl. I can barely function. It’s like the sound goes right to my spine and paralizes me. Fortunately my wife has unbelievable calm and patience with children, even when in pain.
My childhood dentist didn’t believe in Novocain for fillings and I learned to sit still and remain calm when having dental work done.
Mine too, and I had a LOT of childhood cavities–something like 15-20, including 9 at one visit. The pain was excruciating, but what did I know, being five or six years old? Then I had more as a teenager when my adult molars came in. I tolerated the pain, but I have no wish to repeat that experience, and in the few cases of needing new or replacement adult fillings I’ve been more than happy to have the anesthesia.
I knew a woman who was otherwise normal but had no pain in childbirth. She and her husband have 5 children!
Can someone explain to me how a woman, who is pregnant and actually gives birth, did not know she was pregnant.
Is this really possible??
Every once in a while I hear something like this and it just baffles me.
My sister and I shared a bedroom all during childhood. We both got chicken pox and measles but she never got the mumps despite having to sleep in the same room with me when I got them.
As I understand the tale, she knew she was pregnant.
She just didn’t feel any pain delivering the baby (or any of her babies)…
Sounds positively Edenic…
Rufus:
Opiates do not necessarily diminish pain. Morphine is classic for “It still hurts, but that does not bother me any longer”.
Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) is commonplace in hospitals. Patients get to administer their own morphine, time interval permitting.
After abdominal surgery, I had PCA with morphine, took one dose, that was all I needed. Abd. surgery makes one’s small bowel sluggish (post-op “ileus”), and morphine adds to that.
Neo:
A skunk is noxious, yet it’s in perfume. That reference to ‘just a sensation’ is towards my ability to just ‘look at it’ rather than experience it as pain. As close as I can explain. As for “yogi master” – it’s just practice.
A tale of pain:
During one stunt show, I deflected Tom’s stave thrust and bounced it into my face. Tom is a 6’2″ boy who weighs 250. It broke my upper left small incisor inside the gum. We taped our shows so I have a VHS of my head ricocheting backwards. Kinda cool to watch happen to yourself. To elucidate, I can pretty much ignore pain but that doesn’t stop you from getting your brain rattled.
One rule I had was that if you hurt someone, *you* were not the person to approach. Tom saw the hit and forgetting, stepped up to me to see if I was OK. I was concentrating on keeping the dizziness under control and I don’t know if I saw or heard him but when he got close I jammed a palm heel strike to his chest, bouncing him back a couple paces. I finished the show with my eyes trying to cross.
I got my step-son to drive me home and when I got there Sam, my 95lb Doberman/Samoyed guy, jumped up to say hi and accidentally punched me on the nose.
More dizziness commenced and I told Ben to take Sam for a walk before I killed him.
Comedic ending:
The break in the root was about even with the bottom of the nostril and had to be yanked out. Dawn was a good dentist but she was only five-foot-little and try as she might she couldn’t get it out.
So she reached over and flipped the N2O to 100% (I said I wasn’t stupid – and I like N2O ), climbed up onto my chest and started tugging to and fro and yanking, eventually getting it pulled.
By the end we were both laughing our asses off.
Rufus:
Yeah. When I was studying KF, I came down wrong on my left leg and my knee flexed about 70o sideways. As I lay on my back the class came around of course and my friend Julio looked down
“Herger, you OK?”
“No, Julio. I’m not OK.” delivered flat.
Several guys picked me up and carried me back to M. Sing’s office where he applied acupuncture – you don’t say no to the boss-guy. Very interesting as he used about eight(?) needles and the pain lessened with each one.
Just an FYI, he had licenses, commendations and such covering one wall so I’m sure all his equipment was of the best. I didn’t feel so much as a pin prick, those needles were so thin. Some of them he worked in a good half inch. Kind of a little wiggle with a downward flex and when released, the needle pressed down.
He did them in crossed pairs.
I know there are people who don’t get cavities, their mouth flora is different and inhibits tooth decay. They’re fortunate
I used to get a cold every year or so, but I haven’t had one in years and years now.
Come to think of it, I can’t recall a single time when my parents had colds, or really an infection of any kind.
LP, yes, my hygienist suggested my almost zero cavities over 60+ years might be due to having antiseptic saliva.
But during 3 years of orthodonture I still had a few meals of bread dipped in milk after an “adjustment” of my retainer bands.
Worst pain episode for me was the shot of Novocain or whatever the eye doctor used near my eyes prior to performing radial keratotomy on my eyes [i.e., pre Lasik’s]. Very intense but short.
Neo, of course I want to hear your labor story,
RigelDog:
You’re the only one 🙂 .
Neo, I shall forbear recounting my labor stories then, except to say that my first makes for some good comedy, what with the parade of maintenance repair men coming through the room as I was was hoot-hoot breathing my way through early contractions.