My Pre-Shabbat Accident

Pre-dead-skin-cutting

Before Shabbat, I was rushing to finish cooking. I was trying to make sure everything was ready so I could quickly jump in the shower and run to Shul. I was checking the things in the oven, boiling some water, making some matzah balls, and all the sudden I remembered: "shoot! I forgot to chop the onion I wanted." So I quickly ran to where I keep the onions and went to take out a knife. I'm just sitting chopping my onion, minding my own business, thinking about what else I need to do, and then I started really rushing. So I'm speedily chopping my onion now and BAM! I saw the knife go against my finger, so I put the knife down and immediately looked away because I'm frightened of blood, and then I thought (for a split second): "wait, this totally doesn't hurt and it didn't when I cut it." After I made someone quickly come check out the damage and after they finally convinced me my thumb really wasn't chopped in half I looked at it. There was a lot of blood. Ew. I put a paper towel on it and I could feel that there was definitely a little flap of skin that was being touched, but it still didn't hurt really. Today, when I realized there was a chunk of dead skin on my thumb I made my dad cut off and guess what - Yep, you guessed it - still no pain.

Post-dead-skin-cutting: check out that chunk! (or lack there of)

I have two questions: 1) Why on earth did I not feel pain?? 2) Why now, with my missing chunk of skin, am I more sensitive to touch? 

For the second question, like we learned a few chapters ago, I guess the actual nerves/receptor sites in my fingers are more exposed than normal. So when I touch my normal thumb, the afferent neurons that are being sent from the receptor sites to my central nervous system are functioning normally. But when I touch my thumb with the chunk missing, I'm much closer to the nerve and so the touch is more intense. I don't know! Just my guess! What do y'all think?

For my first, more related to this chapter, question: WHY DIDN'T I FEEL PAIN?! It really is kind of irritating. I chopped a chunk of my thumb off.. shouldn't that hurt? In class we discussed the concept of nociceptors (sensory neuron (nerve cell) that responds to potentially damaging stimuli by sending nerve signals to the spinal cord and brain). So obviously me cutting my thumb was potentially damaging.. was my brain just not in the mood to receive the signals? We also discussed the Melzack and Wall's Gate control theory: there's a small channel and a big channel. If the big one is open (and the small one closed) we feel normal or no pain, and if the small one is open (and the big one is closed) we feel pain. According to this theory, I didn't feel pain because my big channel was opened and my small one was closed! That's just the strangest thing. As we said though, with the bio-psycho-social approach, other things could have influenced my experience of pain. I had expected for it to be much more painful, so maybe it wasn't as painful because of this; I was a little distracted by not looking, maybe it wasn't as painful because of that; I was also around others, maybe they calmed me down and I didn't want to look like a baby in front of them! SO MANY POSSIBILITIES! What do you think?

I find some crazy examples of other people not feeling pain in painful circumstances:
1) Kevin Ware - University of Louisville's basketball player - whose leg actually snapped during a game a few months ago, said in an interview:  "It was one of those things where I couldn't believe it. I honestly didn't feel the pain. It was more a shock," Ware said." If you didn't see the video click here. (warning: if you're easily nauseated.. it's disgusting). HOW DID HE NOT FEEL THAT PAIN?!
2) 12-year-old with no pain -- This is the craziest thing I've ever seen. Watch the video that comes up after the little boy's picture! Not only is it pretty crazy that this girl was born not ever feeling pain, but her family and herself is so positive. It's so nice. If you don't watch this video you're seriously missing out. How can Psychology explain CIPA?
And here's a cool link with some facts about pain: click here.