Posted by headachequeen on October 4, 2004, at 14:38:09
In reply to Re: Thanks for the advice, posted by bridgey1128 on October 4, 2004, at 14:06:36
> Why are we different...hmm that is a huge post in itself. Well, growing up I always knew I was different than other children. hehe Yes, redheads have tempers. We bleed easier, we need 20% more anesthesia, have a higher pain tolerance, among other things. We react to medicines differently and we metabolize them faster than other hair colors. I am not just making this up. The "redheaded gene" so to speak, was discovered in 1997.
Well, here I am again, ready to argue... another redhead trait <G>
first, redheads experience pain much more intensely than do other hair-colours... as has been made public following a recent study... shall find the info and send it along... it is in the study downstairs... pinned to the bulletin board along with reams of material on redheads...
believe me they wasted vast sums of money and oodles of money on the study-- I could have told them... I need morphine for a hangnail... pain and I do not get along... my three children were born naturally because my doctor did not believe in any sort of birth other than natural at the time the first was coming along... he changed his tune in a hurry and told me that he would never put ANY redhead through that again (I was his first pregnant redhead and I heard him stating to one of the nurses that he would avoid ever having a pregnant redheaded patient again if at all possible he had not realised how dreadful it could be... birth is supposed to be a wonderful thing he kept telling me, don't know where he got that idea...)
the next two babies were born before he could get to the hospital to intervene and the one was born with a nurse in charge who was trained during the Spanish Inquisition and believed that birth was meant to be painful... it was ... my third was a child who decided she did not want to be born when she was supposed to be born and waited for almost six weeks, a redheaded thing.. then when she was born it was NOW, no time for intervention at all... she is still stubborn and she is redheaded... so is her brother, the middle child...secondly the redheaded gene as you describe is not all that newly known...
since I was very young the differences in our genetic make-up has been known and documented...surgeons were always told never to turn their backs on redheaded patients -- they would be the ones to develop post-op infections that were really difficult to treat and they would be the ones with major bleeding problems...
I have had five abdominal surgeries and in each instance despite the watchful eye of surgeon and residents and nursing staff and the administration of antibiotics beginning before the surgery, I have developed massive infections, one which took almost a year to eliminate...
got rid of that and a puncture wound to my hand developed into cellulitis in four days... that turned into gangrene and almost went to amputation
had some skilled doctors involved and a determined physiotherapist and I have 85% usage of that hand now...
for a period of time every November we went through a repeat... November was gangrene month around the old homestead...
it was such a fun thing to look forward to...just another redhead thing...
Eye surgery this year, had a few procedures done and each time the bleeding caused the surgeon to wish I were anything but a redhead... each time he would mutter that there was no doubting that my hair colour was genuine -- and I think there may have been a few other words under his breath that I was not meant to hear...
In my teens nosebleeds were a constant because my blood did not have a clotting factor that other people have... while other kids drank soft drinks and milk, to which I am allergic -- read recently that we have more allergies too, have you heard that, Bridgey???-- I downed gallons of liquid calcium supplements to try and make my blood thicker or whatever it was supposed to do...
as for anaesthesia... that is so much fun... I almost always wake up before they are through with the procedure... only thrice do I remember sleeping through the whole thing, and on those times I woke up in my room, having missed recovery entirely.
In two of those instances I had an older more experienced anaesthetist who knew about redheads and was not going to let me get the better of him as he put it.. and he told me this in the operating room...
The third time I woke up in ICU with the surgeon standing beside me waiting and watching... a forty-five minute procedure had turned into a seven-hour endurance test as he called it and part of that was because of the redhead factor and part because the previous surgeon had made some rather glaring mistakes, dear soul that he is...Mosquito bites, bee stings, splinters, small cuts... the least thing can turn to raging infection... the redhead thing...
Pain is a raging sensation when it takes hold although once we are accustomed to a certain pain we are able to withstand it longer and easier than others...
did I mention that redheads are not always sensible about things...kat
poster:headachequeen
thread:5053
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20041002/msgs/398850.html