I read an interesting book about people who have leprosy. It's not the disease that causes the horrible disfiguration, but rather the fact that they cannot feel anything. Without pain to tell them to stop, they don't alter their walking gate because of a blister, or realize they've pinched a finger someplace. The wound gets infected and often lingers that way for a long time. The body actually winds up reabsorbing the infected bones, so that fingers and toes get shorter. The title of the book was aptly named: Pain, the gift that nobody wants.

In the case of PN and RSD, pain isn't a good indication of body harm, but it was a good reminder nonetheless that it's probably better to have too much pain than none at all.

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