Common (or UNcommon) Diseases on Pern?

[Chantal]

My Mom may have had otosclerosis. The bones in one of hear ears calcified together, and she had to undergo surgery to correct it. Eventually, though, she had neurosensory hearing loss, and there was nothing they could do about that but give her hearing aids. That might be autoimmune or might be secondary to diabetes.

I think my family might also have a sort of autoimmune hearing loss--the kind that happens when the cochlea goes bald. My Grandma on my Mom's side lost most of the hair on her legs, and she had hearing loss. My Mom also had hearing loss, but I haven't heard that she's lost any leg hair.

I have lost hair on my left leg below the knee, and I was born with conductive hearing loss in my right ear, though my left ear hearing is fine. I suspect Ill need hearing aids at some point, though.

Blue--I got the information about Martha's Vineyard from a book called Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language. I can't remember the author's name. It was a fascinating book about an entire community adapting to a community-wide disability. They developed sign language on their own, and at least some of their signs, I believe, are part of ASL today.

One thing that prompted me to use recessive deafness is that it is a common genetic flaw, one that I figured would likely crop up on Pern, despite the extreme genetic screening that the original Pernese colonists underwent. I chose polydactyly specifically because it is a dominant defect, which can make it common in a small community. I also just wanted to explore the issues of close-breeding. I figure the people of Falkenstone Hold have to keep very, very careful marriage and birth records.

Hope--SMA is spinal muscular atrophy. SMARD is SMA with respiratory distress. Man, that's a bad disease, and it sounds like what one of my consumers has, from the symptoms. I would guess he has type 2.

[edleo]

Sorry I forget that the US has differing names, but yeah it is Spinal muscular atrophy, RD respiratory distress, I only am aware because of my own personal experience, work wise.

Strangely enough my paternal grandmother suffered from a similar condition, in which the bones in her inner ear fused, they eventually operated but could only do so much, she was at the time, only very young, so there was not much that they could do, as a result of the surgery, she can no longer fly as the altitude can further damage her ear, and can cause extreme discomfort, but she was told it was very much like arthritis in the way it behaved

My families condition is also quite similar, it has to do with the hairs in the inner ear being either not there or damaged, it is so common among the kids of my generation in the family, but they unfortunately do not know to much about it yet, but 9 out of 13 of us have hearing loss of some degree, myself it is not so bad but it there is the possibility that I will eventually get worse, at the moment I am beginning to experience some more loss, but growing up with it around me, I am not to worried, It could be worse but I have been lucky so far.

I just think that it is all very interesting, they have found alternatives to most things, so I suppose it is only natural for them to find one with this, sorry I kind of went off topic a bit, I tend to over think some things. Thank you for answering me though, I can get carried away but I feel it helps to build a full picture for me, story wise it does make for an interesting plot though! they do say to stick to what you know

[Hope]

Blue--never apologize for curiousity! And certainly not for getting passionate about areas of interest. The world will try your whole life to stifle and tame your passions...never help it along!

If anyone is interested in developing a disease--like Pern needs more--that would be very doable. It seems likely that we'd have replacements by now for a variety of illnesses...Pernese measles, a polio-like illness, a form of hepatitis, a few STDs...and it might be fun to develop a few for our own use. What do you think?

[Chantal]

Blue--Hey, I love talking about this sort of thing; I could do it all day, if given the chance. So don't feel shy. (g)

Do any of your family members use sign language, or do they all just use hearing aids and/or read lips?

[edleo]

Hi, no they are to adept at reading lips, it can lead to some problems, as no one can get away with saying anything, we generally have to do it behind closed doors, lest we want them to see, but they wear two aids and for otherthings like school/college and University couple of them used radio aids as well, but if the need arises, we have a deaf centre that is local for us and we have a sign language course that we have access to, but up to this point we haven't needed it for ourselves, just friends in the local community.

so variations on some of the more commom ailments, is realistic, but the more serious ones is a little more rarer, so it would not be documented as much, yeah this is quite a wide spectrum, never thought I could be this excited about illness's, oh well it does make way for some interesting research though!

[Hope]

Diseases are very exciting! (And Swine Flu will not be the apocalypse, at least not in the first world. Probably not anywhere. Just in case anyone was worrying.)

[Chantal]

Hope--My voice teacher and I both are recovering from colds. I asked her if she thought we might have swine flu, but she'd had no fever. (g) I only had a mild fever, and everything else I'm feeling is probably accountable to the fact that our air conditioning is out--condenser coil is leaking freon. $2150 to replace. *sigh*

I'm not terribly worried about swine flu. It does not seem to me to be extremely virulent.