Imagine chromasome 17 looks like a piece of string. Well, in normal people it is just 1 piece of string, and in people with Andy's disability, it look like 2 pieces of string, 1 glued onto the end of the other one.
This means that when the brain sends messages to the body via electrical impulse, the impulses are slower than usual. The messages still get there but somehow they are scambled along the way.
Therefore his reflexes are all slower than usual, his perception of cold and heat are dimmed, and his perception of minor pain (although he can still feel major pain well enough).
I hadn't really thought about it in relation to the sitch. I don't think it's connected because when we were still married, he was VERY caring. He only changed after the split.
When he wants to, he can show empathy, and he is still very good at being empathic to others, just not to me. I think it's because of our history and the fact that he still cares for me and so is trying to do his damnest not to feel it because he doesn't want to.
As far as able-bodied men go, I have limited experience with them. There was this Scottish guy I had a one night stand with and he was an ex-athlete from the Common Wealth Games but I reckon all that weight training had an adverse effect on his manhood, because I didn't know it was possible to have one that small.
I remember, he took off his pants and I just looked at him and thought 'What are you supposed to do with that!?'
Plus he was really sexually insensitive, which, considering he was my first able-bodied shag, did not give me a great impression of able-bodied men.
Then there was this guy called Graham who was a truck driver I dated for about 5 months but he was a *disaster* because he kept talking about sex ALL THE TIME. When he wasn't talking about sex, he was asking me to marry him (I had about 4 proposals from him). He wasn't vaguely romantic, either. X could do better than that - plus, the first time we went to bed, he said 'so, what happened to your legs, then?' (Grrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!).
It took me a while to realise what he meant.
There was BIL, briefly, but he has the chromasome abnormality too, so I can't compare with him.
Then there was this sleeze who was 36 who followed me home from a Christmas Eve Party and scared the wits out of me, but I won't go into that. He was really creepy.
There haven't really been any others, friends or relationships.
