Something strange I did as a kid. Could it have been my HFA?

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My mom was telling me a story about how when I was a toddler. She had left her curling iron on within reach from me and it was fully heated seeing as she had accidentally left it on for almost an hour. I walked over to it, grabbed it, and just held on to it. She came into the room and saw what I was doing. The only expressions I made were my eyes getting bigger and I started shaking the hand the curling iron was in. I didn't let go or even scream or cry. I had a pretty bad burn that had to be bandaged for a while. She had to pull it away from me, I find this very odd. Could it have been due to me having Asperger's/HFA?

Lots of people on the spectrum have sensory processing disorder as well. One of the symptoms of SPD is either hyper or hypo sensitivity to pain. If you have SPD, then it would probably explain that you just have a ridiculously high pain tolerance.

Before my son was dx, when he was three, he broke and dislocated his left arm while he was at kinder. I was called and it was recommended that I take him to the dr because it was a pretty bad fall. He wasn't really crying more a slight whimper, and he 'seemed' fine apart from the fact that he wouldn't move his arm. I wasn't going to take him to the dr because I have broken my arm and know that it hurts like a 'son of a b***h' so was convinced it was just sprain. In the end I took him to err on the side of caution and the dr said it was one of the worst breaks she had even seen and couldn't believe he wasn't screaming his head off - she put it down to shock but in hindsight, I think it's because SPD.

I did something sort of similar. Well two things really.

First, was I put my hand on one of the hobs on the oven when I was about 3 or 4. It was glowing, so obviously hot. But I just touched it anyway. I took it away by myself after a while, but I didn't cry or anything. I didn't even tell my parents. It blistered and stuff, and I know it hurt. But I didn't really react.

Another is more to do with pain than heat. I fell off my bike when I was 5 and what I'd actually done is broken my arm and smashed my face into the ground, leaving my two front teeth dead and I'd ripped my lip and mouth quite badly. But at the time we didn't know about the teeth/arm etc, obviously. I didn't cry or scream or anything. I got back up and I rode home. I didn't tell my parents how much anything was or wasn't hurting. They had to figure it out themselves over the next few days and take me to a hospital/dentist etc.

When I was about 2, my older sister (15yrs older) had a bf that smoked. I remember him dropping his cig to put it out. I thought he dropped it on accident, and caught it for him. Lit cig. Looked at it in my hand, held it up to him, then just stood there waiting for him to take it. I did tear up a little, but it was like an involuntary reaction to a pain I didn't actually feel. My sister's bf took the cig from me and just stood there stunned. My sis totally freaked out and started screaming for my mom. I still have a scare right in the center of my palm.

When I was in labor with my first, the nurses kept telling me it was false labor (right up until he crowned!) because I wasn't in enough discomfort. *eyeroll*

If I could count the number of times I have seriously injured myself and not realized it.. let's just say it would be a grand sum.
Some highlights:

-Fell down the stairs, headfirst, and put my front teeth through my lip. (Age 3-5)

-Fell off the monkey bars in school and sprained my foot in ways I didn't know could happen. Neglected to tell my mom for a few days until I could barely walk. (Age 7-9ish.)

-Dislocated my little toe while walking past a couch. It was sitting perpendicular to the floor. I snapped it back in place and kept walking. (Age 12)

-Dodge-ball + my braces = I stopped participating in that ruthless game. It was only after that round that I realized my mouth was bleeding. (Age 13)

-Tore my Achilles tendon while playing floor hockey in school. Walked on it for two weeks before the pain was finally enough for my mother to warrant a doctor visit. (Age 14)

-Spilled a near-boiling bowl of soup onto my lap. Fell asleep in the sun and burned my chest 'til it was purple.. oh, the blisters. (Age 15-16)

-Car accident that did its fair share of damage - chemical burns, broken nose, minor nerve damage, lots of blood.. not pretty. Apparently after regaining consciousness, I walked around with no idea that I was actually severely injured. They called it shock, but I DO remember being completely clear-minded and confused why people were trying to get me to stop moving. (Age 17)

-Broke and displaced my pelvis in three places while learning how to longboard. Yes, it hurt. No, I don't know how I managed that. I actually screamed and cried like a baby when it first happened - it took me five days of not being able to walk AT ALL (and my boss threatening to fire me if I didn't have a doctor's note for missing work) to finally go to the ER. Imagine crawling with one knee or pushing yourself with one foot from a wheeled office chair to the bathroom twenty feet from the couch you're stuck on.. and it taking nearly half an hour from start to finish. I almost needed surgery to reset it, except I was drugged up on Vicodin after that appointment and fell off my crutches. When I went back, the specialist was shocked that I fell with such precision; popped it right back into place. (Age 20)

Add in countless cuts and bruises with unknown origins, grabbing hot items without realizing I shouldn't, and so many other things that I can't remember off the top of my head.. yeah.

Oh, and in the most grand of all ironies, I just went to flip over a foil-wrapped burrito in the oven.. and used my bare hand to pull the baking sheet out.. because I had it in my mind that I didn't need a tool to flip it. Forgot about the 400 degree oven part..

I have one too.
When I was a toddler, I fell over a rock. It took me a while to feel the pain, but I guess I was in shock and I couldn't feel a thing until I recovered from the shock.

If your case is like me, you were in shock, I don't think it relates to asperger's. It happens to everybody.