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Symptoms of Sanitization

Sanitization, for many, is a lifelong illness and disability. It comes with a whirlwind of symptoms that range in severity.
The quality of life of many sanitized is poor, and Surface medicine struggles to understand what's wrong. With proper support however, it is possible to elevate quality of life. Sanitization is incurable and treated on a basis of symptom management.

- Massive Organ Failure

Rarity: Universal
What's most noticable about a sanitized is the lack of a heartbeat. And when the hearts stop, everything else shuts down.
Clinically, sanis are dead. All sanitized present with clammy skin that's cold the touch, and lack a pulse. Our hearts do not beat and every organ in the body is no longer functioning. At least, they don't function properly.

A weird trait of sanitized organ failure is that, on occasion, some organs still function to a degree, just not well and/or correctly. Many sanitized can still eat, for example, though often times our internal gel is so caustic it just melts food. The nervous system of sanitized still functions, as does the muscular system, but both are more often than not damaged and painful.

Most sanitized can continue living without many crucial organs, such as the liver, kidneys, lungs, and more.

All sanitized have nonfunctioning and dead respiratory and immune systems, as there's no need for either.

The only truly functioning part of a sanitized's body is the brain. Sanitized, in this manner, are in a state of reverse braindeath. Sanitized will normally always present with some sort of neurodivergence, brain trauma, and/or unique brain disease however.

- Chronic Pain

Rarity: Very common
Chronic pain in the sanitized comes from many, many sources. Partly-functioning organs, nerve damage, and muscle/ligament/cartilage damage are usually the culprits. Sanis often walk with limps or have a bad limb or two and many have poor posture.

Chronic pain can be managed by means of IV infusion, or painkillers if one can process medicine. It can also help to get disability aids like walkers, wheelchairs, crutches, rollators, and splints or braces.

- Amnesia

Rarity: Universal
All sanitized lose their memories of any events prior to their sanitization. Remembering one's sanitization is possible, but uncommon, meaning memory is lost somewhere in the sanitization process, it's just unclear where, if there's a concrete point.

It is possible to return memories through hard work with a person who shares the memory of those events, but not everything will come back. For those with a "returned" memory, their pre-sanitization memories will remain spotty and mostly gone.
It is believed some sanitized have an inherent, underlying memory of some things in their past. Sanis have been shown to be very good in certain fields they've never had experience or practice in post-sanitization, and it's theorized that's because they were good in those fields pre-sanitization. It's unknown why this occurs, but it's probably a sort of bodily memory.

Amnesia of memories post-sanitization is also very common, particularly short-term amnesia, though this is usually due to neurodivergence or brain traumas.

- Neurodivergence

Rarity: Universal
All sanis have some form of neurodivergence. All have the aforementioned amnesia, for example. Autism, ADHD, PTSD, and psychosis are exceptionally common. Depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and mutism or semi-mutism are also frequently seen. Of course, having one almost always means they have several others as well, as comorbidity between neurodivergent conditions is high.

- Neuropathy

Rarity: Very common
Nerve pain is quite common in sanitized and is the root of most chronic pain, and neuropathy often accompanies. This can be a pins-and-needles feeling, a burning sensation as if the affected area is on fire, a tingling pain, and more. This also results in muscle spasms and twitching as the nerves misfire.
Pain may be eased by IV, nerve pain meds, painkillers, and mobility aids.

- Fibromyalgia

Rarity: Common
As a result of chronic pain and neuropathy, many sanitized end up with a fibromyalgia diagnosis. This appears as full-body muscle pain and fatigue, attributed to misfiring nerves.
Pain may be eased by IV, nerve pain meds, painkillers, and mobility aids.

- Chronic Fatigue

Rarity: Very common
Being in pain all the time makes you extremely tired. Chronic fatigue and CFS/ME diagnoses are very common in sanitized. No amount of sleep makes one feel rested and doing even slight physical activity is physically painful, sometimes resulting in post-exertional malaise. Sanitized typically sleep for extremely long periods and aren't physically active. Many are bedbound.
Depending on other factors in a sanitized's health, this can also manifest in other forms, such as a clicking or squeaking-wheezing sound, burning sensations in stressed muscles, muscle paralysis, and more.
Symptoms can be managed via IV.

- Muscular Dystrophy + Atrophy

Rarity: Uncommon
Muscle degradation is frequently seen in select sanitized, though a little more uncommon compared to other symptoms. Sanitized who experience this lose muscle mass and progressively get weaker. This can be slowed with IV and medication, but not completely halted. Most sanitized who experience this come to rely on mobility aids.

- Arthritis

Rarity: Common
The sanitized body often inflames the joints, resulting in arthritis and sometimes joint degradation. Sanitized are often noted as walking stiffly, with limps or clearly bad joints, or as if they are in pain otherwise. Arthritis is normally the culprit.

- Unstable Blood Pressure

Rarity: Common
As the hearts no longer pump blood through the body, blood pressure becomes largely unregulated. It can flucuate wildly in sanitized, swinging on a dime and causing symptoms like fainting, fatigue, loss of vision, weakness, and more.

- Immunodeficiency

Rarity: Universal
The entirety of the body's immune system is killed when one is sanitized. The body ceases production of immune cells and will, over time, purge itself of them. In recently sanitized, dead immune cells may be present in the blood, but in those who have been sanitized for years, there will be none at all.
This doesn't create much of a problem, of course, as sanitization makes one immune to bacterial, viral, and parasitic illnesses. This, however, isn't normally the case for those who are partially sanitized.

Partially sanitized individuals may suffer from immunodeficiency due to their sanitization trying to kill immune cells. They need to take extra precaution not to contract illnesses.

- Autoimmune-like and Degenerative Symptoms

Rarity: Universal
In contrast, the sanitized body almost acts like it has an autoimmune disease. However, in this case, it's not the immune system attacking the body, but the sanitized gel coursing through our veins. This creates an odd state of undeath, where the sanitized body destroys itself, but also tries to keep itself alive. This vicious cycle results in a lot of symptoms that appear autoimmune in nature.
This push-and-pull is not so even in most, thus many sanitized experience sanitization as a degenerative disease, as it slowly wittles away the body.