Hyperlinearity: When the future is right in your hands but hard to see…
Vietnamese people are very often quite superstitious. My parents always chose an exact date and time (up to minutes) for our departure whenever it was about my exam day. Before taking me to the exam spot, my father usually burned some incense on the altar and prayed in front of our ancestors’ souls for the best. Things like that happen in our everyday life.
When we were kids, very often we liked to imitate what our parents say at home. It was in 7th grade, there was a period when our classmates liked to guess each other’s future at school. One classmate started this trend. She went around to check everyone's hands and said things like: you’ll have a very long academic life (maybe in the end it was true for me), you will have two wives, you will have three kids…
For kids like us, knowing about the future was something really exciting and I was not excluded. I was also eager to know more about my later life. Yet I had never asked her to see my hands nor let her see my palms. I could simply guess what she would say. And I did not want to let her do that.
One day when we were sitting on a bench for some little chit chat during the break between courses, they started watching each other’s hands. A close friend insisted on taking my right hand. Apparently it should be the right hand for girls and the left one for boys that would tell us everything about the future. Who knows where the logic comes from! “But your future is impossible to tell!” She exclaimed without any hesitation. Another friend discreetly pinched her, meaning that she had just said something thoughtless.
It happened so fast that I could not say something funny. Instead I just withdrew my hand and smiled. There was something up to my throat and I was afraid that if I tried to speak my voice would be broken.
Just like a summer rain, we quickly found other subjects to talk about and to continue fooling each other. I felt like there was a big hole in my chest. “What if I had no future at all?” I was chasing my thoughts…
Palmar and plantar hyperlinearity (increased markings on palms and soles)
It happens to be common that, for people with Ichthyosis, hands and feet are of the most specific parts to recognise or to diagnose. The symptom is called hyperlinearity, which is one of the most pronounced symptoms in my case.
Genetic explanation
In a paper published in 2009, talking about Autosomal Recessive Congenital Ichthyosis, the genetic defects related to hyperlinearity has been discussed as follows.
“On chromosome 19, a cytochrome P450 oxidase gene called CYP4F22 (OMIM_604777) has been identified; on chromosome 17, two lipoxygenase genes lying in very close proximity, ALOXE3 and ALOX12B, have been found to carry mutations (OMIM_242100); and another ARCI gene is NIPAL4, also known as ichthyin, on chromosome 5 (OMIM_609383). Patients carrying two mutations in these genes are often born with congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma (figure 11) and develop a rather mild ichthyosis often presenting with pronounced palmar hyperlinearity.2”
In short, there are several mutations suspected to be the cause of hyperlinearity in palms and soles.
Treatment
Amongst all the symptoms that have been improved since when I arrived in France, hyperlinearity on the palms is not one of them. I still have the same hands in summer. If any, it lasts shorter in France compared to when I was in Vietnam. Thick hand creams will help in the sense of soothing the palms within a couple of hours. However, in spite of all the inconveniences of some greasy cream on my hand, the problem is still not solved.
Back to the story of my friends and me trying to see my future…
Later on that day, I went home and asked my father if it was true that my future was hard to tell. He let me tell him what happened to me in school without saying a word. Then he took my hands one after the other and said: “Your friends were correct that some people can tell the future just by looking at others’ hands. But they don’t know that both hands can tell us something about one’s life”. “But papa they said that in my hands the future was unreadable”. With one finger following the interlaced lines on my other palm, I was saying with a great sorrow in my voice. “Does it really matter? Your future is still in your hands. Living a life without knowing about what is waiting for you is much more interesting, baby. Just be ready for whatever can happen. In the end I am not sure if anyone can do much to change the future the way they want.”
From time to time when I feel lost in life I still check my hands as a way of searching for the answer. What does my future look like? Who will I become? Even though there is nothing certain written there, I believe that my father was right. The answers for those questions are always there waiting for me to reveal. I just need to go ahead.
References
1. Gutiérrez-Cerrajero C, Sprecher E, Paller AS, et al. Ichthyosis. Nat Rev Dis Prim. 2023;9(1):2. doi:10.1038/s41572-022-00412-3
2. Oji V, Traupe H. Ichthyosis. Am J Clin Dermatol. 2009;10(6):351-364. doi:10.2165/11311070-000000000-00000