A Land of Lepers

[Nerdanel]

In The Power that Preserves Lord Foul seems interested in introducing leprosy to the Land.

It was true. He stank of leprosy. The disease in his hands and feet reeked, gave off a rotten effluvium out of all proportion to the physical size of the infection. And its message was unmistakable. The ordure in him, the putrefaction in his flesh, was spreading - expanding as if he were contagious, as if at last even his body had become a violation of the fundamental health of the Land. In some ways, this was an even more important violation than the Despiser's winter - or rather his stench was the crown of the wind, the apex of Lord Foul's intent. That intent would be complete when his illness became a part of the wind, when ice and leprosy together extinguished the Land's last vitality.

Then he saw other figures pressing forward behind Joan. Mhoram was there; Lena and Atiaran were there; Bannor and Hile Troy were there. Mhoram's whole face had fallen into yellow rot and running chancrous sores; his eyes cried out through the infection as if they were drowning in a quagmire of atrocious wrong. All Lena's hair had fallen out and her bald scalp bristled with tubercular nodules. Atiaran's eyes were drowning in milky blindness. The grotesque gnarling of Bannor's limbs entirely crippled him. Troy's eyeless face was one puckering mass of gangrene, as if the very brain within his skull were festering.

And behind these figures stood more of the people Covenant had known in the Land. All were mortally ill, rife and hideous with leprosy. And behind them crowded multitudes more, numberless victims - all the people of the Land stricken and destitute, abominable to themselves, as ruined as if Covenant had brought a plague of absolute virulence among them.

At the sight of them, he erupted. Fury at their travail spouted up in him like lava. Volcanic anger, so long buried under the weight of his complex ordeal, sent livid, fiery passion geysering into the void.

Foul! he screamed. Foul! You can't do this!

"I will do it," came the mocking reply. "I am doing it."

Well, that last was an illusion, of course, but it confirms the view that Lord Foul finds the spreding of leprosy a fine idea. Add to that my view that Lord Foul is a seer and a prophet. Perhaps he truly did foresee that he would infect the Land with leprosy at some point.

And, incidentally, the Laws of Life and Death have been broken, so in principle there is nothing to prevent Foul from resurrecting Covenant's old friends and infecting them with leprosy. If Kevin's lore is truly defunct nowadays, someone like Mhoram wouldn't necessarily be the threat he once was, even if set free.

But anyway, there are signs that there might be leprosy in the Land in Runes. I noticed that SRD has been very reticient in showing much of the Land and its peoples. Liand is the only Stonedownor we have seen, and the Ramen had left all of their non-combatants behind, out of sight. The only "normal" (not!) person we have seen in Revelstone is the Mahdoubt.

And there is the strange case of Bhapa's cataract. He's not much more than a kid and he has an affliction most often seen in old people. Cataracts are also one of the symptoms of leprosy. (And they can be caused by too much ultraviolet sunlight, I know.) As Ramen know of hurtloam, one wonders why they hadn't treated Bhapa's eye before. The only sensible answer is that hurtloam can't cure his cataract even if the Staff of Law is able to. If hurtloam can't cure leprosy nowadays, that opens a whole can of worms. Even though we know that hurtloam still has significant effect on battle wounds, hurtloam's efficiency may be under an attack that hasn't manifested fully yet, like Kevin's Dirt. The implications could be radical.

Even the Mahdoubt's disfigured facial features could be seen as signs of leprosy. How common is leprosy in the Land nowadays? That's a question.

[finn]

There was a discussion a year or two back on this subject. When TC came to the land his Leprosy went into remission and then started to decline. It was partly this sudden ability to 'feel' that triggered his lust for Lena. As such I don't think that leprosy was ever actually in the land.

Leprosy itself is very difficult to contract and is not simply passed from person to person by casual or even prolonged contact.

Of the people from outside the Land, Joan is really the only possible carrier especially since she drank TCs blood in her ravings (IMO). Roger was free from contact and contamination and Linden's association with TC was in the Land not in the "real world".

Now any or all of that may be, but equally it could also be that Foul can access or use leprosy for more than illusion and indeed it could be in his arsenal as a weapon to steer TC in a particular direction by mocking him with it or threatening those he cares for with it.

If it can pass through from the "real world" to the Land, then possibly Joan has given Foul access to it. Can the Wild Magic be corrupted by Leprosy in the same way as venom? Could THAT break the arch?

You mentioned Kevin's Dirt and my mind wandered there too as the effects of the Dirt are to numb the senses, much as the effects of leprosy do. Another question is how did Berek lose his fingers?

However I do not think Leprosy is widespread in the Land if it exists there at all, I think it is another example of corruption used symbolically, like venom, as a threat or example of what corruption can do, manipulating Covenants choices as he can feel the effects of that corruption. Foul does the same with Linden using Possession and guilt as the leverage.

[Nerdanel]

I think perhaps leprosy in the Land got its start in the Second Chronicles. The first quote above makes it sound like Lord Foul is able to "fan the flames" of leprosy so to speak. Then we have the Sun of Pestilence, made while expecting Covenant's return, and Foul's considerable biological skills. I think making a "natural" species like mirkfruit implies a lot of what he is capable of.

There is no reason to think leprosy isn't very communicable anymore. I think Lord Foul may well have "improved" the disease.

[KAY1]

Perhaps it isn't actually the real thing, perhaps Foul saw the effects of Leprosy and it gave him ideas on how to corrupt the Earth effectively. Or else it could well be Joan's influence, as she was in 2nd chrons as well but perhaps the leprosy affects the essential fabric of the Earth as well as people. Perhaps Caesures are caused by Leprosy?

I hadn't really thought about Bhapa's eye and hurtloam, but didn't the Ramen say they only came back to the Land once every generation and this time they actually returned earlier because of Esmer? Of course you would think they would have perhaps come back earlier to help one of their own who was injured/diseased etc.

[KAY1]

You mentioned Kevin's Dirt and my mind wandered there too as the effects of the Dirt are to numb the senses, much as the effects of leprosy do. Another question is how did Berek lose his fingers?

Oh and Berek lost his fingers in the final battle with the King's forces just before he ran off and discovered the Earthpower.

[Xar]

There was a discussion a year or two back on this subject. When TC came to the land his Leprosy went into remission and then started to decline. It was partly this sudden ability to 'feel' that triggered his lust for Lena. As such I don't think that leprosy was ever actually in the land.

But this happened mostly because of his contact with hurtloam: he recognizes this effect of the healing mud, and is very aware of the implications by TIW, in which he goes into panic when the Lords attempt to heal him of his forehead wound by treating it with hurtloam. In fact, both during TPTP and the Second Chronicles, Covenant was not treated with hurtloam and did not enjoy any remission of his leprosy (including no renewed feeling in his fingers and toes, for example). It's worth noting that his leprosy wasn't quiescent from the end of TIW and throughout all of TPTP (we learn that from Berenford, in the beginning of the SC, when he explains that, after the end of TPTP, Covenant had had to go back to the leprosarium due to the fact he had neglected his leprosy and therefore suffered a relapse; we also have a hint of what happened to him when he describes to Linden how Joan's raking her fingers on the back of his hand doesn't hurt him because he has no feeling there, whereas in the First Chronicles his lack of feeling was limited to his fingers and toes). It was, however, quiescent at the beginning of TWL, and presumably, given that Covenant's body in the SC was in no way subject to the same amount of sheer physical punishment it suffered between TIW and TPTP, as well as the fact that he had been taking his medicines up until his death, it remained so until WGW.

So, at best, we could surmise that the progress of leprosy in an afflicted subject from our world who is transported to the Land is halted no matter how long he stays in the Land (because, given the time ratio and the fact that the leper should return to our world in the exact same physical conditions he had when he left, the actual progress of leprosy in the Land would otherwise have to be reversed prior to his return to our world). At worst, the progress of leprosy in an afflicted subject from our world who travels to the Land is not halted, but, as long as the subject's leprosy was quiescent at the arrival, leprosy would only relapse if - like in the real world - the subject were to do things (like getting wounded and letting the wound get infected) that could activate the disease again.

Of the people from outside the Land, Joan is really the only possible carrier especially since she drank TCs blood in her ravings (IMO). Roger was free from contact and contamination and Linden's association with TC was in the Land not in the "real world".

I agree with the concept that Joan would be the most likely candidate for leprosy carrier, although that by no means signifies that she is a leprosy carrier. Still, you would guess that, if she had contracted leprosy at the beginning of the SC, she would have started showing signs of it through the ten years that passed between the SC and the FC. Since she didn't, and there is no mention of Linden giving her leprosy-stopping drugs, it is plausible to say she was not infected. Ditto for Linden.

Now any or all of that may be, but equally it could also be that Foul can access or use leprosy for more than illusion and indeed it could be in his arsenal as a weapon to steer TC in a particular direction by mocking him with it or threatening those he cares for with it.

Well, leprosy is an extremely slow disease. For Foul to use it that way, he would need to dramatically accelerate its progress, which is unlikely, given that - as SRD himself said - Foul rarely uses his power directly.

If it can pass through from the "real world" to the Land, then possibly Joan has given Foul access to it. Can the Wild Magic be corrupted by Leprosy in the same way as venom? Could THAT break the arch?

As I said above, it's unlikely Joan has leprosy. But even if she has, Covenant had leprosy throughout TPTP and all the SC, and that did not threaten in any way his bond with wild magic or the Arch of Time, except insofar as his numbness prevented him from fine-tuning wild magic to heal.

[dlbpharmd]

Great post, Xar!

[Nerdanel]

Remember that the incubation period of leprosy is... (drumroll...) ten years. So if somebody got infected at about the Second Chronicles, they would be showing first symptoms just about now. That's what an incubation period means.

I think Linden has leprosy but she hasn't noticed it yet. There are several small passages in the prologue that I think are meant to be hints. (I wrote about that earlier, but the post got lost in the hacking incident, and it wasn't a very good post anyway, so I think I'll have to write about this at length at some point.)

In the Land I think Linden's condition may possibly have been masked by Lord Foul. You may remember how he was able to give Covenant perfectly convincing illusionary health in TPTP. In the Last Chronicles Foul is certainly moving in a lot more subtle way, and in the Prologue his tactic was based on nobody knowing nearly how bad and urgent things were until it was too late. Even Linden thought Roger wouldn't be violent. Perhaps Covenant's old house is a metaphor for many things in the series, including Linden.

Anyway, perhaps Lord Foul is inflicting leprosy on the world itself -- the Worm at World's End. Making the Worm a leper would deaden its nerves, making it less likely to wake up, which sounds like contrary to Foul's intention, but perhaps he thinks that he would that way be able to do much more than before and position himself better, since he would die if he himself awakened the Worm. Linden is out to awaken the Worm, as per the vision, but perhaps she won't die because the Worm may have developed cataracts in its sleep.

Now that I think of it, the Worm's condition may be related to Covenant becoming the Arch of Time. If Worm is the Arch and Covenant is the Arch and Covenant has leprosy, it wouldn't be too surprising if the Worm contracted it. Kevin's Dirt may be an expression of that.

The interesting factor is that the Worm appears also to be the Würd and the Weird and many things in the similar vein, so for example the Weird of the Waynhim and ur-viles may be being misinterpreted right here, right now.

[dlbpharmd]

Linden was only in TC's presence for about 36-48 hours max in 2nd Chronicles. I doubt that she has leprosy.

[Nerdanel]

Lord Foul is certifiably able to affect the "real world". The Community of Retribution, possessed Joan's restraints falling off, lightning acting in a VERY unnatural way... In one world Linden and Covenant were together mere hours, but in another they travelled together for months, were lovers, and experienced the Sun of Pestilence. Who is to say what that does to probabilities? Covenenant's leprosy WAS quiescent, but he was using old-style medication that wasn't able to cure leprosy permanently like the modern stuff, so perhaps he would have been contagious on some level (people are contagious during the incubation period, for example), and there WAS the Sun of Pestilence affecting things.

[Xar]

Old-style medications don't cure leprosy, but they make it dormant; this is a different thing from an incubation stage. An incubation stage means the disease (in this case, the bacteria) are alive and active in the victim, but simply have shown no noticeable effect or symptom, so you do not know they're there; a dormant or quiescent stage means the bacteria are not active (and probably they're reduced to exospores), which in turn means they're just sitting there in the victim's system, but they're not moving around or trying to reach others. So, from this POV, it is quite possible that dormant leprosy is either not contagious at all, or only very slightly contagious (say, for example, by spending years in continuous, close and intimate proximity with an afflicted person).

Linden was intimate with TC, but she was also an adult, and we know that leprosy is mostly contagious only for children; so, the chances of Linden getting leprosy are almost nonexistent. The Sun of Pestilence, as far as I understood, wasn't called this way because it stimulated existing plagues, but because it filled the Land with that strange plague that would kill you if you got wounded. And Linden found a way to heal herself from that. Given that Linden's enhanced percipience was at its peak towards the end of WGW, I doubt she would have missed the fact that she had contracted leprosy - she could see leprosy in TC, as I recall, so it's a fair assumption to say she could do the same for herself, and in WGW Foul isn't interested in fooling her on this account.

Finally, the last argument against Linden's leprosy is very simple. Yes, she spent months in close association with Covenant in the Land. But, in the real world, she only spent hours around him before he died and she was saved. That amount of time is nowhere near enough for her to contract leprosy. And we know that the mechanics of summoning between our world and the Land are such that when you return to the real world from the Land, you do so in exactly the same physical condition you were when you left it. This isn't just true for wounds, beards, and the like, but for leprosy as well: TC was healed during LFB and TIW, but he always came back to the real world and was re-afflicted with leprosy. By the same token then, if Linden was NOT afflicted with leprosy when she went to the Land (and this is the case), then she could NOT be afflicted with leprosy when she came back to the real world.

As for the Worm's conditions being related to Covenant: Covenant didn't become the Arch of Time, he became wild magic, or a personification of wild magic. Wild magic is the keystone of the Arch, but not the whole Arch. In any case, he ascended to the status of personification of wild magic after death, in spirit only, and not in body: his leprosy was a disease of the body, not of the spirit (contrary to Marid's poison, which was a "moral poison" and therefore an ailment of the spirit), and as such, it died with his physical body when he was killed by Lord Foul. His spirit then ascended to become the guardian of the Arch, free of leprosy.

To be thorough, the period of time Covenant spent alive between his caamora in the Banefire and his death at the hands of Lord Foul was a few days at most; in this period, he may have been an alloy of wild magic and venom and (potentially) the guardian of the Arch (as recognized by Glimmermere and by Caer Caveral), but, given that a few days are not enough to be afflicted with leprosy even if you're in close proximity with the leper, I would imagine that the chances for the Worm (a cosmological entity of incalculable power and alien origin) to get leprosy are nonexistent.

[Avatar]

Good post Xar. I notice you start it though by mentioning "old-style" medicines that force dormancy in the disease.

Does this mean the "new-style" advances have been made in the treatment and understanding of this disease?

--A

[Xar]

As far as I know, the WHO states that there are now medicines capable of completely curing a patient from leprosy. Of course, this doesn't mean restoring dead nerves, but it does mean completely eradicating the presence of mycobacterium leprae from the host's system, so that in effect, you no longer risk a relapse and no longer need to take medicines for the rest of your life to keep the bacterium quiescent.

Also from WHO:

-Incubation time of leprosy is 5 years, although symptoms may take up to 20 years to manifest;

-Leprosy is not highly infectious. It is transmitted via droplets, from the nose and mouth, during close and frequent contacts with untreated cases;

-Leprosy is a curable disease and treatment provided in the early stages averts disability;

-A World Health Organization (WHO) Study Group recommended multidrug therapy (MDT) in 1981. MDT consists of three drugs: dapsone, rifampicin and clofazimine. This drug combination kills the pathogen and cures the patient;

-Since 1995, WHO provides free MDT for all patients in the world, initially through the drug fund provided by the Nippon Foundation and since 2000, through the MDT donation provided by Novartis and the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development.

-Patients treated with MDT are cured within six to twelve months;

-Patients are no longer infectious to others after the first dose of MDT. In other words, transmission of leprosy is interrupted;

-There are virtually no relapses, i.e. recurrences of the disease after treatment is completed;

-WHO estimates that early detection and treatment with MDT has prevented about four million people from being disabled. This suggests great cost-effectiveness of MDT as a health intervention, considering the economic and social loss averted.

-The first breakthrough occurred in the 1940s with the development of the drug dapsone, which arrested the disease. But the duration of the treatment of leprosy was many years, even a lifetime, making it difficult for patients to follow;

-Rifampicin and clofazimine, the other two components of MDT, were discovered in the early 1960s.

[Avatar]

Very very interesting indeed. I wasn't aware of that. I trust the WHO is distributing these medicines in countries where the disease is endemic? Hell, shouldn't this be enough to make it possible to completely eradicate leprosy from the face of the earth?

I wonder when Africa will get it. If Africa will get it.

--A

[Xar]

I edited my post while you were posting yours, so you might find new stuff up there now Anyway, for the complete WHO fact sheet about leprosy, you can check this link:

www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs101/en/

It describes how the disease works, how it can be cured, current mortality and patient figures, how many countries still list it as a public health problem, and how are efforts going in eradicating the disease.

By the way, yes, the WHO aims towards eradicating the disease in a few years.

[Avatar]

You certainly did edit it.

Thanks for all the info Xar, even more interesting than before. Here's hoping that they're successful in eradicating it, especially in distributing treatment to everybody who needs it.

I'll definitely check out that link as well.

--A

[dlbpharmd]

Thanks, Xar, for your great post and also on the info from the WHO.

Eradication of leprosy from the world.....WOW. Of course, only a few years ago that it was thought that eradication of tuberculosis was possible (TB pathogen and leprosy pathogen very similar) and we're nowhere near eradication of TB.

[Xar]

Thanks, Xar, for your great post and also on the info from the WHO.

Eradication of leprosy from the world.....WOW. Of course, only a few years ago that it was thought that eradication of tuberculosis was possible (TB pathogen and leprosy pathogen very similar) and we're nowhere near eradication of TB.

Not to turn the thread into a medical thread, but there appears to be at least one major difference in the campaigns against leprosy and tuberculosis. In the latter, strains of TB that are resistant to one, two, or all (!) major anti-TB drugs have appeared, making eradication of the disease a much more challenging situation. In the former, currently there is no report of MDT-resistant leprosy bacteria, which gives hope for the eradication project.

Since we're at it, polio is almost eradicated as well - as of February 1, 2006, only four countries in the whole world (Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan) are not yet certified polio-free, and only two strains of the virus still survive. In the past year, only 1.900 cases of polio have been detected and reported worldwide.

[Nerdanel]

I wouldn't think Linden had leprosy either if it wasn't for the Prologue of Runes. A number of small incidents took place there, the combined effect of which is suspicious. I think SRD was very careful to put subtle clues in.

- Linden drops a teacup. This is very minor, but it suggests that her hands aren't as sure as they could be. My dad has neuropathy and has been clumsy of late too. He has also dropped a teacup among othe things.

- Linden stumbles while running in her dress shoes and drops them behind so that she can run in her socks. Compare this to Covenant having trouble moving quickly in his laceless boots in the beginning of TPTP and dropping the boots behind. A forty-year-old doctor without a penchant for flashy dressing would be unlikely to wear shoes with overly high heels, so it's not like Linden's troubles could be explained by stiletto heels that anybody would have trouble with.

- Linden is not mentioned to feel any discomfort when she runs outside on her socks, even though the ground would have been hard on her feet. Most people in this age of shoes have soft and sensitive soles, but apparently not Linden.

- Linden fumbles with the automatic gears in her car, the car she has used for over a decade. The first sign of Covenant's leprosy was that he fumbled with his familiar typewriter. He didn't think anything about it either.

- Linden fails to notice that her hand is wounded until she sees the blood. I would think cutting one's palm with a none-too-sharp key (are keys sharper in America than around here?) would be fairly easy to notice even if distracted. The method of injury (forgetting the keys in her hand while fumbling with the gear buttons) looks pretty unlikely too for someone with normal nerves. They would have noticed that their activity didn't have the same neural feedback as usual and would have fixed the problem.

- When Linden is escaping through the window and cuts her hand the second time, she sees the blood, but doesn't register any pain this time either. In fact Linden is never mentioned to register a sensation in the outlying nerves of her fingers and toes. The wind stings her face (despite her preoccupation with Jeremiah, pain is a powerful thing) but other exterior parts of her apparently don't feel anything much, even when they should.

- Linden presses the white gold ring with her wrist to reassure herself of its reality instead of clasping the ring with her fingers. This is a strange gesture as most people's fingertips are more sensitive than their wrists and allow a better grip.

- Linden brushes her eyes with her wrist instead of her fingers. This is another strange gesture and reinforces the conclusions of the previous point.

Indeed, there are fairly many little details that hint that all is not right with Linden's nerves. Even in the Land her formerly-keen health-sense is suddenly surpassed by all of the Haruchai and Stave in particular, Anele, and the Mahdoubt. In TPTP Covenant had health-sense despite his leprosy, but it was less than what he used to have. (I have thought about the intricacies of health-sense, Sunbane, and Kevin's Dirt but this post is already getting long enough.)

I think the Worm catched leprosy after Covenant's death from his ghost... Sure Covenant isn't alive, but I think the Worm isn't either in the conventional sense. I don't think the Worm could catch a physical germ. I think it even said that the Arch of Time (a.k.a. the Worm) is now partially based on leprosy since that was part of Covenant. If we can say the dead Covenant is still a leper, anything he has merged with would have leprosy too.

[Xar]

I think the Worm catched leprosy after Covenant's death from his ghost... Sure Covenant isn't alive, but I think the Worm isn't either in the conventional sense. I don't think the Worm could catch a physical germ. I think it even said that the Arch of Time (a.k.a. the Worm) is now partially based on leprosy since that was part of Covenant. If we can say the dead Covenant is still a leper, anything he has merged with would have leprosy too.

I still think this is a huge leap of logic... we cannot say that dead Covenant is still a leper, because leprosy (again) is a physical disease, not a spiritual one. Covenant lost his physical body when he died: hence, he cannot be a leper in his current state. Even if he were to somehow re-create his body through his power (whatever that is), I doubt it would be a body afflicted with leprosy. For these reasons, I very much doubt leprosy could have any effect on the Arch or the Worm through Covenant.

By the way, there is a reference about the Arch of Time and leprosy in the SC, but that's in Covenant's own words, when he explained why he had to die, and that basically his death was necessary. Why? Because after the Banefire Caamora, he had potentially become the guardian of the Arch, and that potential would be liberated as soon as he would employ or come into contact with lots of wild magic again. But since his body was tainted with leprosy and his spirit with moral venom, fulfilling that potential at that time would have been disastrous, because it would have caused the Arch to be founded upon not just wild magic, but also venom and leprosy. So, Covenant had to die for two reasons: 1) he would shed his physical body, therefore getting rid of leprosy, and 2) he would place his spirit between the Arch and Foul, using Foul's wild magic to burn away the venom, and reach his full potential as guardian. By the end of WGW, Covenant's spirit is imbued with the essence of wild magic, but neither moral venom nor leprosy play any further part in the story. If Covenant had used wild magic or been subjected to massive use of wild magic before his death, things would have likely been much different - and much less pleasant, I expect.

As for Linden having leprosy: I'm afraid that most, if not all, the signs you mention could just as easily be explained as habits or normal everyday occurrences, that we all have experienced. First of all, a theory about Linden having leprosy would need to explain how this could be possible - given, as described before, that Linden's contact with TC in the real world was a few hours at best, and that despite all the time she spent in the Land, the restraints of summoning meant she would be back to the real world in exactly the same physical condition as she was when she left it - therefore, as if she'd only spent a few hours of non-intimate contact with Covenant. To make a comparison, Berenford spent far more time than that with Covenant, and he was not infected. Any theory to explain how Linden could have caught leprosy would have to solve that dilemma first.

In any case:

-Linden dropping a teacup. She may be a doctor, but she's also a human being; how many times have we inadvertedly dropped things? She needn't even be particularly scared or stressed to do so; a simple momentary distraction would be enough.

-Linden stumbling when running and dropping her shoes behind. Stiletto heels may be out of the question, but nobody said she didn't have even just moderately high heels at the time. Heck, even a moderate heel would likely make running even just a bit more difficult than without heels at all, and I presume she would have wanted all possible speed back then. Not to mention the fact that her shoes could have simply have had soles that were not suited for running.

-Linden feeling no discomfort when running in her socks. If she was running for a reason she felt to be compelling and urgent, she would likely not have noticed any discomfort to her feet. Compare to how different discomfort or pain feel when you are absorbed doing something else and when you pay attention to it. Often, in the former case you are hardly aware of it (within limits, of course), and in the latter, you're sharply aware.

-Linden fumbling with automatic gears in her car. Sometimes I fumble with my gears in my car that I have been driving for eight years... the car could be malfunctioning, the gear lever could be a bit hard or bothersome... there are many explanations. Covenant's fumbling with the typewriter was completely different, because in that case, the reason for his fumbling was that, without feeling in his fingers, he was unable to tell by feeling when he was pressing a key and when he was not, and also unable to instinctively feel the spatial positioning of his fingers, so that he would not know where his fingers were typing, unless he would look. Typing requires fine control of the fingers, which are the first part of the body to suffer numbness as a consequence of leprosy. Changing gears requires the whole hand, and in any case does not require finely tuned motor control.

-Linden not noticing wounds until she sees the blood. I think everyone here has sometimes noticed a wound on his hand or foot, and realized he or she had been going around for some hours with that wound, maybe, without noticing at all. The moment you notice, you start feeling the pain. It happens, especially if you get wounded when you're really focused on something else. I would also counter your assumption with another: Linden being a doctor, wouldn't she have noticed it if she had started losing feeling in her whole hand? Remember: leprosy proceeds from fingertips inward, so by the time it numbs your palm, it means all your fingers are already numb. I would imagine that any normal person - but especially a doctor - would have noticed something was amiss long before then.

-Linden using her wrist to touch the white gold. Can be odd, but it's hardly conclusive; there have been times in which I myself have reached with my wrist, or the back of my hand, or even my forearm to feel whether I still had an item in a pocket. Sometimes you don't even notice that - as long as you know the item is there.

-Linden using her wrist to brush her eyes. I do that often, and so do most people over here. I also sometimes use the heel of the hand, or the knuckles.

In short (sorry if I sounded challenging or that I used so many examples from my experience), I find that all of these events can have other explanations, and in many cases such explanations would be more plausible than leprosy. In any case, as I said before, any theory about Linden getting leprosy would first need to solve the summoning dilemma described above.

Oh, as for TPTP and Covenant's health-sense... I can't remember any passage in which it is specifically stated that he had some despite his leprosy. In fact, all I remember is that, without hurtloam, he could not be healed of leprosy, and without this healing, he could not open up to health-sense.