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Post by snowyh on Jul 22, 2014 18:32:18 GMT -7
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Post by cherylm on Jul 23, 2014 2:36:03 GMT -7
It does sound interesting, Helen...and logical to me. There have been so many anecdotal reports about how going into surgery with an epidural/spinal block and maintaining that block for a while post-surgery can keep phantom pains from developing in leg amps...that's very similar with what they're doing with their treatments to the nerves in their study. Promising, I hope!
I've had something "sort of similar" happen since getting my most recent leg...for basically my first year as an amputee, I was "mentally convinced" that my left leg was still present inside my prosthesis. I never had much of anything in the way of pains, and I never have since then. But the leg was "there." Eventually it began to "fade away"...not quite like the "telescoping" sensation described in the article...just a general sense of fading, like clouds dispersing. However, my big toe remained with me for years and years after the rest of the leg had disappeared...it just floated around down in my footshell, right about where it normally would have been. It didn't hurt...it was just there.
This latest socket of mine actually lets me "touch bottom" with the end of my stump...not with any particular amount of pressure, but I do have an actual physical reminder of just exactly where my leg ends now...and my phantom big toe has vanished!
The body is a strange and mysterious thing....................
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Post by Ann on Jul 29, 2014 0:04:34 GMT -7
I am not totally convinced either, though I do know that the nerves in my leg can be activated sometimes by pressure around the base of my spine etc., but having said that I can also activate them by just 'thinking' about them.
However, when my stump is upset, usually due to sockets not fitting then I often experience pain which I know is 'stump based' however along with this I get an uncomfortable what I call 'little toe feeling', so I guess this would be called phantom pain, yet I know that its actually pressure activating the nerve so I dont think of it as 'phantom' more physical, but I think thats the way I learned to think of it years ago, and thats just my way of interpreting it.
To be honest as a younger amputee, I was never told about 'phantom pain' nobody talked about it to me and I am not really sure if I got it all not but I do get phantom sensations which is kind of normal, I can still 'wriggle most of my non existent toes' and its just a sensation really, not particularly painful. Like Cherylm, I do seem to know 'exactly' where my leg is and where I am putting the prosthetic feet, most of the time and kind of feel through the prostheses when I am wearing them. When I am not wearing them though if I am doing something from the w'chair or whatever and something is in the space of where my prosthetics/feet would normally be, I do still automatically move my leg/stump out the way, even though it is not going to be in the way.
Several years ago it was very interesting, following a revision amp, in the immediate weeks after, i could feel my non existent feet, toes etc., very clearly which was odd because I hadn't had or felt them so clearly for over forty years, eventually though, as Cherlym says this just began to fade away so my theory would be that the nerve was obviously cut and upset again and it just needed time to heal. I had quite a lot of nerve pain at one point and had an ultra sound to investigate it, which was fascinating, it looked like a frayed bit of string and you could actually see all the frayed bits moving about as if they were searching for the end of the nerve, I guess this is how they get knotted and neuromas can form, luckily mine settled down with no problems.
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Post by cherylm on Jul 30, 2014 3:58:37 GMT -7
Ooooh...the ultrasound sounds really interesting, Ann!
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Post by Ann on Aug 15, 2014 1:42:01 GMT -7
it was Cheryl, a bit like I remember my biology textbooks when i was at school.
Anyhow, as you know I have now had another revision on the other leg, and this time its been different again, very little nerve pain as compared with the other side .... so far!
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