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Dealing with Amputee Phantom Pain

By Larry Gardner, 10/12/2003
This is a personal account of one person's experience with dealing with Amputee Phantom Pain

Larry is someone who knows a lot about dealing with Phantom Pain, something which he has had to come to terms with for many years.

"Whenever I meet another amputee, the subject of phantom pain eventually comes up. It seems most amputees have suffered through these pains in various forms and intensity.

"There are also some beliefs and misbeliefs about phantom pain, phantom sensation, and stump pain.

"Phantom pain comes on strong with sharp, shooting pains originating in the bottom of the residual limb and experienced in the "missing" shin or knee or foot area.

"The sensation for me is like an electric shock of pain or a sharp stabbing feeling. The pain can come on fast or slow and have a wide range of intensity. The pain may last a few hours or a few days and longer.

"Stump pain is like phantom pain, except most of the pain is in the stump itself, primarily in the bone end.

"I have experienced these symptoms in varying degrees over the course of thirty years as an amputee. The pain now is not going away. It seems to be happening more frequently lately.

[Editors note: The Online Medical Dictionary from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne refers to pain only as 'An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage.'. Whilst what this describes is undoubtedly pain, it points towards a general paucity in understanding of the term 'pain]

"The bottom line is, pain is pain. Amputee pain can be quite devastating, but pain relief and pain management for the amputee is like that of any other person. The primary concern is, what works?

For many years I dealt with the pain by using prescription medicine in the form of nerve relaxers (tegretol) and pain pills (Tylenol with codeine). These didn't help much but the other effects of the medication would sometimes help induce sleep. Sleep was the main objective. If I could relax enough to sleep, hopefully the pain would be gone when I awoke.

The medication became a problem of its own. Taking the combination of pills rendered me unable to drive or do much else. Kind of like walking around in a stupor. Not very effective medicine, but better than nothing.



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