Phantom Limb Pain

By Patrick Watson

Phantom limb pain is the scourge of many amputees, the pain seemingly immune to treatment in thousands of cases, sometimes driving people to suicide.

It has been an occasional terror for me, taking the form of potent electric shock in my missing foot, banging off every 20 or 30 seconds for sometimes up to eight hours; at its worst, enough to virtually impair normal functioning until it passes, evading everything except powerful narcotics (the hangover of which is also impairing) or a dangerous amount of vodka, which does not always work -- and see above re. hangover.

By accident (or intuition), the last time it hit I tried this: alternating hot and cold showers, as hot as I could stand, terrifyingly, dangerously hot, for several seconds, then turning to as cold as the system had to offer, and back again, four or five cycles.

Success! What had looked like an all-day session of shocks just simply, quietly, immediately ... stopped!

This has now worked twice in a row (my attacks come less than 10 times a year), and I would be very interested to hear from anyone else willing to try this (somewhat breathtaking!) remedy.

Do you have tips, tricks or coping methods to share with other people who have disabilities? ABILITIES invites readers to share ideas and experiences in this space. Write to: FYI, Canadian Abilities Foundation, Access Place, College Park, 444 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M5B 2H4, or fax us at: (416) 977-5098.

(ABILITIES does not research, endorse or guarantee any information supplied in this space. All ideas expressed here are the views of the writers.)