Morning campers....it's day 5 in the house of phantom pain and sleep is for wimps 😕 As I said yesterday, (in my blog that you ALL read 👀) despite MST twice a day, Oramorph every 4 hours, Diazepam 3 times a day, Piriton (morphine makes me itch like mad) and Zopiclone at night, I have seriously had about 6 hours sleep in 5 days. Not all amputees suffer with phantom pain but many do. We also have something called phantom sensation. There is a difference between the two. Amputees usually describe phantom pain as painful cramps, electric shocks, burning or stabbing. When I get phantom pain, 99% of the time it feels like a bunch of knives being thrust into the bottom of my non-foot. This causes my little leg to jolt into the air and I scream like a girl in a horror film. As I'm sure you can imagine, Tammy has been close to heart failure many times 😂😂😂.
Phantom sensation is equally annoying. It's the itch that you can't scratch because you have no arm/foot/leg to scratch. It can be like a constant cold, dead hand/foot. For me, the only thing I can compare that cold, dead feeling to, is to have you imagine you've sat on your foot for too long and it gets pins and needles and feels numb. Well that's my non leg all the time. I can also feel my non leg, even wiggle my toes. It's one hell of a head fudger 🙃.
You may have noted I used the words 'little leg' when referring to my residual limb. (The bit of leg I still have). I don't know if you two legged people know this but most amputees absolutely detest the word STUMP😒. I got a great response to the questionnaire I sent out yesterday and nearly 90% of the people that have replied so far, hate that word too. People in general don't seem to get it. We go to surgery with legs and come out with a stump....a dead lump of wood. Not a nice analogy for many of us to endure at such a delicate and traumatic time. I remember my mum writing a poster, in huge letters, "Karen does not have a stump. She has a little leg" and then sticking it on the board over my bed.
It would come as no surprise to any reasonably intelligent person that the shock felt, especially in the early days after surgery, is head-blowingly (my blog, I can make up words if I like 😜) numbing. The tiniest things that the people around us don't notice are huge to us that have just lost a limb. I hated it when people sat on my bed where my leg once was. Porters dumping my notes on my bed where my leg was as they wheel me to treatment and X-Ray. There should be a finishing school for staff that work with amputees 😜😂, a book on etiquette for nurses and doctors. Lady Calver-Florys etiquette for amputee interactions....hmmmm, I might be onto something here! There would no doubt need to be a large chapter on phrases to avoid while speaking with a newly chopped amputee. My friend Chris will be able to help with that. She came to visit very soon after my operation and I rolled over her toes in my wheelchair. Without missing a beat she said, "Don't worry, I've got another" hahaha bloody show off. There are a few others....'put my foot in it', 'don't have a leg to stand on', 'hopping mad'....I think you get where I'm coming from. Rest assured though, my dear double footed friends....most of us find it funny. It's far easier to deal with these challenging life events with humour after all 😊✌🏻️