 Hello there, my beautiful, lovely internet friends. Welcome to Phantom Pain, part two, everything you've ever wanted to know. I'll link the part one video up above, but I asked my community what questions they had about Phantom Pain or sensation, and there were so many good questions that I wanted to make sure I could answer as many as I could. So without further ado, we are just gonna dive straight in to more Phantom Pain and sensation questions. Let's go. Oh, I totally forgot about this. Alison asked, is it always pain or do you get other sensations like itching? Itching is the bane of my existence. I'm lucky that I don't get this super often, but sometimes I will have an itch on my ankle or my toe or my foot that, you know, doesn't exist anymore, and there's literally nothing. There's nothing that I can do. I've tried icing it, I've tried heating it, I've tried taking baths, I've tried epsom salt, I've topical, icy hot or bio-freeze. I have tried everything and it just, you just have to stick it out. Like imagine having an itch that you could not itch for hours. Oh yeah, okay, we need to answer this question. Squirrel asked, does it scare you when you had it the first time and if yes, does it still scare you? I have never actually thought about this in those terms, but yeah, the other night I had a horrific 40 minutes of Phantom Pain that was some of the most severe and intense where I was literally like crying and like yelping every time it would happen. And I like trust in the fact that I need to wait this out and it's gonna go away, but sincerely there is absolutely no promise of that. I am just basing that on past experience and hope. When I started experiencing Phantom Pain after surgery, absolutely terrified me because it was so bad and there was nothing that really helped. And I just had to go on blind faith that it was gonna get better and I was gonna do, you know, mirror therapy and things like that to try to help. But yeah, when it is something that is so unpredictable and also not easily treated, it does scare me. And when I have those episodes that are really bad, there's a part of me that's wondering like, is this it, is it gonna feel like this forever and thankfully it never has, but it does cause fear. That's a really good question. Alex asks, do some amputees get to live a life entirely free of Phantom Pain? Yes, gosh darn it. And I am jealous. I actually have two friends who have never felt Phantom Pain or Phantom Sensation. Both of them did have the TMR, targeting muscle re-nervation surgery during their initial amputation and that has led to much better outcomes. Mine was after my initial amputation and I was already experiencing a lot of Phantom Pain. But when I talk about Phantom Pain, they're like, yeah, I don't know, that's that, that doesn't sound fun. And they just have never felt it. Sarah asks, does it only occur when you're awake or while you're also sleeping? I have been woken up by Phantom Pain a number of times that does happen. Oftentimes they've had trouble going to sleep because of Phantom Pain. Like I've said before, it definitely gets worse in the evenings and as kind of like the night gets later. I am Queen FYI, you absolutely are. Ask, have you been in the middle of speaking about or at an important event and it has stopped you in your tracks? Yes, yes, this has absolutely happened. I think I do a pretty good job in public of covering it up. But if you watch me closely, you'll see me flinching from time to time. Or like I'll be carrying on a conversation and like just stumble for a second and then like try to keep going, right? I've developed this kind of mental strategy of acknowledging the pain and then being like, damn, this sucks. I am trusting it's gonna pass in just a couple seconds and so I try to just carry on. If I'm like hanging out with friends or it's especially bad, you're gonna seem more than that, right? Like I might get emotional or I might actually be like, oh my God, you know, something like that. But in public, I think it's not actually that noticeable to most people. Hey, zero S, can it happen while walking or running? Yes, it can absolutely happen anytime, anywhere, location and position doesn't necessarily matter but I have personally found more often it is when I am like in a place of rest, sitting, lying down, something like that. Walking does sometimes help relieve it a little bit. Sometimes it also makes it worse so it's kind of hit or miss. I've gotten it when I was walking. I've gotten it when I was running. It just, it kind of, it does what it wants, what it wants to. Pyramid of Bones is your username. I really hope you don't have a pyramid of bones. I feel like that would be concerning. Does phantom pain feel like a regular cramp? Like when your foot gets really cramped after maintaining a point? The simple answer is actually yes. I've never felt any sensation through like phantom pain or phantom sensation that I wasn't at least in some way familiar with. Like I know what it feels like to be cut. I know what it feels like to get a burn. I know what it feels like to back into an electrical fence and get shot really hard by it. Granted, some of the sensations are ramped up from anything I've ever actually experienced but for the most part when you're experiencing phantom pain it's not like something that you can't identify or have no reference for. When my foot cramps, it feels exactly like it used to feel when my foot would cramp before. So in that way phantom pain sensation is actually really easy to understand because it's not really anything you haven't felt before. It's just that it comes from nowhere. It makes no sense and it's really agonizing sometimes. Marie asks, what was the most and least helpful reaction of a medical professional to your phantom pain? I am really lucky that, you know, in my past I've had a lot of negative experiences with doctors but when it comes to specifically my amputation and specifically phantom pain, I've been taken very seriously because it's a well-known phenomenon. Like it's not something that is woo-woo or questionable. A lot of patients who go through amputation deal with phantom pain and it can be really bad. I wouldn't even classify this as like a negative experience but I have had, you know, medical professionals basically be like, it's not gonna get better. Here are things you can try but like it might never get better and I honestly think that's just more honest than anything. Having dealt with a lot of chronic pain in my life or doctors haven't taken me seriously, I've never experienced that once with phantom pain. They're always like, yeah, we get it, what can we do? Can we prescribe, you know, nerve medication? Have you tried merit therapy? You know, what have you been doing? All of that. Doctors have been great about that actually. Pregnant with kittens wants to know, does your ankle feel like it did before the horse riding accident? Does it feel like it did after the accident but before getting fused or does it feel fused? What era of your ankle does it feel like? I do think my ankle had many different eras, right? So for me, it feels fused. Like if I'm thinking about bending my ankle, I still feel like it's kind of stuck in that position. So I'd say all of my sensation is sort of based on age 15 onward from when I had that fusion but the pain that I experienced has never been the same pain that was in my ankle. I have never felt that same ankle pain but I will say that when it comes to sensation, if I tried to like flex my ankle out, right? I couldn't actually do that before surgery because my ankle was fused and I still feel like I can't do that even as I'm like moving it in my head. Baba Berry asks, is phantom pain sometimes exacerbated by PTSD symptoms related to the injury? Like a PTSD flare makes the frequency or pain increased? Really good question. For me personally, phantom pain has not been exacerbated by my existing PTSD and like trauma and mental health issues but PTSD has 1000% impacted the rest of the chronic pain in my body. There is a huge length between a bad PTSD trigger and my body like being inflamed but I haven't noticed it affect phantom pain for me personally. I imagine that probably varies for everybody. Our bodies and our minds are so connected and also so diverse. Trisha asks, can taking Tylenol Advol or even something stronger help? The answer is not really NSAIDs, things like Acetaminophen, even opioid-based medications have not proven to be super effective. It is a different kind of pain. Nerve pain is just generally harder to treat. Nerves are stubborn little jerks sometimes. So there are two medications, Gabapentin and Lyrica that are generally prescribed to help with phantom pain because they're nerve medications. I personally did not find those very useful so I did end up coming off of them but a lot of people find a lot of relief through those. Phantom pain is just bizarre. I'll end it with one statement. I think it's interesting that it's called phantom pain, right? I know some people who are like, it's not phantom pain, it's real pain. It's pain like any other kind of pain but I think for me, just classifying as phantom because it hurts in a place that isn't there anymore, that isn't visible but the pain is very real, still does make sense to me but thank you for sticking around for yet another phantom pain and sensation video. This has been a really fun one for me. I like talking about this stuff. I feel like it's kind of therapeutic and I like being able to share my experience and I am so grateful for you listening and to everyone who asks such amazing questions. There are so many more that we don't have the time for today but if I missed your question, if you leave it in the comment section down below, I will do my very best to answer it. Huge thank you to my patrons over on Patreon. You can check us out at patreon.com slash jobequith. Link is on screen if you're interested in what's going on there and do you watching this video right now. Thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today. You could be anywhere else in the world doing anything else and you chose to hang out with me for a little bit and I really appreciate that. I love you guys. I'm thinking about you and I'll see you in the next video. Bye guys. Say. Have her from the sky.