A car wreck always carries the potential for serious injuries, and amputation injuries are some of the most catastrophic you can experience. They can absolutely change your life. The amputation injury could happen during the crash, or your overall injuries could just be so severe that amputation is the only option medical professionals have left.
In any case, one of the stranger symptoms that people have to deal with after an amputation is having “phantom sensations” in the limb. These may include pain. Essentially, they feel like the limb is still sensing things, even though it is no longer there.
Ways to handle it
Simply acknowledging that this is a well-known phenomenon that happens to about 80% of patients can help. Other tips include:
- Going through physical therapy while looking in a mirror can help the brain with neural pathway remapping.
- Using pain medication to at least reduce the amount of pain being felt.
- Using neurostimulation or deep brain stimulation. These tactics can help to send positive signals or inhibit the negative ones that are sent.
There are also some cutting-edge ways to address pain, such as virtual reality training or acupuncture. Some individuals have found benefits to listening to music or looking at specific imagery. It’s important to remember that everyone is different and that the brain is very complex, so different tactics may have different levels of success from one patient to the next. If one does not work, that doesn’t mean that nothing will work.
Seeking proper compensation
As you go through this process, considering your medical bills, pain and suffering, and all of the other changes in your life, you need to know how to seek compensation from the person who caused the crash.