Pando I can understand where you are coming from. Something better than nothing and on one level, if I can feel pain, will this become feeling………
My disablement and increasingly so, is the ever increasing levels of pain. In a pre stroke body, the defence mechanism of the body is trying to stop you further damaging an already damaged limb or area.
That’s fine on other occasions but with cpsp, the limb isn’t damaged. My brain is thinking, don’t put any weight on that leg, don’t use your arm (rest it, keep it still, non use) so every movement is becoming a real battle against the basic body mechanisms.
One example of how it impacts, movement in particular where you almost thrown off the weak “damaged” leg to support only using your good leg. Fine if you are ready for it, not so good if you are not and you start to tip.
Its almost impossible to resolve this as with all the weight on the good leg, it can’t be moved to steady yourself. Really the only option is to find something to cling onto.
The bodies defence mechanism which has worked in my favour for years is now working against me.
Cpsp is not only pain but stiffness and numbness. When I needed to have moved a limb really quickly, as has been the case twice, I could not feel the hot frying pan against my skin. It was only when I looked and found I had a huge blister on arm. Even then it wasn’t immediately obvious as to the cause, it dawned on me a few mins later.
Cpsp can give you the full range from severe pain to total numbness and everything in between.
Interesting that the guardian article gives further weight to Phil’s post on turning up the volume to search for the signals it needs. My psychologist is encouraging me to think of this as signals filling up a bucket of sensations. I prefer to think of this as a pipe where there is capacity for a certain level of sensation traffic but no more. When there is space in the bucket/pipe, relatively normal cpsp background pain levels exist alongside some sensations.
When sensation levels increase significantly, cold, stress, the pipe hits full capacity. Brain cannot tell what’s going on so triggers higher sensation “volume” searching for what it needs. The pipe is already full so it still can’t find what it wants, triggers more sensation and so on.
This at times can become a very powerful blast/explosion of sensation which in itself is quite disabling. Its simply too much to take. This seems similar in a way to an autism symptom where at times a sufferer is blasted.
In the meantime, the stroke damaged brain is mistakenly interpreting some of the signals that do get through as pain, which increases stress, which creates more signals. Vicious circle….
To ease this, the most obvious solutions are warmth + rest. Being relaxed, the body chills, danger has passed, signal traffic reduces, pipe capacity reappears.
This is my best guess as it stands (12/24)