Amputee Life — Pain Management

Most adults experience back pain at some point. Although we still highly encourage seeing a doctor for chronic back pain, one of the tried-and-tested treatments you can do at home is applying heat or cold therapy. But how do you know when to use either?

The shoes you wear impact your back health. Certain soles help support posture, while other shoes help make walking a breeze. However, with all the shoe options we have available, it isn’t easy to figure out which shoe is the best for you. This article discusses the types of footwear you need to avoid (especially if you’re using a prosthetic limb) and the shoes you need to wear more to mitigate back pain.

Low back pain sufferers, including amputees and prosthetic users, typically expect the soreness to linger for weeks or even months. But you can manage flare-ups with a massage besides getting physical therapy, taking pain relievers, and getting regular exercise.

After amputation, most amputees will feel abnormal sensations at the site of the missing limb. These sensations can either be non-painful or painful. Physicians will initially manage phantom limb pain with medications and other alternative but non-invasive treatments. However, once the patient has exhausted all options but the pain remains excruciating, surgical options, like thalamotomy, can be considered.

For many years, phantom limb pain has proved difficult to treat. As of this writing, there isn’t a single medication or treatment that demonstrated 100% efficacy against phantom limb pain. While we can’t fully treat phantom pain just yet, various treatment options are available to reduce the pain. One such treatment is image-guided cryoablation.