Unveiling the Mystery of Phantom Pains

I can’t put into words the feeling I got when our family’s close friend, Mike Kyte, who had lost his arm. I don’t know how one would be able to continue their regular lives, without a limb that he used to use every day of his life. Even after he got back from the hospital, I remember Mike telling me that his arm still hurt. And that sometimes he could feel his fingers in that arm. Of course I thought he was just joking with me, but he keep telling me this time after time. After learning that he was sincere about the pain, I started to get confused. At first, I thought that the pains where just in his head, I mean, how could one have pain in something that no longer even exists? So I researched his condition and I found out that there was a name for what he was experiencing: it was called Phantom Pains. I, not knowing what this was, became interested in the subject. I

He said that they mainly happen when he is doing something with his other hand. He told me that he would get the feeling that he would feel like the fingers in the hand that he had lost was grabbing something when he was working. I asked him if anyone had given him any ideas of treatments or medication that he could take to extinguish the pain. He told me that the only thing that anyone has mentioned was acupuncture. To get the pains to go away, for him, all he as to do is rub the remaining part of his arm for a while and the pains will go away after about five minutes. Mike also has a prosthetic arm that allows him to do some of the things that he used to do when he had his arm. I asked if having the prosthetic arm has made a difference with the phantom pain and he said yes. He told me that with the prosthetic, it now makes the pains more realistic and often now that he is using that “arm” again. At the end of my interview, he mentioned that I might want to talk to Edger Burr who had lost a