Phantom Limb Pain – A few comments:
By Ron Eslinger
Properly using hypnosis is to deal with the cause not the symptom of pain. Pain is a perception and a protective mechanism. Therefore if pain is needed to protect us then we can change our body’s physiological response to it. What ever the mind has experienced it can recreate. A person who is good at creating hypnosis and we are talking between 50 to 80% of the population. The first objective is getting rid of the fear and interrupting the fight or flight response. Letting a person in hypnosis remember what it felt like when an arm or leg fell asleep or what numbness was like after leaving the dentist allows perceptual biological changes in the body.
I had a young client with phantom limb pain after a broadside motorcycle accident. In hypnosis we discovered that after surgery a nurse ask him what he wanted to do with his amputated leg. In anger he said throw it in the trash A few days later his sister ask him what the hospital did with his leg. He said the nurse threw it away. The sister said Oh No if you don’t burry the leg you will have phantom limb pain. He did for 2 years. It has been over a year since his hypnosis and his pain has not returned.
I tell you this story to say that all patients that go for treatment are in a state of altered consciousness and there for very open to suggestion. What we say in the holding area or even during surgery and post-op can make all the difference in the worked in a patient’s outcome. There are hundreds of studies that prove the value of hypnosis, but there is no money in it so there is no incentive to use it instead of pharmacology. It goes back to the statement – the treatment is determined by what insurance will pay for. You can get more information at www.eslinger.net.
M. Ron Eslinger, RN, CRNA, APN, BCH, CMI
Captain USN Retired
Board Certified Hypnotherapist
Advanced Practice Nurse
Certified Hypnotherapy Instructor
Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist