Neuropathy can be caused by many different conditions in the body and is a common symptom of brain injury. It can lead to debilitating pain, and as symptoms persist they tend to respond less to pain medications. Sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression are frequently present in conjuncture with neuropathic pain.
Our Experience
About three months after my dad’s brain injury he started experiencing severe neuropathy. The next two months were by far the hardest months of my life. It was horrible. He would go days without sleeping. Even the slightest touch would make him scream. Actually, he spent most of the time screaming in pain despite that fact that no one was touching him at all.
Prior to developing peripheral neuropathy he was able to sit up in a chair for a few hours at a time and could even stand for transfers. Once the neuropathy started we could hardly dress him most days, so trying to sit him up was out of the question. As a result, he went a whole month without getting out of bed or even sitting up once.
We tried every medication available to us, including opioids, but nothing seemed to alleviate the pain. The only thing that did work for us was desensitizing the affected area, his entire left side, through touch.
It was a very slow process. It took about two months before the pain reached a tolerable level (even then he complained a great deal) and around a year before the neuropathy was completely gone. From other accounts that I have read, people with less severe neuropathy, who perform desensitization techniques regularly, should expect much faster results.
What is Peripheral Neuropathy?
Peripheral neuropathy is a condition in which damage to sensory neurons alters the neurons’ electrical properties and leads to imbalances between excitatory and inhibitory signaling. Damaged nerve fibers often exhibit spontaneous firing at patterns ranging from rhythmical to intermittent bursts. Because interneurons, which function to down regulated overly excited neurons, are dysfunctional in patients with neuropathic pain, a state of excitation or hypersensitivity now dominates.
Neuropathic pain can vary greatly from a slight tingling to electric shock-like sensations. Patients with neuropathic pain often exhibit hypersensitivity to stimuli that would not normally cause pain such as light touch and changes in temperature. They may also have a heightened pain response to stimuli that normally cause slight pain. Some people may experience pain attacks that are brought on by no apparent stimuli.
Why does Desensitizing Work and How do You do it?
By touching the affected area you are providing sensory input to the brain. Over time the brain can learn to correctly interpret the signals and reduce its pain response to an appropriate level.
First make note of the affected area. The most common areas affected by neuropathy are hands, feet, calves, and forearms. In severe cases, it can affect a larger area including the neck and truck. Start at the least sensitive point, this will usually be the area closest to your truck. For example, the arm will typically be less sensitive than the fingers.
Begin by massaging the area lightly with your hand; if this is too painful try deeper pressure. As skin to skin contact becomes tolerable use different textures (cotton, silk, terry cloth, denim). Overtime, it should begin to be tolerable to move to areas that were originally too painful to touch.
If temperature is a painful stimulus, try applying heat or cold to the area. For hands and feet, you can put them in a bowl of beans, rice, or sand and gently move them around in addition to the other desensitization techniques.
