Month: October 2015

Just a snapshot of us and Nora!

Nora is the embodiment of happy. We love her so much!

We were all surprised when phantom limb/neuropathic pain set in for Nora, over a month after her amputation. It all really makes sense though. 2 days after she came to our home she went in for her amputation – followed by 2 weeks of heavy duty pain meds. Then once recovered from her first surgery, she went in for spay surgery, followed by another 10 days of pain meds.

Initially, we were prescribed more pain meds (Gabapentin) – which did take care of the neuropathic pain. We didn’t like the thought of having her on pain meds for life though, so we started researching alternative treatments. We found a lot of articles about acupuncture being really effective for these kinds of pains – even the US Army used it for amputees.

We first weaned her off the Gabapentin – and as suspected the phantom limb pains came right back. Nora had her first acupuncture appointment 2 weeks ago, and we were amazed to see that she had NO incidents of pain the following week. She went in for her 2nd session yesterday, and still no phantom limb pain. We plan on doing 4 more sessions for now, and then follow up as needed. It is such a huge relief to have found a way to help her that doesn’t involve long term use of pain meds!