GN

Date of amputation: 1964
Time since amputation: 33 years
Age: 52 Male
Motor cycle accident: brachial plexus lesion
Arm amputated 4 months after accident
No previous damage to limb

At first I had a phantom limb whilst the arm was still there, because the arm was paralysed. The phantom used to float away from where the arm was. I was in a hospital bed and it would float through the bedclothes and get cold, so I developed this habit of sleeping on my right side so the phantom limb drifted into the mattress and stayed warm. At the beginning used to believe I could get the arm back. Now nearly all of the arm has disappeared, but if I am wearing the artificial arm and I swing my arms as I walk, the right arm swings.

If I can see the artificial hand out of the corner of my eye or I can feel it up against my leg the phantom hand is inside the glove. If I can't see the artificial hand I can be wrong; I could be six inches out as to the location of the hand: the phantom hand can miss the artificial one in terms of spatial placing. There is an intermittent crushing pain, but the phantom is always there. Its part of me; it will never go away completely. I will always be this; I will always have two arms, its just that one of them is missing. The real me is without the prosthesis. Its uncomfortable, its not me. It is surprising how one armed I look when I see photographs of myself. My self-image is two armed.