LN

Date of amputation: July 1994
Time post amputation: 3 years
Age: 64 Male
Soft tissue sarcoma
No recollection of previous damage to arm

It started with a swollen wrist which came up overnight and was very painful. The pain diminished and it was virtually ignored for the next year, but then it turned out to be a sarcoma. I had an exploratory operation and radiotherapy. After two years I started to get lumps again in different places: it obviously wasn't going to go away. It was still below the elbow but getting close to it, so it was decided that the only way of being fairly sure of getting rid of it was to amputate. It feels as though the arm is still there, bent at right angles at the elbow. It is as if it is encased in plaster or a tight bandage from just above the elbow to the fingertips The arm will move laterally, but I can't change the angle of the bend.

The phantom and the prosthetic arm are two independent arms. Bending or straightening the prosthesis makes no difference to the phantom, but if I can't move the stump I can't move the phantom. When the stump is angled backwards the phantom passes through my body to the back: the actual position of the stump affects the position of the phantom. I only notice the phantom if I think about it or if it is doing one of its twinges; otherwise it is not there. The wrist where the intense radiotherapy was done is more noticeable than any other part of it. The phantom doesn't respond to anything. Its just there. I can't scratch it, I can't hit it, I can't do anything with it; its not there except that it feels as though it is there. I know it is mine because I can move it, but I don't really regard it as part of myself.