Good Healthcare Requires Treatment of Your Mind, Body, and Soul

Post-Amputation Rehab: Why It's Necessary

29 March 2018 by Hugh Larson

When you have been in a severe accident, a war zone, or have a disease that requires that one or more limbs be amputated, you might be surprised when your doctor prescribes injury rehab for a missing limb. After all, the limb is gone, so why rehab? Actually, rehab in this situation is quite necessary, and here is why.

Ghost Limbs

Many people report still feeling a whole limb when the limb is not complete. This is an interesting phenomenon simply referred to as "ghost limb." The reason this happens is because the nerves that once connected to the missing part of your limb are still attempting to send and receive sensory signals.

Your brain is having a difficult time interpreting the fact that the limb is incomplete. When you go through rehab at a center like Hands-On Physical Therapy, the physical therapist helps you retrain your brain and the nerves into thinking and realizing that what was there before no longer is. It reduces the cognitive distractions caused by the sensory distortions.

The Remaining Part of the Amputated Limb Has to Learn to Work With Prosthetics

Undoubtedly, you will be fitted with a prosthetic limb so that you can return to some form of employment. During rehab, the therapist teaches you how to move and how to operate the prosthetic limb. It takes time and practice to learn this. It also helps to understand how you control the prosthetic's ability to move in all directions, pick things up (if applicable), and utilize different kinds of prosthetic limbs to achieve a fuller range of movement and activity. 

It Helps Your Doctor and Your Therapist Wholly Treat You

In the case of most incidents where a limb is lost, you often grieve the loss of the limb. You may feel traumatized or experience PTSD. You may have a lot of pain that prevents you from recovering. You may struggle and need a lot of encouragement that you may not get at home.

By going to rehab, your physical therapist and your doctor help treat the entire you, and not just the amputated part of you. They monitor pain, prescribe medications that can help, refer you to mental health experts that help you deal with what you are feeling, and so much more. That said, rehab is not just physical therapy. It is a means to monitor your overall health and recovery process and help you where you need the most help.

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