Pain is a construct of the brain - Lorimer Mosely

Pain is something I used to have ignore and make go away many, many times during my career as a jockey....I would have a fall and not break a bone but I would hurt myself, I also knew that adrenaline blocks out pain so I would keep riding in the next races knowing that once I jumped out of the barriers, the pain would disappear. There were also times I'd have a minor broken bone and keep riding. I would control my pain.

About 5 years ago I started having higher levels of increased tone in my legs where it was causing pain and stopping me from sleeping, I decided I'd see a SCI specialist (I dropped out of the 'system' many moons ago) to get help, she was very happy to see me saying she was glad I was in the system again and said that to help. she first wanted me to get all of the tests done again before addressing my problem...you know the ones I mean, bladder scans etc....anyway I said fine and got the tests done my end but the one blinking test  which the hospital had to do, the urodynamic test which I was told the hospital would call me with an appointment....they didnt call and when I called them, I was told the waiting list was 6months.

Suffice to say, I was just a little annoyed and still not able to sleep due to the pain of the increased tone so I decided to go down the brain controlling pain route and I bought myself an acupuncture mat. When I went to bed and my legs started hurting, I laid on the mat which then caused pain in my back which made my brain forget about my legs and caused the increased tone to lessen...take the mat away and fall asleep.

Every SCI sufferer is different and I think its a matter of trying things to see what works (or may not work) for each individual...I said in another thread that for 18 odd years, I put up with constipation because nothing worked well for me and happened to find out that regularly eating nuts soften it to the point where I rarely have to self stim nowadays whereas I used to have to do it all of the time.