Amusements, memories and pain...

At physio today I managed to get through all the prescribed exercises (unlike Tuesday when I, once again, ran out of time)...

Before the session I asked the very helpful physio if it was normal for me still to be experiencing so much pain on this, the three monthiversary of the big break...

Her response echoed that of my other physio, to whom I was referred re my shoulder pains...

It seems I have developed "Pain Hypersensitivity" aka "Central Sensitisation"which is succinctly described in this paragraph by Clifford J Woolf on "The Wellcome Trust"'s website under the lovely heading, er..."Pain"...

"Pain systems need to be sensitive enough to detect potentially harmful stimuli. But often they become too sensitive, causing us pain that provides no benefit. This hypersensitivity arises because our pain pathways actually increase in sensitivity when they relay pain messages"

You can read the whole article here:-

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/pain/microsite/science4.html

Apparently, Clifford J Woolf is Director of the Neural Plasticity Research Group and Professor of Anesthesia Research, Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts USA. He has a website here:-

http://www.mgh.harvard.edu/nprg/

On his website, Dr Woolf cheerily celebrates "Central Sensitization is 20 years old!"

Great...

"Central sensitization, an activity-dependent increase in the excitability of neurons in the spinal cord that contributes to post-injury pain hypersensitivity was first discovered in 1983.

We now know that it involves transcriptional changes, and contributes to many forms of pain including that from the gastrointestinal tract.

In addition to increases in excitability generated by central sensitization, we now have evidence that a reduction in inhibition contributes to neuropathic pain."

Lovely...

There is no cure for this, say both the physio ladies, and sufferers must just learn to live with the chronic pain...

However sufferers must not become depressed about this condition as their mood can contribute. They must strive to stay happy and occupied. In other words - keep your mind off the pain and it won't hurt so much...

Great...

I may join a gym now in order to "exercise through the pain"...

And thus we notice that the workings of the mind are strange indeed....

For example, this morning, as I sat on a bus at the West End of Princes Street, my eyes rested upon the old American Express shop which has been converted into, despite its brand new bright blue facade, a quite tawdry looking "amusements" shop...

The word "amusements" however, threw me thirty years back in time to a quite pleasant memory - that of being on holiday with my mum and dad and sisters at any number of similar seaside resorts in the North of England...

One of the highlights (along with the guilty pleasures of Fish & Chips and a "99" ice cream) was to visit the "Amusement Arcade", where we would convert a £1 note into a bag of 1p and 2p pieces and spend an enjoyable hour or so losing it all on the machines where you tried to get one strategically dropped 2p piece to knock many other 2p pieces off a shelf into the pay-out tray, or betting on six mechanical horses as they juddered across a badly decorated box from left to right...

Ah, happy days indeed...

Funny what one word can do to your brain....

On the bus home tonight I created a new playlist on the jukebox entitled "Early 70s" - 40 odd tracks of, for me, pure nostalgia, each one of which evokes just the sort of memories of a somehow "nicer" time that seeing the word "Amusements" did too - a perfect demonstration of how music is a time machine...

Alice Cooper
Argent
Barclay James Harvest
Be Bop Deluxe
Bob Dylan
Brian Eno
Bryan Ferry
Cockney Rebel
David Bowie
David Essex
Deep Purple
Deodato
Electric Light Orchestra
Emerson Lake & Palmer
Family
Focus
Free
Gary Glitter
Genesis
Golden Earring
Hawkwind
Isaac Hayes
Jeff Beck
Jethro Tull
John Cale
Led Zeppelin
Lou Reed
Mick Ronson
Mott the Hoople
Nazareth
Neil Young
Pink Floyd
Roxy Music
Roy Wood
Simon & Garfunkel
Sparks
T Rex
The Move
Strawbs
Uriah Heep
Wings
Wizzard
Yes

Great stuff...

Highlight of the Day : Fond Memories of the Early 70's
(no doubt, rose tinted)