Cause muscle pain?
was removed, then phantom pain afterwards is more likely.
Standard painkillers such as paracetamol or codeine are usually not very effective. Better options are pain-modulating agents such as amitriptyline, gabapentin or pregabalin, which work by modifying pain signals as they travel to the brain.
They don’t work straight away but have to be taken regularly, every day and may take a couple of weeks to take full effect.
Some people have also found using transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) can help and for others, injecting a local anaesthetic or steroid into the limb stump can reduce pain.
Ask your GP for a referral to a specialist pain clinic.
If you have a health question for Dr Rosemary write to her in confidence at The Northern & Shell Building, 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN or email health@express.co.uk. Her reply will appear in this column. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence and that, due to the volume of letters, cannot reply to everyone. Find out more at drrosemaryleonard.co.uk