What happens to the body when one becomes paralyzed?

Question

I do not know much about the body but hear things such as the brain sends "messages" to the nerves which send "messages" back and with the brain and body communicating we walk,talk etc. but if say you become paralyzed in someway other than the brain (leg,spine etc.) Does the brain go haywire? I know it does when one has a leg amputated (I saw a special the man mentioned suicide the pain was so bad. Obviously in that situation the brain is confused.)

Answer 1

No the brain doesn't go haywire.

I suffered from a spinal disease. Thankfully I'm healing and have most of the feeling restored in my body. You become more depressed than anything.

What happens, I hope no one ever has to or ever will experience it, but unfortunately it will.

First, you miss how your clothes feel with they rest against your body. This is the loss of "light" touch feeling. You can see your clothes there but you cannot feel them on you.

Second, you miss being able to feel your body resting on the ground (feet, or bum when sitting or back when lying down). This is deep touch. If you poke yourself with a pin or a finger, you can't feel it. I could take a ruler, slap my leg and it wouldn't hurt. There were welt marks where the ruler hit but no pain.

Third you can't pick up your leg. It feels like you have 100 lbs wrapped around your legs and you cannot move them. This is loss of motor control. If you can move them, you can't feel how tight you are constricting your muscles. If you try to stand your knees will buckle under because you can't control your leg muscles, and your leg muscles don't give you a "tightness" feedback.

Fourth, you can't tell where your feet or hands are. I had my foot caught under my wheelchair many times because I didn't know where they were. This is "location" sense.

You can't feel anything, you can't move anything. Your brain doesn't receive the signals from your extremeties, and your control signals from your brain go nowhere. There is no pain because no signals reach your brain, and your spine will not generate signals on its own past the injury.

All I can say is that after I had my IVIG, and the swelling of my spine went down, the first thing I felt were my hands. And I cried so much because I couldn't feel them for 2 months. The second thing I felt was the pain in my back. I must have pulled a muscle, but couldn't feel the pain. The third thing I felt were my feet, then my legs, then I could feel my muscles. Believe me the first day I walked with a walker was the most emotional day I had in years.

To walk is a blessing, a gift. To feel your body is a gift. Never take it for granted, and always respect those who have lost that gift.

Answer 2

A nerve acts as a wire, in the sense that an electric current runs up it to the end. There, carried by chemicals, the signal jumps to other nerves and continues. That's the way the signal gets to the brain. If your hand is touched, the region of the brain at the end of the chain of nerves is stimulated and you "feel" your hand. If a person's arm is amputed at the elbow, sometimes they can still feel their hand! This is called phantom limb. If the nerves above the amputation get stimulated and send the signal, the signal ends up in the same place in the brain as it did when the signal originated in the hand. Pain or itchiness in a missing limb is a source of real irritation to ambutees.
Going the other way, the signal comes down other nerves. When the electrical signal hits the muscle, the muscle contracts.
So, you can have paralysis if the nerves going up to the brain get cut or if the nerves coming down to the muscles get cut. A third way is if the brain is damaged at the site that controls the signal to the nerves. This happens in a stroke.

Answer 3

When the body is paralyzed evrything in the affected area starts to breakdown unless the circulation is maintained and the body is moved about a bit. Depending on what parts of the body are paralyzed would dictate what kind of physical therapy would be needed. If the paralysis is due to the brain being traumatized, such as a stroke or brain tumor, then sometimes doctors(neurosurgions) can alleviate and or repair some damage. This kind of paralysis often requires a lot of monitoring and aftercare.

Answer 4

When a person becomes paralyzed, it means the connection of nerves between the peripherial and part of the spinal region of CNS is affected.

In cases however, it is known that some of these patients exhibit phantom limb sydrome, but for paralyzed, some of them complained of itch on their body, but can't get rid of it by normal scratching. Its something like the phantom limb syndrome.