I'm walking around my garage in a rowing suit slapping my bum and poking it with a fork. Thank god no one can see me or they might think I have some sort of perversion. It might sound weird but this is what I'm currently doing for my rehabilitation and it’s called homuncular refreshment.
As I mentioned in my last blog post I am facing a motor control issue and searching for something to help 'wake up' my left glute. Thankfully I have an amazing physiotherapist who continues to provide support and think about possible solutions. Together we have determined that the part of my brain that is responsible for constructing sensation is not communicating well with the main part of my brain that is responsible for activating my muscles. This is due to the fact that I lost feeling in the upper part of the back of my left thigh and the lower part of my left butt cheek when my disc 'exploded'. Considering sensation is most commonly the last thing to return after an injury involving nerve compression like mine, it makes sense to help it along with a bit of a slap and a poke.
"But why is it called homuncular refreshment"? To answer this we must first answer the question: "what is a homunculus”? I have included a photo of the ugly little fella (this image is sourced from the fantastic book Explain Pain, a good read). A sensory homunculus is a human-like figure that takes the proportion of how parts of the body are represented in the area of the brain responsible for constructing sensation and as you can see the parts that are more sensitive are bigger and vice versa. When exposed to pain or loss of sensation the portion of this area of the brain that represents the affected body part can become 'smudged'. This smudging can change how and/or when you feel things from that body part and it can also affect motor control. With the extra sensory input from my hand and fork the smudged portion in my brain becomes better defined and therefore 'refreshed'.
I do this 'bum-slappy-dance' before almost all of my sessions at the moment. I’m currently doing a mixture of erg, Wattbike and strength work but still nothing of any significant duration. However, most importantly, I think IT'S WORKING!
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