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YES!!!!! I CAN!!!!!! :)

I used to touch my back and rush to a mirror to see if it was the same spot every time. And it was!

Now I have an identifying marker on my back, so I could show anyone the spot :)

C7/8 – it’s the bit at the base of your neck where your vertebrae make a discernible bump, just above T1.

When I was a kid I used to have nightmares and would always wake up to a stabbing pain going along my spine, it always originated from the same spot at the base of my ribcage (where T12 is). It would keep going well after I woke up from my nightmares and I have no idea how I managed to get back to sleep with my body trying to talk to me (or my mind?). Is it normal to have a physical manifestation of that “precise spot”?

Hi Cath :) Your online the same time as me :)

I do have a spot, but I’m not quite as aware of it as you guys seem to be. But I can usually find it without much trouble. (No idea what vertebrae it is though)

I don’t believe I was aware of a precise spot until *after* the back injury. Now it’s easy to find because that’s where the pain is. My partner can find it by running her fingers along my spine.

Yeah, had the spot ever since i can remember. Sometimes it can be really painful, but most of the time it’s kinda comforting. But it’s always been in the same place. Quite often i get a very clearly defined line encircling my body at the same level. And either side of it feels really really different.

Yes, I can feel the exact line where my legs should end. Since a few years I also feel the stumps inside my thighs. Sometimes I even feel pressure that is on my knees or feet as if it were on my stumps.

But years ago I thought I needed only a RAK amputation. And before, the sites and level of amputation changed often. Or maybe not the site changed, but my ability to feel it, my acceptance. I stopped to suppress these feelings, so they became clearer. Or have I engraved all this in my brain by constantly thinking and thinking about it?

Researchers in San Diego have found that persons with BIID who desire a single leg amputation react very different on stimuli above and below the “line” of amputation (and on stimuli at the “normal” leg and the leg that should be amputated). (But they only have tested 4 persons so far. Please call them or write to them, they need more participants in their studies!!!: Dr Paul McGeoch, David Brang, Professor Dr V. S. Ramachandran, University of California, San Diego, Center for Brain and Cognition).

Sean, you have been doing Tai Chi, haven’t you? Do you think that our perception and feelings could have to do with meridians, with the Chi energy? Maybe there are blockings, barriers?

Often in the morning before I am fully awake I feel my stumps or the line most intensely at my legs.

Sometimes I feel the line as if it were hot, nearly burning.

But sometimes I don’t feel it at all, which gives me some relief! Maybe a state of deep relaxation helps – at least I think it helps me.

Well, that’s what I can say at the moment.

Not me. That “line” is not in my back but at the very top of my legs.

It’s not a point on my back for me either. My “line” is on my legs, around my lower thighs.

For me, my legs seem to always be in my way. When sitting on the floor, when in bed with my husband, they’re just there. I hate using them.