Tag Archive | Immersion

Virtual Reality (VR) Helps Reduce Pain

At about 9:15 pm Wednesday my pain climbing to an 8. I was hanging with the family and my left side just below my shoulder blade began to spasm which then triggered the burning sensation. This was one of those times where the burning rolled down my entire left side leaving me feeling like my skin was being stretched and slitting open. I had taken my night dosages and they weren’t helping much. So with my husbands help I got into bed and placed the VR helmet on and played one of my favorite games Pet Lab.

As I began to play my spasms continued for about 10 mins, but they were not lasting as long and the severity was lessened. I had gone from an 8 to a six . I was immersed in a virtual world of making and train monsters. In Pet Lab you have orders to fulfill. So you take an egg and you follow the recipe on how to hatch the little creature. Once hatched you then take to you mixing room and you add features like change the color of the monsters fur color or had horns. Sometimes you have to increase the little creatures ability and take it to the training room. Once you complete all the pieces to head back to the shop and send it to the individual that ordered it. If you complete the order precisely you earn money which you can then use to buy items for future creature making. As you can tell Pet Lab requires focus.

The focus and immersion cause my brain to change course. The interruption of pain signals helped reduce my pain. At about 15 minutes into the game Wednesday night I noticed that my pain level was reduce from a 6 to 4. At a 4 I was able to take the helmet off, get comfortable in bed and drift off to sleep. I am thankful to have found another tool besides more medications to help reduce my pain. Who knows, maybe overtime the use of VR to interrupt the pain signals will trick my mind to stopping my pain and spasms completely allowing me to reduce the use of opioid medications.