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Yet another rotten night’s sleep with really very bad hot flushes. I could not get comfortable. As a result, I couldn’t get up in time to go to the gym, but I did cycle to work, and it wasn’t too difficult and it wasn’t too uncomfortable.

Whilst I did wake with a headache, it passed after being bombarded with some migraine painkillers. Today my brain has been working somewhat like it’s old self in as much as I could think and it didn’t feel too foggy.

I went home via the cycle shop because I needed to have mud guards fitted on the bike: I’d forgotten that the bike that was stolen at the start of the year had them attached.

The shop was about half an hour from closing when I got there; I had no idea that the mud guards were going to be so difficult to fit. The staff at 99 Bikes in Totton were wonderful and got everything attached in about ten minutes, and saved me from wrecking the bike by putting the guards on wrong. It didn’t help that my energy levels had dropped through the floor: a flapjack gave me enough to get home.

As a result of dropping by the cycle shop, I doubled the distance I travelled home: no discomfort.

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Proprioception

Our bodies are amazing things. We have the five senses that we learn about in school: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

Then we learn about other senses, touch is divided into texture and temperature. Sound is not only perceived through the ears, but in different parts of the body – think of the way a heavy bass vibrates in your very core.

A sense that I’d never considered until I did my personal training qualifications was proprioception. Sometimes I think of this as a sixth sense.

Proprioception is the body’s ability to sense its position, movement, and actions without having to see where the various parts are. It involves receptors in your muscles, tendons, and joints that send signals to the brain about the position and movement of the body parts. These receptors detect factors like muscle length, tension, and joint angle, providing feedback to the brain, which then coordinates movement and helps maintain balance and coordination. So, in essence, proprioception allows you to sense where your body is in space without having to look at it directly.

So where have these weird thoughts about senses come from?

Every now and then I get an itch. My brain tells me that this is at coordinates x, y, z on my body … so I direct my hand to that sector only to be greeted by air! The location specified used to be occupied by a particular area of testicle. Such delight at finding the horrible things gone! But why does my brain think that there should be something there?

The only explanation I can come up with is that the brain thinks it’s told a particular muscle, the cremaster muscle, which was connected to the scrotal skin, and was connected with the fascia of the abdomen, to do something (contract or relax). So I wonder if the brain, in an absent minded moment, gets an impulse from a nerve that was previously connected to a part of my scrotal skin, directs my hand to scratch or adjust it based on the nerve’s historical terminus. Maybe some might call it a ghost testicle.

It is a lovely surprise to find them gone!

I asked my friend, ChatGPT what it thought the explanation could be:

Phantom sensations, including itching or pain, can occur after the removal of a body part due to the continued activity of neural pathways in the brain associated with that body part. This phenomenon may be influenced by proprioception, the sense that allows us to perceive the position and movement of our body parts. Even though the testicles are no longer present, the brain may still receive signals from surrounding tissues and nerves, leading to the perception of sensations such as itching in the area where the testicles used to be. If these sensations persist or become bothersome, it’s advisable to consult with a healthcare provider for further evaluation and management.

Of course, check out what ChatGPT says; you’ll never find out it’s sources though … maybe I’ll write a piece on AI sometime.