Self-Assessment

lo-fi, ambient, dreamy, relaxed · 4:15

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Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Burned fingertip, thermoreceptors scream awake
Nociceptors fire, transduction's what it takes
A delta fibers sprint — sharp, precise, immediate pain
C fibers crawl behind like a slow, sulfurous rain
Dorsal horn receives 'em, glutamate drops its key
Substance P unlocks the gate, signals running free
Spinothalamic tract ascending, crossing to the other side
Thalamus routes the signal, cortex where it's verified
Anterior cingulate screaming "this is suffering, feel it"
Somatosensory cortex maps the wound and seals it
Then descending modulation — PAG sends orders down
Serotonin, norepinephrine, dampen every sound
Opioid interneurons gate the dorsal horn transmission
That's the whole trajectory — nociception to remission

[Chorus]
Nociceptive — tissue damage, inflammation's game
Neuropathic — nerve dysfunction, aberrant signals trained
Nociplastic — no clear lesion but the CNS is changed
NMDA, ketamine, sensitization named
A-delta sprints, C-fibers stroll, thalamus routes the frame
Trace the signal, name the pain, treat it with your brain

[Verse 2]
Patient one: post-herpetic, burning like a branding coal
Allodynia from a bedsheet — that's a neuropathic toll
The nerve itself is damaged, ectopic discharge lit
Voltage-gated sodium channels misfiring every split
First-line options — gabapentinoids to calm the flux
Or tricyclics blocking reuptake, norepinephrine crux
SNRIs also valid, duloxetine's your call
For neuropathic — modulate the nerve signal at the wall
Patient two: fibromyalgia, no tissue breakdown found
Widespread hypersensitivity, pain without a wound
Nociplastic presentation — central processing gone awry
SNRIs and duloxetine still anchor your reply
Milnacipran's another tool, pregabalin fits the case
NSAIDs and opioids? They barely hold a place

[Chorus]
Nociceptive — tissue damage, inflammation's game
Neuropathic — nerve dysfunction, aberrant signals trained
Nociplastic — no clear lesion but the CNS is changed
NMDA, ketamine, sensitization named
A-delta sprints, C-fibers stroll, thalamus routes the frame
Trace the signal, name the pain, treat it with your brain

[Bridge]
Now let me introduce the receptor that refuses to hush
NMDA — voltage-gated, magnesium blocks the rush
Repetitive C-fiber firing pulls that magnesium plug
Calcium pours in ferociously, that's the central thug
Wind-up phenomenon — every signal amplified
PKC and CaMKII get phosphorylated wide
Long-term potentiation in the dorsal horn, entrenched
That's central sensitization — the efferent signal drenched
Ketamine — an antagonist, plugs the channel cold
Sub-anesthetic dosing interrupts the sensitized threshold
For chronic pain refractory, perioperative care
Ketamine's the scalpel cutting hyperalgesia bare
The word *hyperekplexia* lives adjacent — exaggerated startle
Central sensitization's cousin, both a neural snarl

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