Brian May has revealed he has been suffering from agonising nerve pain for the past three weeks. In a post shared to Instagram earlier today, the Queen guitarist wrote that “nerve pain came to inhabit [his] body about three weeks ago.”
May did not reveal whether a specific incident had led to his nerve pain. May reassured fans that he is on the mend, and is remaining positive.
“I’ve got some great help with pain management and rehabilitation,” he wrote.
“Today I can sit and potter slowly around holding on to things with almost no pain.”
May admitted that he generally tends to steer clear of painkillers, but his nerve pain proved too intense to hold off any longer.
“It’s incredible what real pain does to you. I’ve always been a bit of a big shot about my tolerance to pain levels,” he said, “But this nerve pain which came to inhabit my body about three weeks ago…has paralysed my brain.”
“I felt it took over my personality. I woke up feeling that somehow the pain WAS me, and I was struggling to get back in my body,” he revealed.
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Brian May eventually conceded and began to take medication to ease his pain. However, it wasn’t long before the painkillers became a nightmare of their own.
“I did give in and take the heavy duty painkillers, and in the end I was in a nightmare world. The only thing to do was kick it all and come out,” he said.
May sought the help of other medical professionals in order to continue his rehabilitation.
“I got some great physio help and some osteopathy. I’ll tell you the whole story sometime,” he wrote.
May was recently hospitalised with an injury to his buttocks, which he claimed to have sustained while gardening. In his Instagram post, May wrote that “it wasn’t a glute thing after all”, making it unclear whether the nerve pain and his previous injuries are related.