Unfortunately, chronic nerve pain rarely goes away completely. However, a combination of multidisciplinary treatments, such as physical therapy, regular exercise, medication, and pain management treatment can hopefully provide significant relief.
Pinched nerves can last from a few days to about a month, depending on how you treat it. It is typically a temporary condition that you can treat on your own, but it's important to not ignore long-lasting or acute pain as it could be the sign of a bigger problem.
Nerve pain can come and go, or it can stay for months or years. It can make even a gentle touch feel painful. This can disrupt a person's daily life activities, such as sleeping, and can lead to depression or anxiety.
When damaged, nerves can cause chronic pain that's difficult to manage. Cases of nerve-damage-caused pain resulting from nerve damage are quite common, considering neuropathic pain prevalence is about 7-8% in the general population.
Nerve pain often feels like a shooting, stabbing or burning sensation. Sometimes it can feel as sharp and sudden as an electric shock. You may be very sensitive to touch or cold. You may also experience pain as a result of touch that would not normally be painful, such as something lightly brushing your skin.
As a specialist in peripheral nerve surgery, Dr. Seruya wants his patients to know that after a period of 12-18 months nerve damage can become permanent.
Without properly functioning nerves, you are likely to experience uncomfortable or even painful sensations. These occur because the nerves are not able to carry the correct signals from the brain to the spinal cord. The signs of nerve damage include the following: Numbness or tingling in the hands and feet.
The nervous system tends to become hyperactive as nerves regain normal function. The nerve structures, as they recover, tend to be irritable for a period of time. That's because the nerves are firing spontaneously. Most of the time, the pins and needles feeling is a good sign.
Depending on the type and severity of your nerve injury, you may need medications such as aspirin or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin IB, others) to relieve your pain. Medications used to treat depression, seizures or insomnia may be used to relieve nerve pain.
High levels of stress and anxiety can amplify your pain. Physical stress and exertion can increase your nerve pain as well. Strenuous exercise and the accompanying soreness can contribute to nerve pain during the night. Living in a chronic state of stress will wreak havoc on your physical and mental health.
To achieve full recovery, the nerve must undergo three main processes: Wallerian degeneration (the clearing process of the distal stump), axonal regeneration, and end-organ reinnervation.
Tingling or burning in the arms and legs may be an early sign of nerve damage. These feelings often start in your toes and feet. You may have deep pain. This often happens in the feet and legs.
The nerve will start to regenerate (grow again) after three to four weeks. Depending upon the amount of damage and the health of the soft tissues, the muscles and sensation start to recover. It is not possible to predict if the recovery will be complete.
Nerve conduction studies, including an Electromyogram (EMG) may be performed on individuals suffering with nerve pain symptoms. These studies use electrical impulses to determine the level of damage. A final diagnosis will be made by your physician through the help of one or all of these tests.
An MRI may be able help identify structural lesions that may be pressing against the nerve so the problem can be corrected before permanent nerve damage occurs. Nerve damage can usually be diagnosed based on a neurological examination and can be correlated by MRI scan findings.
The outlook for peripheral neuropathy varies, depending on the underlying cause and which nerves have been damaged. Some cases may improve with time if the underlying cause is treated, whereas in some people the damage may be permanent or may get gradually worse with time.
Seddon2 classified nerve injuries into three broad categories; neurapraxia, axonotmesis, and neurotmesis.
Stage Four: Complete Numbness/ Loss of Sensation
If a patient does not seek treatment for their neuropathy, they will begin to lose all feeling, and their risk of recurrent wounds and subsequent amputation will increase.
Magnesium decreases nerve pain. Clinical experience, as well as research in nerve pain conditions such as pancreatic cancer, has shown that magnesium can be an effective treatment for pain.
How do I know the nerve is recovering? As your nerve recovers, the area the nerve supplies may feel quite unpleasant and tingly. This may be accompanied by an electric shock sensation at the level of the growing nerve fibres; the location of this sensation should move as the nerve heals and grows.
Numbness or decreased sensation in the area supplied by the nerve. Sharp, aching or burning pain, which may radiate outward. Tingling, pins and needles sensations (paresthesia) Muscle weakness in the affected area.