As a specialist in peripheral nerve surgery, Dr.
Some nerve-related problems do not interfere with daily life. Others get worse quickly and may lead to long-term, severe symptoms and problems. When a medical condition can be found and treated, your outlook may be excellent. But sometimes, nerve damage can be permanent, even if the cause is treated.
To find out, conclusively, if your nerves are damaged, you need to see a neurologist. He or she will perform tests to determine the health of your muscles and nerves. If there is a problem, the doctor will explain the reason for the damage and its extent. They will follow up by devising a treatment plan.
How Long Have You Had the Pain? If you experience pain or discomfort from a pinched nerve for more than three days and you're not finding any relief from over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or other treatments, this is a red flag.
Nerves recover slowly, and maximal recovery may take many months or several years. You'll need regular checkups to make sure your recovery stays on track. If your injury is caused by a medical condition, your doctor will treat the underlying condition.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you experience weakness, tingling, numbness or a total loss of feeling in a limb, see your health care provider to determine the cause. It's important to treat peripheral nerve injuries early.
Injections, such as peripheral nerve injections and epidurals may be recommended. We also offer spinal cord stimulation, an implanted device, which sends electrical pulses to the spinal cord to mask the pain. In some cases, surgery will be necessary.
In some cases, nerve pain can be reduced or even eliminated with treatment; however, even with effective treatment, achieving pain relief can take months or years.
A covering called the myelin sheath protects most nerves in the body. Usually, stretching or bruising injuries damage the nerve fibers without damaging the myelin sheath. The nerve fibers can grow back slowly. If the myelin sheath is damaged, as may occur with cutting injuries, the nerves can't heal themselves.
Injuries can cause it to develop instantaneously or within minutes or hours. Some toxic and inflammation-based forms of peripheral neuropathy may develop rapidly over days or weeks, while most other conditions take months, years or even decades to develop.
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.
Most of the time, the pins and needles feeling is a good sign. It's a short-term phase that means nerves are coming back to life.
Continuous training (slow walking at 10 meters/min for one hour per day) was effective in promoting nerve regeneration in males but not females and interval training (four repetitions of short sprints at 20 meters/min for 2 minutes following by 5 minutes of rest) was effective in females and not males.
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.
On average, damaged nerves can grow back at a rate of about 1 inch per month or 1 millimeter per day. Surgery is needed if there is significant scar tissue or a gap between cut nerve ends.
Stage Four: Constant Numbness
By stage four, your lower legs and feet will start becoming very numb because there will no longer be any healthy nerves to carry signals to your brain. The pain will actually start to decline, but that's not a good thing. It indicates that the nerves are dying.