Any Peroneal Nerve recovery stories?

[j_smi001]

Oh woops, so sorry..............well done Hamish and welcome back - pleased it is good news and happy rehabbing.  Remember that old trick with the tray under your heel to help slide into a knee bend.  Keep the ice coming and hope you soon start to feel better from the aneasthetic and the knee settles quickly.

[mom444]

Thank goodness for the dragon - I am so pleased that your daughter is getting sensation in the leg and pray that this is the nerve regenerating and all will be well for your daughter.

On a completely different note, how do you all respond to questions like,
'so how long will you have to wear that splint?'- like it is a forgone conclusion that there is in fact an end date.
'that looks painful' - what?, Don't be daft, I can't feel it - at all, it is numb
'I thought you hd an operation on your knee, is it not better yet?'

Ok this is fast deteriating to a full scale whinge but how much longer have I got to endure these questions for?  I know people are just being kind and showing interest, for which I should be grateful but getting close to having a badge made, saying, 'I have foot drop as a result of the operation on my knee, it means I can't lift my foot up, I don't know when it will fully recover or whether it will in fact fully recover, thank you for asking.'  Ok I am just being grumpy, maybe I am having a non- positive day.  Maybe chocolate will help, and if not at least I will feel better. Hope you are all having a good day and I will be less grumpy tomorrow.    

Jacky,

We had a similar experience with a lady in the play area at our shopping mall.  Kids need to take off their shoes to play and when I was removing my daughter's brace a lady said, "Oh my!  What happened to her?!"  I decided to be very matter of fact about is and just told her, "She injured a nerve in her leg."  I was a little exasperated too at her bluntness but then the lady and I started to have some small talk and the lady did wish me luck with my daughter and hoped for her to get better.

But in the play area that day there was a little boy who had half of his head shaved like he may have just had surgery.  I could not even imagine being so rude as to go up to the little boy's mother and say, "What happened to him?!"  But some people are just not very tactful. 

I hope you are doing well too. 

The dragon is a strange character.   He sometimes shows up for one night at a time and then disappears for a long time.

I wish you all well.

And best of luck to you too Hamish!

[stabso]

Hamish, welcome back, glad to hear the op went well.

Mom444, welcome back to the dragon too.
These days my dragon has calmed down quite a lot and only sometimes makes an appearance when I try hard to dorsi flex or work the foot.

j_smi001, I guesss I've been lucky not to have had to respond to too many annoying questions, but it's understandable how they might get on one's "nerves"(?).
It was difficult for me to get my head around how I managed to end up with a floppy foot, let alone for others, which is why I'm glad I came across this thread.
Yes, I too find chocolate definitely does help.

Best to you all

[amdre]

THE DRAGON CAME BACK LAST NIGHT!

She woke up screaming in pain and my husband went to check on her.  She said her leg hurt and was writing in pain and was very much squirming!  She was telling us the truth!

I hate to see her in pain but I am happy that the dragon came back because it could mean she is healing!

It had been exactly two weeks since the dragon's last appearance.

He likes to come on Sunday nights, maybe because we tend to pray more on Sundays?

No mention of the pain today during the day time but you all mentioned that pain tends to be worse at night.

Plus, if you think about it, our bodies grow and regenerate at night.

Andre, I'm glad you liked the stories about J.R. Reed from the Philadelphia Eagles.  I only read some of them, but I thought that you might sympathize with him because he was so heartbroken about being out of the game...  But I did look to see if any of the many articles were recent and featured updates on him and I did not find any.  Did you?  What became of him?  Did he heal?

Hey Mom444,
 I read up some more and found out that he Returned to the NFL in 2006. he said he hasnt regained all of his nerve  strength and has been made a special brace engineered to spring his foot up. he was traded from philly to Atlanta and hasn't played enough to relly see how it looks ..but it is his frst year back ..and to play high intensity sport after an injury lik that is pretty remarkable. im tryng to find out what this brace looks like ..it would be very interesting to see what you could dsign for such an injury. And as more people heal from this sort of thing and go back to tere "normal " activitie is pretty encouraging and kind of setting a path for others to follow.

Hope everyone is well and Happy VDay

[j_smi001]

OK grumpy head definately gone and I have overdosed on chocolate.

Andre - I know what you mean about others being inspirational and leading the way.  I have a colleague who also has this injury following a gun shot wound and he is now back fully fit doing his physical job.  He will never regain his nerve as it was blown into the next millenium, never to be seen again but with the right orthotics there is very little he can't do, in fact I am struggling to think og anything he can't do.  He has been a great guide and support for me and was there on the day I took the fitness test (what more could I ask for?) He has also cleared the path for me to also return to full operational duties (I just need to get the other leg sorted and it will be all systems go).  Most importantly I think this thread has been the greatest support, no question is barred, all ideas are thrown in and we have some good banter.  Mom444's questions has helped me to think about how it has been nad recognise how far I have come.  When you live with an extremely slow progressing injury it seems that nothing is happening, and it probably isn't over a number of days, but when you look back in months it really does show the difference being made.

I did loads of ankle and foot mobilisation execises yesterday and said that the dragon was having a nibble (because it was stinging and hot)  Had I not quckly explained I think my physio would to book me in to see a therapist next!  Actually on this queston, how have you all found adjusting to the floppy foot?  Initially I kept calling my foot, IT, but have come to accept it as part of me now, apparently that is common?  Anyway must put my best foot forward, shake a leg and hop to work, have a good day.

[amdre]

OK grumpy head definately gone and I have overdosed on chocolate.

Andre - I know what you mean about others being inspirational and leading the way.  I have a colleague who also has this injury following a gun shot wound and he is now back fully fit doing his physical job.  He will never regain his nerve as it was blown into the next millenium, never to be seen again but with the right orthotics there is very little he can't do, in fact I am struggling to think og anything he can't do.  He has been a great guide and support for me and was there on the day I took the fitness test (what more could I ask for?) He has also cleared the path for me to also return to full operational duties (I just need to get the other leg sorted and it will be all systems go).  Most importantly I think this thread has been the greatest support, no question is barred, all ideas are thrown in and we have some good banter.  Mom444's questions has helped me to think about how it has been nad recognise how far I have come.  When you live with an extremely slow progressing injury it seems that nothing is happening, and it probably isn't over a number of days, but when you look back in months it really does show the difference being made.

I did loads of ankle and foot mobilisation execises yesterday and said that the dragon was having a nibble (because it was stinging and hot)  Had I not quckly explained I think my physio would to book me in to see a therapist next!  Actually on this queston, how have you all found adjusting to the floppy foot?  Initially I kept calling my foot, IT, but have come to accept it as part of me now, apparently that is common?  Anyway must put my best foot forward, shake a leg and hop to work, have a good day.

Hey Jacky.

I agree with the support from others playing a big roll in the support system...but i am so Glad that i found this site...mainly becuase ...it is great to see others who have healed but to actually be going through it with others and talk about it and as we talk we record and just as you said we look back in the thread and its a shock ...because you dont see the change ..but its happening. i often go back to some of our first threads and i am just feel so geatful and lucky to have found this site by chance...and then even luckier to have met you and others on this site as well.

I would like to ask an off topic question if you all don't mind.... how did you find this site?...and what made you join a thread? for me ...i was given a nerve specialist site to look at by a doctor..i can't remember the name of it....and in one of the reviews of the site someone had given this site a good review in there recovery...so i decided to take a look at. i then began to read some of the issues and different cases that people were going through ...and i kind of felt unappreciative of my own situation....mainly for being all bent out of shape about my injury ...when there were people going through much worse.i joined a thread because  i then wanted to find out the answer to a question ...and that was....has anyone recovered from peroneal nerve damage?..a question which docs told me rarely happens. i was losing hope and then i got a acouple posts and one from another athlete who had encouraged me to stay in therapy as i was giving up.....i listened to him and never stopped no matter how much i felt it wouldn't come back. and its only people who have been through the same situation that can tell you the importance of certain rehab methods and habits ...and i totally trusted his opinion and stuck with it.

Jacky, the floppy foot sucked ...i wouldnt say i adjusted...i think i just coped with it because i thought i had no choice but to. And i no what you are talking about(calling the foot IT) i felt like it wasnt apart of me ...and that it was just draggin along. and also the way people looked at me when i would take my brace off my foot then start walking ...hiking my foot clearly looking like something was wrong...so others didnt make it any easier...in fact one person asked what was wrong ..i told them and there rsponse was EWWWW...and then apologizing for the blurt. so i guess i never really could adjust to it ...because i hated having it that way.I hope you keep healing in good health Jacky ...you can recovery.

Take Care Andre

[mom444]

Hey all,

To answer Andre's question I found this thread by entering the phrase "peroneal nerve recovery" into Google.  I was so happy to find it!

As I mentioned before, I was a librarian and now I teach research skills classes at a small college.  I teach students how to formulate key words and phrases when searching the Internet and I also teach them about "old fashioned" library research.  Believe me, when my daughter was first diagnosed with peroneal nerve damage I researched the heck out of EVERYTHING I could possibly find about the subject.  And not everything is on the Internet, a lot of research articles can only be found in high end medical journals that do not publish their articles for free online.  I just requested a copy of anothe research article that I had to have sent to me by a medical librarian at a local hospital.  I'll read it over and let you know what I find.

Also, it's interesting how we have people from all over the world on this site!  I see Andre is from Toronto, I'm probably closest to him because I live in Upstate New York near the border of Canada.  I think I might be the only one from the US on here?  And the rest of you are from parts of the UK?  Jacky, are you in England?  And Hamish is a Scottish name, are you in Scotland?  Just for curiousity, where are the rest of you from?  It's also interesting to hear how different country's health systems and insurances handle medlical treatment.  As I said, here in the US we have found many restrictions with our health insurance regarding when and how many physical therapy appointments we may have...   We still are yet to find out if the school district will cover it.

The dragon is taking a break this week...

Bless everyone

[Hamish9]

Hey Mom444,

Yes I live in Ediburgh in Scotland but originally come from Aberdeen which is further north. The NHS (National Health Service) is free in the UK which is good as I have made full use of its facilities due to various injuries over the years. The down side is waiting lists can be quite long but I have no complaints as things have happened quite quickly for me. A couple of surgeons seem to have taken a lot of interest in my case which has helped I think. Interestingly when we were discussing things before surgery on Monday he was thinking that if I had no improvement in the footdrop he was thinking of taking a tendon from the back of my leg and attaching it to the front to give me some foot lift. I don't see him again for another 6 weeks but will find out more about his thoughts then.

I am now 3 days post ACLR and walking in the house without my crutches. Trying to exercise with knee flexion but this is quite difficult as I have a huge bandage on my knee and was told I had to keep this on for 5 - 7 days.

Hamish

[j_smi001]

Hello,

Well done Hamish, 3 days and off crutches in the house - just take care and don't run before you can walk - figuratively speaking, obviously!

Mom444 - I am English and live in the Midlands although from the South originally, slowly migrating north - by the time I retire I could live next door to Hamish!

I found this site, long before I had foot drop.  I had an operation to try and correct the tracking of my knee.  I had both knees done at the same time and had it done at the clinic that supports this site - Droitwich Knee Clinic.  I paid privately and although I gained releif for a couple of years unfortunately I started getting significant pain and giving way of the knee again.  The surgeon at Droitwich was excellent and so was the physio services and a derotational osteotomy had been discussed but I needed to get to the position I did before I would undergo such drastic surgery.  There was no way I could afford to raise the funds for that surgery privately and so went into the wait on the NHS.  Although the waiting has been difficult I have to say the health care I have received from the NHS has been excellent and the after care has been second to none.  I am very pleased I had the leg done despite the nerve problems as I am no longer aware I have a knee joint.  My knee was so painful and unreliable that I would not swop my old knee back for my foot and that is quite a comfort.  I am not so sure I would be quite so calm if it happens again and I have two floppy feet - (I could then lose my sense of humour).  Of course I am now on the waiting list to get the other leg sorted and that will be that - particularly as I will have run out of legs to be operated on!  I have apprehension, naturally, but keep telling myself that no one can be that unlucky twice.  I have every faith in my surgeon and I feel for him as I am not convinced it was his handiwork that did the damage - as I am more inclined to think an overtight plaster caused more difficulties.   We will never know and does no good to dwell too long on the what fors. 

Sorry very long answer.  Andre - after you saying about going over previous posts I have done that and it does make for an interesting read and I am so glad that you started this post and I know that we will all answer that question in the affirmative, it may not be complete but , Yes we will recover from Peroneal Palsy, all of us in our own way.  I beleive that is the purpose of us being here.  Take care all and bless you good.

[Max Pwr]

Hi All, I've been reading the posts on here for quite some time and find them all facinating.  There is such a variant of people and injuries on here but all have same symtoms and similar outcomes.  I check the site everyday for new posts and thought today would be the day I add my story, please bear with me.  I too suffer from peroneal nerve palsy but for a slightly different reason.  I'll give you the Reader's Digest version; October 2005 playing ice hockey (I live in Alberta Canada) I went into the boards with a right locked knee.  The fall caused my femur to smash through my pelvis shattering the hip socket and everything else it its way.  I've had two surgeries to fix things up but when I woke from my second surgery (June 2006) I had had peroneal nerve palsy.  They did't know what happened, whether a bad stretch at the hip or a peice of equipment on the knee compressing the nerve.  I've had subsequent EMG's and all evidence points at damage to the sciatic nerve (peroneal branch) in the hip.  Although my injury is a bit different, I have the exact same "dragons" as well as tingliing when I tap the side of my leg etc.  To this day I have no dosri-flexion whatsoever.  I am a very active 35 yr old male Mountie that was on the SWAT team and had various other physically demanding activities in my life.  Of course everything came to a screetching halt and I'm still trying to get back to where I was physically.  I wear a brace that allows me to walk normally (but is very uncomfortable) and I've begun to start running with it. 

I am scheduled for a nerve exploration next month where they will open me up again and explore my sciatic, including the peronleal below the knee to see what they can do to repair it.  This may include a nerve graft.  Has anyone heard of whether such a surgery has been successful, and if so how long was recovery.  Like many of you there are days I want to give up and succumb to the injury, and there are other days when I want to fight and never give up (thankfully these days are more frequent than the bad days).  I just want to give a shout out to everyone, especailly Andre et. al... thank  you so much for your days and days of encouragement and inspiration.   I look forward to sharing stories of my injury and recovery should anyone have any questions...   

God Bless you all and I'll be checking to see how everyone continues to recover.

[j_smi001]

Welcome Max to 'our' and now 'your' thread on peroneal nerve injuries.  I have sent you a personal message to welcome you.

I know what you mean about the brace/splint.  Apparently there is a high incidence of non compliance by patients but then the people who design them probably never have to wear them!

I have heard of nerve grafts and I think the website by DrFoot is quite good at explaining them with video clips. 

I wish you all the very best and please do contribute to the thread as the encouragement has been second to none.  I often wonder whether the Kneeguru ever pops in to see this thread, as it is not strictly a knee problem, although we have found ourselves a comfortable home here. 

Hamish - how are you doing? - thinking of you and praying for a comfortable and uneventful recovery for you.

[Hamish9]

Welcome aboard Max! Sounds like a horrific injury and you are doing well to be walking after that. Where about on your leg do you touch it to get the tingling in your foot?

Jackie, things are going well and I am quite comfortable. I took off the bandages this morning and everything looks to be healing well. They used Steri-strips and I have left them in place and put a dressing on top. On the down side I have not had a shower for 4 days now but have been washing and using deoderant so wont smell too bad. I am doing my exercises 3 times a day, heel slides, straight leg raises, and passive bending of my knee. Want to do more but taking it easy at the moment. 1st PT appointment is next Wednesday.

Hamish
 

[j_smi001]

Well done Hamish, sounds like you are doing great and being sensible.  If only I could have been, I also had the shower issue but I couldn't wait, so I jumped into a shower with a plastic bag around my plaster cast, which did nothing to keep the water out, so I had a water logged plaster and off to A&E to have the plaster changed.  It was fair to say that the nursing staff were none to pleased and let me know.  So next time no showers! 

I have some good news, my right foot is definately dorsi-flexing that bit more.  I reckon I am now about 45 to 50% dorsiflexion.  The skin is still l numb to touch though, not that this is a particlar problem.  Have hydro on Tuesday and can't wait to show new movement.  I am a little restricted on activity due to a very naughty left knee but keep practising the foot movements on the right leg, does anyone else have this situation,  the first couple of dorsiflexions are needed to warm up until the third or fourth I have full dorsiflexion for me, then after a few more it quickly deteriates to not much movement like it just decides it has had enough, like it gets tired and I get stinging and throbbing down the line of the peroneal nerve along the outside of my leg ?  I am just wondering whether any similiar experiences of this and whether it does settle.

[mom444]

Hi All, I've been reading the posts on here for quite some time and find them all facinating.  There is such a variant of people and injuries on here but all have same symtoms and similar outcomes.  I check the site everyday for new posts and thought today would be the day I add my story, please bear with me.  I too suffer from peroneal nerve palsy but for a slightly different reason.  I'll give you the Reader's Digest version; October 2005 playing ice hockey (I live in Alberta Canada) I went into the boards with a right locked knee.  The fall caused my femur to smash through my pelvis shattering the hip socket and everything else it its way.  I've had two surgeries to fix things up but when I woke from my second surgery (June 2006) I had had peroneal nerve palsy.  They did't know what happened, whether a bad stretch at the hip or a peice of equipment on the knee compressing the nerve.  I've had subsequent EMG's and all evidence points at damage to the sciatic nerve (peroneal branch) in the hip.  Although my injury is a bit different, I have the exact same "dragons" as well as tingliing when I tap the side of my leg etc.  To this day I have no dosri-flexion whatsoever.  I am a very active 35 yr old male Mountie that was on the SWAT team and had various other physically demanding activities in my life.  Of course everything came to a screetching halt and I'm still trying to get back to where I was physically.  I wear a brace that allows me to walk normally (but is very uncomfortable) and I've begun to start running with it. 

I am scheduled for a nerve exploration next month where they will open me up again and explore my sciatic, including the peronleal below the knee to see what they can do to repair it.  This may include a nerve graft.  Has anyone heard of whether such a surgery has been successful, and if so how long was recovery.  Like many of you there are days I want to give up and succumb to the injury, and there are other days when I want to fight and never give up (thankfully these days are more frequent than the bad days).  I just want to give a shout out to everyone, especailly Andre et. al... thank  you so much for your days and days of encouragement and inspiration.   I look forward to sharing stories of my injury and recovery should anyone have any questions...   

God Bless you all and I'll be checking to see how everyone continues to recover.

Welcome Max and good luck with your recovery!

My daugter also needed to have her nerve explored to find out what exactly went wrong.  With her they found a neuroma, a large bundle of scar tissue that was squeezing the nerve.  They did neurolysis to remove it.  (We don't know whatever caused the injury in the first place.)

The surgeon did mention that depending on what he found he might have considred a nerve graft.  He mentioned the sural nerve if I remember and I think...  I think...  (ulness my memory is goin) that the nerve would be taken from the side of her foot. 

If this happened in June of 2006 then it is less than a year since the injury and I'd move to do the nerve exploration ASAP!  The longer you wait the worse it could be so push to have it done fast.

Bless you.

[Max Pwr]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the welcome, J_smi001, thanks for the personal message, for some reason I can't sen one back, but it appears we have a gerat deal in common.  Hopefully you'll be back at doing the things you love very soon.

Hamish, it was a bad accident, but I don't think it was much worse than what many of you have gone through; we all have to go through some adversity at some time in our lives, I guess for many of us, that time is now!  When I tap my leg on the side just below the knee joint itself, I think it's the head of the tibula (or fibula?) I'm not sure; but right on the side, I get a electrical shock that runs down the paroneal right to the toes.  I asked my nuerosurgeon if this meant anything significant and he replied "not really" so any hope I had that it meant things were coming back were soon diminished.

Mom, I've read your posts and feel such compassion for you.  When you don't know what the feelings are like I can imagine they are hard to comprehend, and I'm sure if you could take the pain yourself in place of your little girl you would.  They can be hard to put into words but tell your daughter that a lot of us have the same problems, even big strong policemen!  In response about getting it done ASAP, I am.  The neurosurgeon told me that if we do it it's going to have to be before the 1 year anniiversary of the damage or he wouldn't do it at all so I told him "let's get it done".  Therefore March 21st I'm having the exploration done, hopefully they will find out what's wrong and fix it without the graft, as the graft only has about a 1 in 3 chance of success.  The dragons hurt me too, and some days they leave me alone entirely, some days they make me want to cry!

Thanks again for the welcomes and I look forward to keeping in touch with all of you who understand how awkward it is to high step to the bathroom...