Any Peroneal Nerve recovery stories?

[G_Bronson]

Hello everyone,
Sorry i havent wriiten a post in a while. I have been a bit down latley. however i got my ok to start really vigorously working my leg muscles at physio. Felt like i ran a marathon but after wards the dragon was with me for the entire evening. I also had a differnt reaction to the EMS. there were some contractions but it semed to be the wrong muscles. my foot was everting, should have been inverting. But we moved it around and the same thing was happening. i was getting no response before so i will take it as positive. Has anyone used ultra sound and gotten positive results? i was speaking with my PT yesterday but she was hesitant because i have screw right around the nerve damaged area.

Hamish,
thanks for the words of encouragement. our injurys are pretty similiar. Every one i have seen on here though with similar injurys has had there ACL repaired later on. I had everything done at once, LCL,ACL,Bicep femirous, the whole shot. It has me wondering why. Yes i do have the big brace, i am hoping this friday that i will get fitted for an ACL brace. It will be my two month post op check up. Keep working at it my friend and i wish you the best with it.

J_smi001
Congrats on the dosriflexion it must be so good to see it after all the hard work you've done. I hope you continue getting good results in your recovery.

Max
You said your are a moutie and that you broke a spring on your AFO while running. Did you get this AFo here in Canada? I can't even fit the AFO they gave me in any of my shoes, and it is uncomfortable. I mostly use a Dorsi-wedge for now. But i am begining to put weight on it so i have to start looking for a good one.  

Good Luck to Everyone else in your recoveries. Mom444 I wish you all the best!  

[amdre]

Hey G_Bronson

glad to see you back..alot of us have been off and on ..guess it has been a busy month. i regards to your inquiry about why the ACL was done at a later date oppose to being done all at once was for healing and stability purposes i was told. i was told that when done seperately it allows the posterio lateral side to heal correctly with less chance of laxity in the repair. same thing for the ACL. the only down side is going through the same process of rehab twice...right after your pretty much mobile and functional again. it can be a drag but some of the people i have talked to seem to breeze threw the second rehab (after the ACL is done).

Jacky congrats on your progression and the ability that you have regained. now that you can hold you have pretty much got clearance from your foot to start kicking its but with strengthening...good luck in rehab and i love the progress.

Hamish..how are you feeling....any better? what kinds of thing are you doing to keep the swelling out or pump the swelling out? also do you take anything for swelling? i was told to but didnt and instead reorted back to natural substances that have anti-inflammatory agents. i found this huge in recovery as i feel i helped keep swelling low for me..so possible it could do the same for someone else..but melons fruit and ginger have natural anit inflm agents in them so i would buy the fruit from the market and blend them up (not with ginger just fruit..the ginger i would use in cooking or tea) about three times a day with a regular meal.if you havent tried it maybe give it a try..who knows i was never really a fruit man ..but now its a regualr part of my deit so kinda glad it was introduced to me. Good luck with Everything.

Max Pwr...hows everything? i know im alittle behind but your dream of instant dorsiflexion is an awesome sign....your mind wants it back and doesnt want to cope. i hope things go well in surgery and i wish you plenty of Dragons..except for at night cause i know its hard as hell to sleep...lol..take care and good luck in Recov.

Momm444
 
hey Mom is it a muscle stim? have you tried it on her already? have they used a NEMS unit on her at your PT? if so did she feel anything and if so at what Frequency did she start to get tinglingy or actual contractions?..sory for al the questions just wondering because i to used this type of machine and others and got alot of kick from them which i think helped alot in keeping the muscles awake. dont get discouraged if she doesnt feel anything right away ...i was put on a machine at my clinic they turned it on max 100 and i felt nothing a usual contraction varing on the person is around 10ish...now im at 15 to 20..so if she doesnt feel anything right away dont worry it can still be working ..dont turn it up on max..i was just a bullet head and wanted to feel something...good luck with it and let me know how its working.


As for me Tomorrow i checking for the combine....Sat we got hit with a virus which has turned into bronchitis but is slowly going down...my events which i have been training for are on Sunday so im not to worried. I have to admit it feels great to be back..and the love and support from people i once played with and against is great as well....they keep asking me how it feels to be playing again but thats not what makes me feel good at all ..its being able to play again. or even run or walk proper this is truly a bonus that just has me pressure less to perform and loving what i am able to do again.
It ends sunday and there have been some things planned for after words...i will keep everything posted on my rehabilitation page...Take Care All

[Hamish9]

Hi Gordon,

How are you getting on with your flexion and extension? To be honest I am not sure why ACLr was done seperately but think they wanted to see how well I recovered from PLC reconstruction to see whether it was worth doing. The good thing from your point of view is that it is a straight road to recovery so all the work you do is now in the bank and there is no pit stops were you go back to square one.

The AFO I got also did not fit into my shoes but fortunately I had bought a pair of shoes that were too big that were hiding in the cupboard that I had never worn and the AFO fitted in them. They fit in my trainers if I remove the insole from it. Is your AFO like the one in the link below? The Dorsi-wedge is no good for walking and it may be that you will have to get a bigger pair of shoes to fit the AFO in and allow enough room for your foot.

http://www.rehabmart.com/product/252.htm

Keep your head up and keep working away.

Hamish

[Hamish9]

Hey Andre,

The last week or so have been a nightmare and really knocked me back. I have been taking Ibuprophen anti inflamatories and pain killers. Today has been the first day when I have seen an improvement and feeling a lot more comfortable with the swelling starting to ease. I'm off to the shops to buy lots of melons, I do like melons so that is a good thing. Not sure what to do with ginger but will look into it.

Goodluck with the combine this weekend.

Hamish

[mom444]

Hello Everyone,

Interesting posts!  DRAGONS AND MELONS!   

Well, we are still waiting for another visit from the dragon.  He was here two nights in a row on Feburary 27th and 28th and then he came back on March 4th.  He usually stops by at dinner or when she is sleeping.  We literally keep tabs on him on a calendar.  Whenever he comes back it makes me feel better because I know it's mostly a good sign. 

Hopefully tomorrow we can get some info as to the proper use of the EMS unit.

I ordered some some smaller silicone scar patches from the Biodermis company.  We will se how those work.  We are still currently using the mineral oil gel scar treatment patches and will have a follow up with the plastic surgeon next week.

[amdre]

Hey Mom44,

I just remembered something....to break up the scar tissue i had problems with they used an F.S.M machine. frequency specific microcurrent to break up the scar tissue. just  wanted to post it incase you were still searching for methods

[amdre]

i just damaged mine and my doc didnt give me much hope so i was wondering if someone out there can.

thanks
Andre

Blogging,

My very first post and i guess you can say "first step to recovery". when i think back to this time..i try to feel what i felt but can't ...i can only remember that i felt terrible and never thought that i could get this far.it is pretty impossible to retain past mind but when that mind state is a daily reaccurance and linked to the pain the anger and depression it stays for a long time ..so i find it relieving to finally be able to be free from the mental stress the injury had put on me. i also didnt believe i was gonna play again at this point either ...and it wasn't a goal of mine not even a thought.I am leaving tomorrow to go and be apart of something i have dreamed of doing my whole life and failure is even an issue or a pressure as i feel i have already suceeded and accomplished far more then making a team. Being Able........i am able again to participate,walk proper and perform  the activites i used to do regularly at my normal speed. i asked to questions in the thread Any peroneal nerve recovery stories? and is there any hope...and both of those questions ultimately were answered by me and could only be answered by me.. things i didnt realize at the time of injury. I leave Tomorrow morning so i wont be cak until Monday so Take Care all and i will Update you on the weekend..have a great weekend as well.

Andre

[Max Pwr]

Wow Andre, you truly are an inspiration to us all.   I pray I'll have half the success you've had, I promise one thing, I'll never stop believing, and maybe even work my way back to SWAT, much like you are getting back to the field this weekend.  I wish you the best of luck and I'll be thinking of you lots.  Maybe you can play for my beloved Riders... if that happens I'll consider it a sign! 

G Bronson - Ya, I'm a mountie here in Canada, and I had my AFO made at a place called cascade.  It remains uncomfortable, even after six months of wearing it.   I've spoken to people that have been wearing them for over a decade and they say that they get easier to wear but so far this one isn't as confortable as I'd like.  As for fitting in the shoes, thats a tough one too but I have a couple of pair of shoes that it fits into OK; but it seems to push my toes into the toe of the shoe which drives me crazy with pain sometimes.  I try to do everything while wearing it, including jogging and my orthotist says I'm too hard on it and I shouldn't do half the stuff I try, but I'm not going to quit living because a piece of plastic won't let me.  It does improve my gait extensively and I walk quite normal when I walk.

Everyone else, I hope you have a great weekend, and let's send Andre some positive energy with our thoughts, its awesome he still visits here even though he's not in tough any more; most would abandon the blogs as healing seems to be almost complete.  Again Andre, give it all you got and we look forward to hearing how things went.     

[mom444]

Yes, we will all continue to support and inspire each other.  You have all been an inspiration to me and my daughter, even though she may be too young to say so herself.

Keep up with prayer and positive energy.  I truly believe both of those help.

[j_smi001]

Best of luck this weekend Andre.  It looks like we have continued along very similiar paths throughout this and both continue to make towards recovery and our own personal goals, yours is to reurn to the field and mine is to return to the field (but that is a colloquial term for getting back to being a fully fit and operational British bobby.)  We all have the same result but from very different incidents.  Some also have other complication like needing further surgery for their ACL repair, or scar tissue breakdown or other nerves involved (like the sciatic) as well as the peroneal nerve.

G Bronson - You state that you have been low recently and I just wanted to say that, that is fine and expected and a totally normal reaction.  I think we have all shown times, when posting, when it all seems to be such a long road and no one really knows where the road leads to.  I do know that I have never met such a positive and spirited group of people as the foot drop club.  It seems to be a character trait, and not just here but eslewhere in rehab - we are all members of a very exclusive club.  I have absolutely no doubt that we will all have peroneal nerve recoveries, accepted it will be to different degrees and it is the ability to adapt that is the important thing. 

There are three differnet types of nerve damage, one that heals within days to weeks, one that heals within weeks to months and one that can heal but not always  and is the the most serious type.  That is as about as factual as you will get for nerve damage as it really is a finger in the air and no one will commit themselves (in my experience).

I am so grateful to have dorsiflexion back in the foot and as Andre says, I now have permission from my foot to kick butt and get it strengthened up.  I am seeing the neurologist(s) to see why I still have weakness and sparodic contraction in the hamstring and associated muscle and we need to rule out that it is not associated with the aneasthetic, particularly important before the next operation on the other leg. 

Now I don't know how to put out the fire from the dragons breath, everytime I really work the foot as I get what can only be described as nettle stings under the skin along the length of the peroneal nerve.  A slice of cold melon slapped on the leg could well work!

Any way you guys take care and it is OK to feel sad or low sometimes - if we are honest we have all been there, and in Mom's case vacariously for her little girl.  It is important that we pick ourselves up and keep heading for our own personal goals.

God Bless all.

[mom444]

Thanks for the inspiration Jacky.  And thank the rest of your too:  Andre, Gordon, Hamish, Stabso, Max the Mountie, etc. 

I definitely do have times when I get worried sick about my little girl.  I frantically count the last days since the presence of the dragon, the number of months since her sugery, worry about how she had the damage for over a year and how it went unnoticed or misdiagnosed, worry about her muscles being slightly atrophied in her left leg, I drive myself crazy.

But I try to keep thinking about the positive:

--We now have the EMS unit for home and we had the PT show us how to use it.  We do the "tickle stickers" three times a day.
--Even though the rehab doctor seemed negative, there WERE SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT in her last EMG report.
--The PT says that her anterior tib muscles do show signs of contracting when the "tickle stickers" are on.
--We have been having luck with the scar treatment patches, they seem to be softenign up the scar.
--We do "leg massages" daily.
--Her lesion was "incomplete" and there were "still motor units" being detected from the peroneal innervated muscles.
--There are studies out there of people recovering after having surgery over a year past the injury.
--My daugther is young and hopefully the young can recover.

Thank you again all for your prayers.  We still pray for all of you. 

[amdre]

Hey All

Im Back and man was it a good weekend to get away and be apart of something so fun and to get back to doing something i love to do so much. the Combine went well we went through a series of tests from physicals to ability to iq tests. to start off the day i had my physical done...lol and let me tell you...the Doctor checking me out couldnt believe what he was reading and that i was testing only 5 months post-op. he did every test and i passed but still did not trust the fact that i was so early and had so much damage. i argued and finally got my way. this went on to look better for me in the eyes of scouts. after the physical test we ran through a series of ability tests which i didnt do amazing in but i didnt do the worst either ..i guess i was right in the middle pretty much or just off the leader. My purpose there was not to test the best but to show teams that i am able again and back on the market. this was done and   
i think what impressed them the most was my motivation ,desire and long hard work...to get back into playing shape. This weekend has given me more confidence to keep going towards the rest of the dream and become a complete player as this struggle will and only can make me stronger.
Thanks for all the support for this weekend i really needed it and it means alot.
Andre

[Hamish9]

Hey Andre,

I am so happy for you it must be great to be running around again. 5 months post op to be able to do what you are doing is so awesome. What is the next step from the combine?

Good luck!
Hamish

[mom444]

Hey All,

Just checking in.  Still going crazy here!  I am trying to stay calm and maybe to not even obsess over peroneal nerves for a while.

I was researching again and I found some articles about peroneal nerve injuries that were coauthored by a doctor in our city.  I called and tried to get an appointment with him but they "do not deal with children."

That's a great part of our problem, this injury very rarely happens with children so that is why all of the pediatric specialists we've seen have no clue how to handle this.  If were were dealing with someone who works with adults and atheletes, they'd probably know...

Anyways, I was frantically researching again...  Googling "peroneal" and clicked Google news and look what I found.  A fabulous article about our very own Andre and his recovery and his getting back into sports!   

Andre, this totally lit up my afternoon and I hope it's okay for me to post this.

http://www.mississauganews.com/mi/sports/story/3907367p-4519109c.html

You are still an inspiration to us all! 

[Max Pwr]

Hey Mom, thanks so much for posting that, just when I was having a 'down day' there's some hope in sight yet.  I'm still suffering myself, nine months after surgery and I still can't pull up my toe whatsoever.  When I can't find inspiration I try to tell myself 'don't look for inspiration; be inspirational'  but that's hard sometimes too.  Reading about Andre and what he's been through brings hope to us all.  I hope that one day we'll get back to walking without this damn brace, perhaps running and catching bad guys too, maybe even SWAT. 

It never hurts to be curious and research as much as you can, but every article seems to blend into the other.  The one underlying theme in the peroneal injuries...time.  Unfortunately none of us have the patience for this.  It would be a lot easier if someone were to say "You'll be just fine, give it 12 months".  I could be patient and perhaps life would be more enjoyable but no one has said this, no one wants to say this and although I hope for the best, I concentrate on the worst.  When we wait and worry and there's no change day after day and week after week and month after month despair takes over.  It's through support groups like this, reading articles like the one you've posted, and the power of believing in myself that I get up every moring and hit the gym everyday, eventhough I still get wierd looks at people staring at my brace.  I believe I'm going to get better , I believe I'm going to get back to SWAT, I believe your little girl is going to walk without her brace too.  We need to be patient and we need to get up everyday and deal with the present all the while believing we're going to be OK in the future.

Hope this note finds everyone well and I think it's obvious Andre did awesome.  I pray I'm going to be cheering for him in the stands one day.  Maybe, in a year or two, we can all get together at one of his games and toast him.  Bring your braces and we'll have a cerimonial brace burning!  Then we'll all walk away...normally.