Any Peroneal Nerve recovery stories?

[mom444]

Hey all,

Just checking in and saying welcome and good luck to our new members.  It's been THREE YEARS that we've been on this thread together!

As I said, my daughter turned six this week and it is coming up on THREE YEARS since her peroneal nerve decompression surgery.  She can move her toes and lift her foot somewhat now, but still not complete dorsiflexion, but something at least.  She is still using the AFO and in hot weather we use a little Swedo brace instead.

Hope you are all doing well,  you are in our thoughts and prayers.

[bolanbiker]

I've had peroneal nerve palsy several times in my left leg, likely due to a PCL injury, and have been lucky enough to recovery reasonably well each time.  I'm pretty sure it was the knee injury, since the first time I felt the numbness was on a bicycle ride when I was pedaling forcefully, and the leg muscles were pulling my tibia where it wasn't supposed to go.  Backing off fixed that, but the palsy came on full force a few months later when I awoke, and again months later.  Each time, the neurologist used e-stim to get things back, along with a lot of hard work.  The neurologist never connected the foot drop with the knee injury, but I'm convinced enough to always wear a brace just to keep the tibia in its rightful position.

Best wishes to all,

the bolanbiker

[ruaz]

Thanks everyone for your support.  Tanya, thanks for the information about the nerve decompression surgery.  It made me feel better going into it after I read your post.  You were right.  It was not a big deal.  For a couple of days I had some pain, but, it was not unbearable.  The best news is that a few days post op I noticed that I had much more dorsiflexion and it quickly progressed.  Now, I have pretty decent function.  It is not normal, but, better than before the surgery.  I am about 3 weeks post op now and things are slowly improving.  I have some increased sensation, but, I still have a pretty good sized numb spot on my shin and foot.  It seems to be smaller though.  I also have more burning pains in the distribution of the nerve than I had before the operation.  I guess that is the feeling starting to come back.  It is more annoying than anything else.  Anyway, the surgery seems to have helped.  I am still on crutches from the pilon fracture that I have, but, at least I can bear a little weight now.  I don't think I will get the strength fully back in my muscles until after I can walk without crutches.  The funny thing is that even though I have dorsiflexion back, I can't dorsiflex my big toe.  It just sits there.  The other toes come up, just not that one.  I guess it will eventually come along.

[Tanya8]

Hi ruaz---what wonderful news about your very fast progress!  Thanks for letting me know, and you're very welcome! Things happened more slowly for me, but they did happen, and that's the important thing. I didn't have dorsiflexion for quite a while, but I do remember that all of my toes shot up right away after the surgery. I've been told that healing can take up to two years, so be patient with the entire process, and it sounds like you're off to a fine start. Also, peroneal nerve injuries and the subsequent healing process are not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing, since everyone has a different type of injury and heals at a different rate. The discomfort along the nerve also affects everyone differently---most times I just feel a little pulling and tightness along the peroneal nerve, and the numbness has gotten a lot better.  But then there are other times when the leg can  be downright annoying with a sort of burning feeling. I was told to expect anything and everything as the nerve is healing itself, so I can only pass this information along to you. I have noticed however, that as more time  passes, I feel better and better. Also, FYI "the nerve" likes warm weather and is not so crazy about cold weather---go figure??? 

Take care and my best wishes for your continued and full recovery!

Tanya

[AmandaC]

Hi All
I havnt posted for some time, nothing happening with me regarding the nerve. 
Welcome to all the new people online now and great to her from you Mom that your daughter has had some progress, great news.

Just wondering if Max, Gordon and Hamish are still popping online occassionally and how you are all doing?
I had a nerve conduction test about 5 weeks ago and saw a specialist about a tendon transfer operation, its no go for me as I have to much tibal nerve damage as well so there is not enough strenght to work with, my archilles tendon has now shortened so much it is very painful but they dont want to lengthen it as I will loose what little calf muscle I have.  Any way would love to hear how some of the original people are doing?

Best of luck to all new comers.
Amanda

[correctional offic]

hi everonyone my first time to post

I  am a correctional officer I got hurt at work in January of this year. I had to take somone down and tore my acl and peroneal nerve was damaged . I am seeing a surgeon  about this and i also have drop foot.He put me on a med for nerve pain that helps some it is Trileptal.  I lose more movement everyday and somedays the pain is so bad it is hard to do anything. I have lost movement totaly in my toes the feeling in my leg comes and gose and that is getting worse. i have to use a caine to walk with because my leg gives out. I go back to the DR. july 21 i hope he has a solution to this is the hardest thing ive had to go through.  thanks for listing 

[Hamish9]

Hi Amanda,

Been a long time since I have been on the site. I have been very lucky and have had some recovery from the footdrop. I would rate it at about 70%. my foot and side of my leg are still numb though, I broke my AFO and threw it away and dont wear one anymore but I do walk with a bit of a drag and sometimes look like a clumsy idiot when I catch my toe and go flying. My knee seems to be holding out pretty well and even managed a couple of days skiing this year. The good thing is with your foot and ankle strapped in a ski boot you don't have to worry about it too much.

I was doing a lot of work at the gym on my knee but haven't been to the gym for about 4 months and am beginning to feel it deteriorate a bit. Need to get back to it because i am still paying the membership and its only 5 minutes walk from my house (no thats a lie its 3 minutes walk).

Welcome Correctional Officer and sorry to hear what has happened to you. The nerve pain is a bugger particularly at the start but is does improve or you get used to it, one of the two. Push your doctor to get an EMG test to test the responsiveness of the nerve but if there is no response it does not mean there will not be an improvement in the future. I had nothing for over a year and then gradually started to get an improvement. Are you getting your acl reconstructed?

Good luck Hamish

[correctional offic]

 hi everyone

yes i have had my acl taken care of but there is still something else wrong there but i am more worried about the nerve .
there is more of a problem there than the knee  wright now. with the leg giveing out and the foot drop and feeling coming and going. thanks for asking 

[Tanya8]

hi everyone

yes i have had my acl taken care of but there is still something else wrong there but i am more worried about the nerve .
there is more of a problem there than the knee  wright now. with the leg giveing out and the foot drop and feeling coming and going. thanks for asking 

HI correctional officer...welcome to the blog...sorry to hear about your accident, but the best thing you can do now is find a good neurosurgeon to find out what's going on...orthopedists take care of acls, but neurosurgeons take care of drop foot. Neurologists can test your peroneal nerve to find out how much function you have, but from my own experience, it was the neurosurgeon who really zeroed in on exactly what was wrong and offered a surgical solution for the problem. As for the pain, it does get better in time...mostly I don't pay attention to it, but every few weeks for so, it can really act up and be annoying. I'm still in the healing stage, however, and this is not exactly a bad sign. Take care and wishes for a speedy recovery!

[bolanbiker]

My neurologist never put together the knee problem with the foot drop problem, and I suspect my OS (none of them actually--I have seen a lot of them in my area and a few outside  ) would not have put one and one together, either.  While it would have been nice if there had been some synergy in the treatments, the bottom line is getting the foot drop corrected.  Mine came and went at least two times, and I am hoping that keeping everything lined up properly will prevent it from reoccurring.   

Keep working at it--it's hard to predict if and when nerves will get back to work.

the bolanbiker

[mom444]

Hello All,

Welcome to the new members and please keep checking in.

Welcome back Hamish, good to see you are getting recovery!

I'd like to ask you all to continue to pray for my daughter.  I've had horrible anxiety lately as we are now coming up on the three year anniversary of her nerve decompression surgery and she still does not have as much recovery as I'd hoped.

We are still using the surface EMG triggered biofeedback and overnight TES stickers. 

I know the therapist from out of town who we see occasionally works with some other doctors who admit that with nerve injuries in childrren "habit hides recovery."

In other words, even if the nerve regenerates and reinnervates the muscle, the brain has forgotten how to use those muscles.  The brain needs to form new connections to learn how to use the muscles again.

It's been a nightmare this whole ordeal that has now dragged on for years.  I do realize that things could be a lot worse and my daughter is happy and healthy in all of the other ways, but she just turned six and as a mother I am so pained to see her still dealing with this injury. 

So your thoughts and prayers are still welcomed and blessing to all of you as well.

[Abbo62]

Hi All,
I am now 4 months post decompression surgery and am getting some movement back in my toes, this seems to be getting stronger slowly and I'm hoping that by the end of the year I'll have significant difference and maybe some improvement to the footdrop.
My neurologist says be patient and wait and if all else fails he will do a posterior tibial tendon transfer which will give me back dorsi flexion. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will come back naturally but reasured that I'll get my foot back somewhat in the end.
Good luck to you all.

[kano358]

three months ago i destroyed my knee playing basketball. my eg was facing backwards and it was sureal and i had instant foot drop. tn days after that i had reconstructive knee surgery they fixed everything except for my acl and did peroneal nerve exploration and the nerve cam apart leaving me with a 10 cm gap. i am 28 years old and very active. three weeks ago i had a nerve graft and they used aboth sural grafts four 18 cm grafts and i feel like its a wild goose chase from all th information i been reading for the past three motnhs. i dontdo anything productive and i have the worse depression lost 40 pounds. they said it should take up to two years but if i knew my chances of recovery werent so good i would of had a tendon transfer which i have vistied two doctors and said are very good options. I wear a big plastic afo and it is so uncomfortable. my foot is deformed and i am numb fom my leg to my foot. i am obsessed with moving my foot and nothing happens. i been walking for 8 days and i can hardly get my foot in to sneakers with my mafo anf its just the worse feeling in the world. i need advice and help bad. i feel so desperate and alone. i am so discouraged. asfar as the dragons i had them when i had a 10 cm gap in my nerve and now the pain in my foot and ankle is so bad. i feel like life is partially over and i lost all the feeling in my foot because of the sural graft.

[AmandaC]

Welcome kano358
I am very sorry to hear about your terrible accident!
After my accident the foot drop was the hardest injury to deal with mentally, I had several serious injuries but I knew the others were going to heal, the foot drop on the other hand was the unknown.  It has been 3 years since my accident I still have foot drop.  Hang in there it does get better, in the beginning my foot was so swollen the skin kept peeling of, I lost my toe nails and the pain was out of this world, my sciatic nerve was damaged at the hip so I have peroneal and tibial nerve damage as well as sciatic pain and wastage in the muscles above the knee as well.  It took me about 2 years before I could comfortably wear anything but sneakers, but it will happen.  To fit the brace in something comfortably I recommend wearing shoes 1 size bigger to your foot extra space, a inasole on top of the brace helps the uncomfortable feeling and it sounds like you need some medication for nerve pain, I was on nerontine for nearly 18 months, now am on nothing. 
Life will get better and there is still hope you will get some use back in the foot, if not you could look at a tendon transfer in the future,  I am now back riding horses, walk everywere, I cant run so it has ment the end of my sports days, I have had another child since my accident so its not the end of the world.

In the beginning i to was depressed and obsessed with trying to make the foot move, I would go to be everynight and say to myself tomorrows the day im going to make it move I have to, I went from about 160 pounds to 115 I just couldnt eat slept all the time I didn't look after my 17 month old baby girl for about 5 months.  One day I said oh well it could be worse I have to try here, I went back to work very part time started living life again and one day realised I hadnt even thought about the foot all day, that was the beginning for me or realising you can lead a pretty good life with foot drop, yeah it still sux dont get me wrong but we learn to cope with what we have. 

The pain will get better, movement may or may not return but life will carry on and you will come out the other end of this, dont give up mentally of physically.

Amanda

[kano358]

Amanda,

Thank you for your kind words, they mean the world to me. I am still depressed and it's having a negative toll on my family. I just feel like I'm on a wild goose chase and the nerve pain seems to be so bad sometimes. I was taking percocet but I stopped. Did you have a nerve graft. Do you wear the plastic mafo and is their something more comfortable? Did you get any sensation back? Doesn't nerve pain mean your nerve is regenerating? My doctors don't tell sht. They are so negative.