Any Peroneal Nerve recovery stories?

[jwpartee]

You have been through a lot.  I am just on this journey and already exhausted.  I will post my story and continue to post it other places.  I know I need some encouragement for this evidently long battle.  Any words you can give me I would appreciate.

[Fraz27]

When you read more into peroneal nerve injury it looks pretty grim there is lots of info online a lot not very positive , overall best thing for me was really staying positive believing that nerve would reconnect , i always felt better during and after exercise and would encourage anyone to do as much as they could , my orthotist thought my early use of an ems machine really helped.
July 17 16 months since injury , now fully fit for work only issue i have is i cant lift my big toe i can lift all other toes and forsiflex foot , only notice any difference when barefoot as any footwear provides enough support im not wearing any supports or afo !

Fraz

[Tehvipir]

Hello. Well long story short. On June 24 of this year I had a tibulofibular dislocation, so basically my lower leg popped out.  I tore my acl, and had an lcl and hamstring bicep femoris avulsed from my fibula head.  And thay of course gave me foot drop to the letter.  Well July 6th my ortho fixed my knee injuries and looked at my peroneal nerve and found some of it still attached but it was fanned out and had a big hematoma. My Dr is the university of Oklahoma football's team knee and should doc along with the US snowboarding team so he does great work and worked on heisman winner before they won the heisman.  Anyways. When It came to my nerve he was at a loss.  He did some looking and asking around and found a hand surgeon who would wanted to see me.  Well we went to her yesterday and she suggested a nerve graft of 1 possibly 2 of my seroeal nerves from my calves and graft the peroneal nerve depending on the length ECT.  She also recommended a tendon transfer as the nerve will take about 2 years to recover.  The issue I have is in a firefighter and this was day off. So to wait 2 years might not he an option.  And from the publications I have read the type of stretch Injury i have had a poor prognosis alone.  I also now have been reading about tendon transfer and from the recent studies and publications it shows the ability of people to return to even sports with excellent results in college age kids.  Even older people have had great results with 12 out of 12 would do it again and all of them can do daily activities with no brace.  The movement of the foot is enough to drive with some people being on tip toes and jumping.  I'm not looking at getting g back to sports as I'm 34 and have 2 younger kids so just playing with them and getting back to being a firefighter.  My job title is a driver so I drive unless me officer is off then I am in charge if the engine.  From the results I see I don't see any issues with me getting back to work but I haven't spoke to anyone with the tendon transfer nor know any pt as of now who habe seen it so not sure what to expect or if it's plausible.    Any help or suggestions. Btw I'm relatively healthy slightly overweight but I have tons of power in my legs and calves. Blood work I am good with no of 116/75 usually. Don't smoke and drink like 3 times a year.  I have no other medical conditions.   So anyone have this done and have any idea what to expect?  She said that recovery is 3 months for tendon transfer so that would mean all my surfeis and recovery are done about the same time. Within 6 months  thanks.

[kim228]

When you read more into peroneal nerve injury it looks pretty grim there is lots of info online a lot not very positive , overall best thing for me was really staying positive believing that nerve would reconnect , i always felt better during and after exercise and would encourage anyone to do as much as they could , my orthotist thought my early use of an ems machine really helped.
July 17 16 months since injury , now fully fit for work only issue i have is i cant lift my big toe i can lift all other toes and forsiflex foot , only notice any difference when barefoot as any footwear provides enough support im not wearing any supports or afo !

Fraz

Hi Fraz,

Congratulations on your progress!! Did you regain all dorsiflexion in your foot now? How much can you dorsiflex now?

[Fraz27]

Hi yes the dorsiflexion has returned to pretty much as it should be , still the big toe lags behind others but a little more movement since last post.
Never had much improvement in the sensation but don't really notice it much now my NHS physio has been great , I go every 3 weeks , golfing and playing tennis without issue , I'm not going to go near a football !

[kim228]

Hi yes the dorsiflexion has returned to pretty much as it should be , still the big toe lags behind others but a little more movement since last post.
Never had much improvement in the sensation but don't really notice it much now my NHS physio has been great , I go every 3 weeks , golfing and playing tennis without issue , I'm not going to go near a football !

So happy for you Fraz! Glad that your dorsiflexion has returned to normal. Yeah I would take functional return of the foot than the sensation. I can take a little bit of numbness as long as I can move my ankle.

Now I can dorsiflex to about the level but I don't have much strength to pull my foot up yet.. it's been about 5 months since the nerve has connected. Hopefully in a next couple of months I have more movement. 

Did you do any special exercises to improve the dorsiflexion?  I live in a small town and my PT is not very experienced with foot drop.. so I follow and incorporate some of the exercises from this forum. Would love to learn your exercises too..

Thanks,
Kim

[Fraz27]

Hi Kim I used a green elastic band supplied by physio to pull up the foot and push against it back down when the nerve reconnected I hooked band over end of bed and pulled against it to to strengthen it , also found that cycling was really good I had the cages round the pedals.
Also the ems machine seemed to help and I was taking vitamin b12 daily ( read about it on here )
Always felt better after exercise
Good luck !😊

[kim228]

Thank you for describing the exercises Fraz! Glad to hear you were using ems machine too,  I'm going to incorporate the elastic band exercise (the one hook over end of bed and pull against it) into daily my routine.. Thanks again, Fraz. 

[ff89]

I'm 5 years after a knee dislocation ACL,PCL,LCL and popliteal artery tear w/ peroneal injury. I want to give people suffering through similar injuries some hope. I was very active before the injury and the thought of having foot drop for the rest of my life scared the s**t out of me. Now, I know I will have footdrop for the rest of my life, but I'm ok with that.
My knee is good enough now but I still have footdrop. I regained weak eversion but hardly any dorsiflexion. 5 years ago I thought I would not be able to enjoy any of my previous activities and would have to wear an AFO.
1 year after the injury I returned to work on a forest fire crew and have been logging in the winters. All very physical work that gives even people with normal knees a hard time. The footdrop doesn't slow me down. I am able to hike steep mountains with a backpack and chainsaw day in and day out with a pair of 10 inch tall boots. For day to day if I know I will be doing anything more than walking on pavement I will wear a soft ankle brace and some ankle high hiking shoes.
If anyone wants to talk in detail feel free to message me. I had horrible nerve pain for months after the injury which has gone away now but reading this thread seems to bring back the tingling. I feel for all of you going through this!

[Shumster]

Hey ya'll, I haven't posted on here in many years. Some of you might have read some of my stuff. I just wanted to tough in to give an update and offer my contact info if any wants to talk.

It's been about 5 years since my water skiing LCL/PCL/ACL knee dislocation and peroneal nerve damage from compartment syndrome. I never did recover my tib ant, but about 2-3 years ago, I had an Posterior Tibial tendon transfer (game changer) and have been walking around no problem without an AFO.

I can lightly jog, kinda sprint? I have gotten back to downhill skiing and otherwise hardly think about my foot drop. I even hiked the West Coast Trail (75KM backpacking trip in BC Canada). Also hiked for 3 days in the Peruvian Andes!

Anyway, there is much more that I can share but I can't think of it all right now.

If anyone has questions or want to talk feel free to give me a shout at [email protected]

Hope everyone is doing alright, stay positive and things will get better. Maybe not how you expect but things will work out.

Take care,

Shumster

[kim228]

I feel like I owe to this thread since I've been recovered from a peroneal nerve injury.  I've learned so much from this thread and being able to go for right direction from this thread than from my neurologists or general doctor.. So I thought I would like to share my story hope someone benefitted from my story..

I got my nerve injured about one and half year ago on March 2017. On September 2017, I got a decompression nerve surgery from my doctor podiatrist.  As soon as I woke up from the surgery, I was able to move my foot a bit also, being able to feel my foot which is weird.  Before I'm not sure where my foot is, after the surgery, even though i could not move much but I was able to feel that my foot was there.. About 3-4 months after surgery, I was able to walk without AFO or any kind of brace.  I just wear a light running shoes and about 50% dorsiflexion was back that time.  Now after about a year since the surgery, my dorsiflexion is about 90% and I am able to walk, run and dance, wear any kind of shoes, flats, sandals and flip flops.   Of course I am doing a lot of balance exercises due to putting more pressure to the other leg, still has some weakness left in my injured foot but it was very minor.

My advice to everyone is definitely get a decompression surgery if you think you have a compressed peroneal nerve.  I got my nerve compressed from sitting cross-legged (meditation pose) for quite long time during a camp with cold weather, so blood circulation was cut off and cold temperature made it worse.  I thought it was a minor injury and I would get my foot back in no time. However I didn't realize that I injured my nerve and my nerve had been compressed for a long time.  Didn't think I was needed a surgery to release a nerve.  Time went on and made me worry more and more. Luckily I found this thread and read every single page to understand different types of injuries and why need to have a surgery.  I went to 3-4 neurologists, did nerve test, but as my fellow people from this thread said all neurologists said the same thing,  if it returns, it returns, if not I had to live with foot drop for the rest of my life.  I was depressed, read every post in this thread, screenshoted on my phone, talked with my friend what to do about it..  Fate or not, I went into this podiatrist for getting AFO done but he suggested that I should go to his colleague who took a peroneal nerve surgery training from this famous doctor Dr. Dellon.  Perfect! His office was about 2 hours away from my house. I went to foot doctor and scheduled the surgery within 3 weeks and bam I was able to move my foot when I woke up from surgery. So please please please do consider the foot drop surgery (nerve would die if it doesn't come back in after 6-8 months)

Feel free to massage me if you would like any more information. I'm happy to share anything I know. This injury is not an easy one, it's a difficult journey with a lot of support needed.  I pray and wish everyone the fastest recovery!!