well I guess I came across this forum like everyone else; looking for answers.
My history: dirtbike accident, knee dislocation, ruptured LCL ACL PCL and stretched but intact peroneal nerve resulting in foot drop and patchy numbness, we are at the 2.5 month mark. I had surgery less than 24 hrs after the accident to explore and repair the LCL and PCL. The nerve was "banged and bruised up but intact" which the doc said makes recovery all that more likely. My surgery report called it a stretch injury which I have read is the most likely to heal. I am booked for EMG next week which is at the 2.75 month mark. I have not noticed any return of sensation however I have constantly had flashes of prickly fire throughout the numb areas. I am also getting weekly accupuncture and she is applying muscle stim leads to the needles. Thats a hell of a sensation!!
This forum is quite the place eh? Like a support group! Everyone please know my thoughts are with you and I understand what you are going thru. I went thru all the emotional turmoil that everyone else has. I have to count the blessings however as from reading here I see my recovery has been easier than many.
What I have not seen however are very many reports stating a full nerve recovery in 12 months. That was what I was looking for.
Tanya, howdy, I have been following your posts. Do you recall many full success stories? My case is that I am a pilot and I do not know yet what hoops I have to jump through to get my medical back. My aviation doctor has not dealt with a case like mine however I have heard thru the grapevine that there ARE commercial pilots flying with foot drop, let alone prosthetic legs. I may just have to deal with an AFO and knee brace etc.
I am in Canada and I believe I have a good ortho surgeon who is based out of a sports clinic at a university. If the nerve does not come back he is suggesting plastic surgery guys for nerve down the road and mentioned the tendon transfer.
Good luck everyone. You have to be your own advocate and keep that positive attitude
Chris
The Following User Says Thank You to Chris5000 For This Useful Post: Nervy girl (11-03-2011)
Howdy Chris---welcome to the forum. but I'm sorry you have to be here in the first place. As for healing in 12 months or so, I have to say that's it's kind of difficult to put a time limit on something like this. This dang peroneal nerve is going to heal at its own pace, and that's just the reality of the situation. Right now I'm about 18 months out and was told to expect another 2 years of healing. But I'm thrilled that healing is still ongoing and will take all the improvement I can get. As for a "full" recovery, in my case, I have gained enough function to drive and walk without a brace and not to think about drop foot anymore, but the former drop foot foot is somewhat weaker and still has odd sensations of tightness and pulling. These sensations are not painful anymore, but I think I will always have something to remind me of drop foot. As for "full success" stories, which would be comparable to my progress, yes I have heard of them and mine is not an isolated case.
So far, your EMG is right on target time-wise, but I think it's premature to talk about a tendon transfer at this point. You have to give yourself a chance to heal before you consider that. Also, you mention that your orthopedist mentioned a plastic surgeon for the nerve. I can only assume that they would attempt some kind of decompression surgery in order to release the nerve, which is the same surgery that I had. I'm not a medical professional, so I can't really be an expert on this topic, but I think the peroneal nerve is surrounded by some kind of tough sheath. When the nerve is injured in any way, it can swell and become trapped in this sheath. A nerve release opens up this tissue and relieves the pressure so the nerve can heal. I've heard that plastic surgeons do do this sort of operation, but I had a neurosurgeon specializing in peripheral neuropathy perform mine. Ideally it should be done between 6 to 8 months (or sooner) for optimal healing. This is not a very involved surgery, but the proper neurological testing [ EMG (electromyography) and NCS (nerve conduction studies)] has to be done in order to locate the problem and determine if you are a candidate.
Take care and my wishes for your speedy recovery!---Tanya
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Tanya8 For This Useful Post: Nervy girl (11-03-2011), sumole (12-03-2010)
Dirt bike accident as well but a lot more damage; was hit by an offroad truck in the desert (so cal). This was 4 yrs ago, 8 surgeries later, and a long nightmare.
Among breaking everything below my waist and in my left arm, I was told I would probably have drop foot. they were right. Didn't know this site existed, so had no where to turn to for answers to my many questions.
bottom line, nerve never came back but I am not letting it slow me down. went thru all the testing and read everything I could on this injury during the past 4 yrs. Unfortunately, after an injury like this to nerves, it is permanent. the medical world just don't know how to fix broke nerves.
I have to wear an AFO to walk or surf or ride, but it is not the end of the world. Worse things happen to good people everyday.
well I guess I came across this forum like everyone else; looking for answers.
My history: dirtbike accident, knee dislocation, ruptured LCL ACL PCL and stretched but intact peroneal nerve resulting in foot drop and patchy numbness, we are at the 2.5 month mark. I had surgery less than 24 hrs after the accident to explore and repair the LCL and PCL. The nerve was "banged and bruised up but intact" which the doc said makes recovery all that more likely. My surgery report called it a stretch injury which I have read is the most likely to heal. I am booked for EMG next week which is at the 2.75 month mark. I have not noticed any return of sensation however I have constantly had flashes of prickly fire throughout the numb areas. I am also getting weekly accupuncture and she is applying muscle stim leads to the needles. Thats a hell of a sensation!!
This forum is quite the place eh? Like a support group! Everyone please know my thoughts are with you and I understand what you are going thru. I went thru all the emotional turmoil that everyone else has. I have to count the blessings however as from reading here I see my recovery has been easier than many.
What I have not seen however are very many reports stating a full nerve recovery in 12 months. That was what I was looking for.
Tanya, howdy, I have been following your posts. Do you recall many full success stories? My case is that I am a pilot and I do not know yet what hoops I have to jump through to get my medical back. My aviation doctor has not dealt with a case like mine however I have heard thru the grapevine that there ARE commercial pilots flying with foot drop, let alone prosthetic legs. I may just have to deal with an AFO and knee brace etc.
I am in Canada and I believe I have a good ortho surgeon who is based out of a sports clinic at a university. If the nerve does not come back he is suggesting plastic surgery guys for nerve down the road and mentioned the tendon transfer.
Good luck everyone. You have to be your own advocate and keep that positive attitude
Chris
Hopefully people are still reading this board, I just found it tonight. On April 24, 2010 I suffered a ruptured ACL torn PCL and LCL and a broken fibula which crushed my peroneal nerve resulting in full foot drop (left leg and foot) . I had surgery 4 days later to reconstruct the ACL and repair the PCL and LCL. The Surgeon also had a look at my nerve during the 4 hour surgery and he said it was beaten up really bad but still intact. He told me it should grow back in time. I had an emg 6 months after the accident and the emg tech told me the nerve was dead completely and suggested a tendon transfer. All I could get when i tried lifting my foot was a few toes to move up slightly. i have all of the numbness and tingly sensations that so many have talked about on this board. In December (8 months after the accident) all of the sudden I started getting a little bit of movement back in my foot. It happened really fast over the next month and all of the sudden I can actually start to lift my foot and move it pretty well outward which I had no movement before. When I lift my foot it actually goes far enough to stretch my Achilles Tendon where as before I had nothing. It seems like it's getting better every week, and my foot is starting to feel lighter and not drop as much. Since June I have been walking with an $80 plastic afo in my shoe which I found to be just fine and got used to it. I sleep in a soft brace called an x-strap and it's quite comforatable after a few modifications. I have some hope so am obviously waiting to see the plastic surgeon as I surely don't want to get a tendon transfer if it's coming back on it's own. I will continue to post the progress as long as it's helpful to anyone. Hoping this helps someone as reading this board has helped me know I'm also not alone in this. Feel free to ask any questions, I'm sure I've left some stuff out.
been a while but I just stumbled over this post in my email.
Where is your recovery at now? I hope its kicking in full strength. And my guess in regards to your recovery is that you may be on the fortunate side.
Long since my last post which you quoted, I have had a Nerve Transfer surgery which is very new here.
For others education sake I'll post the history to it. I had 2 EMGs done with zero signal going through. Ortho surgeon referred me to a trauma reconstruction plastic surgeon (specializes in reconstructing people in big accidents, nerve repair, etc)
He recommended a nerve transfer for my peroneal nerve. This is stealing a healthy nerve from a low priority function and wiring it downstream of the injured nerve. They do it with success in a lot of arm and shoulder injuries here and have recently started applying it to foot drop cases. Its so new that I could not find any reference online about it and he gave me printouts from medical journals about the procedure.
So in my case, 9 months ago (July 2010) they went in and took the function of curling my big toe, and wired it downstream of the injury in the peroneal nerve.
Lots of exercise and rehab later (which I can describe if anyone wants) and just recently now when I curl my toes, my foot starts to weakly twitch upwards.
Its been 1.5 years my tibialis anterior muscle has not moved (foot drop) and now I am starting to make it twitch. Finally some good news. With signal getting thru they believe that any degradation should stop (the muscle turning to useless fibrous tissue)
I had my third EMG done and there is a tiny bit of signal getting thru the peroneal injury and there is way more measurable signal getting thru the transferred nerve.
They said that the connection being made now is only the beginning and there is a lot of growth and progress yet to be seen
Only other note to mention with nerve transfer for the leg is that they believe it wont be as high a success rate with shoulder cases. The arms/hands are built for fine motor skills and are geographically closer to the brain/spine where as the knee is coarse motor skill and further away. They believe it wont come as long a way.
Hopefully people are still reading this board, I just found it tonight. On April 24, 2010 I suffered a ruptured ACL torn PCL and LCL and a broken fibula which crushed my peroneal nerve resulting in full foot drop (left leg and foot) . I had surgery 4 days later to reconstruct the ACL and repair the PCL and LCL. The Surgeon also had a look at my nerve during the 4 hour surgery and he said it was beaten up really bad but still intact. He told me it should grow back in time. I had an emg 6 months after the accident and the emg tech told me the nerve was dead completely and suggested a tendon transfer. All I could get when i tried lifting my foot was a few toes to move up slightly. i have all of the numbness and tingly sensations that so many have talked about on this board. In December (8 months after the accident) all of the sudden I started getting a little bit of movement back in my foot. It happened really fast over the next month and all of the sudden I can actually start to lift my foot and move it pretty well outward which I had no movement before. When I lift my foot it actually goes far enough to stretch my Achilles Tendon where as before I had nothing. It seems like it's getting better every week, and my foot is starting to feel lighter and not drop as much. Since June I have been walking with an $80 plastic afo in my shoe which I found to be just fine and got used to it. I sleep in a soft brace called an x-strap and it's quite comforatable after a few modifications. I have some hope so am obviously waiting to see the plastic surgeon as I surely don't want to get a tendon transfer if it's coming back on it's own. I will continue to post the progress as long as it's helpful to anyone. Hoping this helps someone as reading this board has helped me know I'm also not alone in this. Feel free to ask any questions, I'm sure I've left some stuff out.
