--the symptoms of nerve regeneration, as the nerve growth cones fight through and around other tissue and send out weird signals that the brain has trouble interpreting, can feel very much like the symptoms of increasing nerve damage, at least for a while,

The distinction, usually, is that the with nerve regeneration the symptoms tend to quiet down over time, but it may be a long time--nerve regenerate very slowly. This is why a lot of us keep symptom diaries--it may be hard to tell what is going on except in long term retrospect.