Hi guys I just wanted to write out my experience dealing with Radial Nerve Palsy for people who somehow managed to get this neuropathy themselves. Hopefully I can give some hope to people who are going through this themselves .

During September last year I managed to break my humerus quite bad due to something as mundane as an arm wrestle ... I ended up requiring ORIF implant (with 11 screws) to realign my twisted and fragmented bone. When my humerus initially broke however it damaged my radial nerve quite bad. At that point I mostly forgot about the broken bone (which would almost certainly heal) and cared much more about the nerve healing.

Before the surgeons had a chance to look at the nerve during the surgery I was told there was a 30% chance I might have wrist drop for life based on people with the same injury. Luckily the plastic surgeon said my nerve was only stretched (not divided) and expected a recovery.

I had complete wrist drop, everything past the triceps along that nerve was paralyzed and had to wear a splint. The top of my hand/thumb was full of pins and needles.

I was hoping I had 1st degree nerve injury (called Neuropraxia) but quickly realized this wasn't the case. Most of the axons in my nerve degenerated due to how much they were stretched (this is 2nd degree nerve damage called Axonotmesis). My nerves/axons had to regrow more than half a meter (to the end of the finger) for a full recovery both sensation wise and motor wise. Axon's grow really slow...

The first few months were the worse and thought I had managed to obtain a life long partial paralysis in one of my hands. I didn't know the severity of how badly injured the nerve was and was terrified that it could be scarred inside the nerve (leading into a variation of 3rd degree nerve injury) which would cause limited recovery. There was no exercises I could do, I was extremely depressed and lost many friends throughout the ordeal. All I could wait is hope for the nerve to grow back and re-innovate my muscles.

It took about 3 months until recovery started picking up. At 4 months I was just beginning to be able to type properly again. My finger extensors took the longest to start recovering. Even though I could type my hand was still very weak. I started doing radial nerve exercises the moment the nerves managed to find their way back. Constant reverse wrist curls and finger extensor exercises. Many people think you can over do this sort of compulsiveness exercising but in reality you don't really strain anything at all as the muscle isnt even properly activating.

After 6 months I had another surgery to take the plate out. While the surgeon was in there he noted my radial nerve was bent across the implant and took 2 hours to seperate. He said there was scar tissue all around the nerve but said he didn't look inside the nerve.

My 2nd surgery was a success and it felt like I regained some more strength due to the nerve being released from the implant.

At present (10 months later since fracture) I am mostly recovered. My finger extensors are still alittle weak and the top of my thumb still feels abit dull but I am still very happy with my recovery. I can still feel the young axons re-establishing connections with muscles even after 300 days since injury. I never take anything for granted anymore. Don't give up hope.

TL;DR: 2nd degree radial nerve injury, around ~75-85% recovered after 10 months.

Thanks for reading.