The process is very slow, though, somewhat patchy, and, depedning on cause, may not be complete. In fact, much of the clinical opinion regarding axon degeneration indicates that if the offender is removed, one can get "slow, partial recovery".

The reason is that once fibers themselves have died, nerve regrowth is unlikely to be in the same pattern; axonal growth cones do not always re-establish the pathways that were there before the damage. (They can, however, establish others.) And, depending on age, nutritional status, the degree to which the orginating condition is ameliorated, one may get regrowth to greater or lesser degrees. And it is likely to be slow. Under the best of conditions, axonal regrowth may proceeed at a millimeter a day. Extrapolate, and for the longer fibers that extend, say, from the dorsal root ganglia to the toes, one may be talking years.

But that is not to say it's impossible. In my case, successive skin biopsies have shown a slow but steady re-enervation since my acute-onset body wide burning small-fiber neuropathy struck in April 2003 (in fact, today is the five-year anniversary for me from first symptom; no cause has ever been definitively found, but an autoimmmune molecular mimicry process is suspected); it's unlikely I'll ever get back to "normal" levels of intraepidermal nerve fiber density, though. My symptoms, however, are greatly reduced.

On this board, a few can tell similar stories--especially those whose neuropathies seem to have had specific identifiable causes, such as diabetes, chemotherapy or vitamin deficiency; when the generating condition was controlled or removed, recovery became possible.