About 4 years ago I had surgery to my right hand. I had the joint replaced on the base of my thumb and at the same time they tried to fix tendinitis in my right forearm.

20 months after the first surgery I found out through a 2nd. surgery that my radial nerve about 4 inches above the wrist was severed. Since then I had a 3rd. surgery to try to fix the nerve again because it was not growing back in at all.

It has been 9 months since the last surgery and my hand to my elbow burns, icy, numbing, tingle and feels asleep most of the time and really hurts. My wrist feels broken most of the time the fingers hurt and cramp tingle I am now seeing a PM dr. for the pain.

My question is how long does it take for my nerve to grow back which is about 11 inches. Some Drs. say around a inch a month others say less. I am trying to get a better idea as to see when so all this pain will go away.

Anyone that has gone through this should have a better idea and answers. Any help would be great and many thanks.

Dennis

--meaning one has all the nutrients necessary, the damaging process is gone, and there are no other problems, the figure of approximately 1mm a day has been bandied about by a lot of research neurologists.

Nerve fibers tend to regenerate more slowly than just about any other bodily tissue. (Myelin sheathing tends to return somewhat faster.)

One can see that if one has damage to longer nerve tracts--say, sensory tracts that progress from the lumbar spine down to the feet, for instance--regeneration may be measured in years, assuming it is complete (much nerve recovery is patchy, and not in the same pattern as it was originally). And sensory nerves, especially, may produce all sorts of weird and painful sensations (parastheses) as the fiber growth cones fight through other tissue on their way to their targets.

Don't think many of us have had a radial nerve severed,
but many have had PN after surgery.
Sometimes it just doesn't happen (nerve regrowth).
Most observations is that regrowth, when it does happen,
is extremely slow.
Painfully slow, (pun intended) as the nerves tend to send mixed signals of a pain type to the brain, during the process.
Dependent on the type of nerve, and proper supplements and diet, it could take up to 2 or 3 years for a gap to be bridged.

This article gives some explanations about nerve regeneration.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1270360-overview

When I had my tumor removed on my left foot many years ago it was numb for a long time....the top of my foot.
They did regrow back, but it took years, before I noticed I had feeling again on the top of my foot.

EEESH, I am looking at having tendon transfer surgery, which is the surgery to fix arthritis at the thumb. Mine are horribly painful and are losing function fast.....the guy doing mine does hand reconstruction but your story is giving me a scare.....hmmm.

I don't imagine any one wants to admit they screwed up cutting the radial nerve, but, geez, how do you cut the radial nerve!?!

I wonder if it is the radial nerve thing or if you developed reflex sympathetic dystrophy from all this.

I suppose if I asked you if you would do it again you would say no, so, now I have to think this thru....I dunno, are things better left alone? If I don't do something, I will have useless hands and a lot of pain....if I do something, do I end up with a situation like yours? I have that broken wrist sensation now, and have had no surgery. I DID break that wrist 10 years ago, and now and then it feels totally rebroken, but it isnt.....to think that feeling could present all the time is not comforting.

Thank you for sharing this and I do so hope this can be resolved for you.

On feeling after surgery, I had several C Sections 30 years ago....I am still numb in my abdomen above where the scar is.

Can a major nerve grow back?

Is there a possibility of using stem cells or something to stimulate growth?

I am still stunned they cut your radial nerve.......

(I am not going to sleep all night....I am supposed to see this surgeon again next week....lord....I think I may be better off eating more pain pills and neurontin.)

Hello Cyclelops

This past Dec 2009 my new hand Dr. redid the base thumb joint by using my tendon in a finger eight she replaced a silicone joint which I was allergic to and because I was having problems with the silicone joint she also had to do a carpal tunnel release. She then cleaned the nerve ends to my radial nerve which was not regrowing from the first attempt to fix the served nerve. So she trimmed back the nerve ends and placed a 4 inch tube just above my wrist. So far my new thumb joint and the carpal tunnel have been very successful. The radial nerve is not doing very well. My hand Dr. has sent me to other Drs. which they have all told me that I now have CRPSII and that I will have to live with this pain for the rest of my life. My new hand Dr.has been great she has been caring willing to try to help me in any way she can and she has gone above in what she could do for me. I now see a PM Dr. every 30 days to work with me on managing my pain.

The first Dr. that I went to for 2 years before I allowed him to do the joint surgery after looking back was someone that acted like he did not have time for you and only spent 5 minutes with you on any office visit except when I wanted to do the surgery then he made time for you but it was only 15 minutes to go over what he was going do do.

This is very important for anyone that is having any kind of surgery.

Before you are wheeled into the operating room your Dr. doing the surgery must come into the prep room to go over what he/she is going to do and mark where they are going to cut you open and mark how many places they are going to cut you open so both you and the Dr. are clear on where they are doing the surgery openings. Why because if you feel that they are only going to do several procedures through one opening instead of 2 or 3 openings you can ask why before instead later why didn't you do more opens.

The Dr. that did my surgery several years ago never came into the prep room to see me before the surgery because he did not have time for me he was to busy doing one surgery after another throughout that day. If he had only took 2 minutes of his time to go over what and how he was going to preform my surgery I would not be in the mess that I am for the rest of my life.

So Cyclelops and anyone else having surgery see your Dr. just before they preform your surgery by having a clear understanding as to what and how and make sure you feel right about everything or keep asking until you feel right a few more minutes to make sure all your questions are answered to your satisfaction. After all it is you that has to live with the outcome of the surgery for the rest of your life not your Dr. Your just a other patient.

Sorry for being so long winded

Dennis

I want to thank everyone for there reply' s. Everyone here on this forum are great in giving their time and information. I have learned more from many folks here then from most of my Drs. The people here know first hand as to what may be wrong where as a lot of Drs. learn from their patients.

Dennis

Thanks Dennis. I was optimistic that this surgery could potentially resolve this terrible thumb pain and inability to even use my hands for simple things, like buttoning and opening pill bottles....I will talk to my doc this week and see how he does the procedure.

I hope you can find relief. Have you tried neurontin or lyrica, or a combination of those with an opiate?

I have tried Gabapentin, Lyrica, Cymbalta. and have side effects. Cymbalta was the worst after 8 weeks on it could not wait until it was out of my system. Something about nerve pain meds I have problems with.

My PM wants to do the SCS but I am a little gun shy with anyone messing around my back. After all the pain meds that I am on I still have pain around 7-8 most of the time throughout my whole arm because of the nerve damage. A/C in buildings and vehicles are the worst. My hand Dr. told me that I basically have a raw nerve in my lower arm that effects my whole arm. It hurts very bad in my arm pit where it feels like someone has a 7" heel in my arm pit and is trying to remove my arm by turning and ripping it off like a turkey leg all the time. Each week that goes by gets worst as far as pain level. Right now early morning it is 81 deg. and climbing over a 100 by noon. I feel so bad for my wife because she knows how the a/c effects me so she leaves the a/c way down for me. Anyone else out there with nerve pain like this I would like to here from. I know that there are a lot of people on this forum that are in worst shape then me. But any help would be great.

Dennis