As far as nerve healing goes, with out redoing the biopsy, how do we know if the nerve damage is ongoing and perpetual, or irreversible permanent damage, or damage that is healing?

If it is damage that is healing I'm guessing there wouldn't be terrible flares. I'm basing this on any time I've ever healed from something. Injuries get a little better each day unlike the improvements and then setbacks as many of us here seem to experience.

Since healing COULD hurt and damage COULD hurt, your question has been bantered about with no difinitive answer. Myself, I would allow room for flares in a healing atmosphere. Mainly since there is no solid correlation from flares to any particular situation, or a situation that used to be has now changed. I know that some folks are convinced about their particular do's and don'ts, I used to be in that number. But the past poison is no longer poison. IMO knowing anything with this condition is like catching an eel. You think you get something nailed down and it squirts away from you. I suppose if you do all that you know to do, that is all you can do. Good Luck, Ken in Texas.

I asked one neuro how to tell if nerve symptoms were being caused by nerve healing or damage and his words were, "That is a good question and I don't know the answer!"

Yeah, pretty much what was said above. We just don't know and I've read on this forum that people who had healing didn't have a linear course. I suppose it makes sense that if the nerve fibers are regenerating, they will misfire in strange ways as they try to reach their endpoint, or some such thing.

I guess I am a pessimist, to me, if the nerves are sending out incorrect signals that means they are mis-firing and something is wrong. I.e. compressed.

Maybe I should start leaning to the optimist view, it can't hurt.

I will ask my Neuro on March 2 the question, which is when I have the EMG and NCV tests.

Best Regards to All,

Bob

I had received a similar answer from my neuros but I was also told that nerve healing is extremely rare (they always make sure to say that).
I tend to think you can tell if the damage is progressing or not on your own if you keep a record of your pain and symptoms. I have been able to confirm that my symptoms are currently not progressing, however I have not seen any evidence of improvement. Hard to ever know if you are actually "healing" though. I would think a biopsy would be needed to confirm that and even that can be inaccurate.

I'm hoping to get a biopsy at the one-year mark to see about any concrete improvement. Most of the time I can't really tell which direction I'm headed.

When we refer to healing, usually its regeneration, and nerves are not known to do that, they can compensate for damage, by growing longer connections, unless something is messed up inside the cell.

Here is one paper from 2010 that discusses the various factors involved with nerve repair, in the periphery and central nervous system:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2846285/

It discusses the dorsal roots too.