Nerve Damage and Motor Skills

Hello, I am desperatly trying to find some help or answers to help my situation.

2 Years ago i started having problems in my right hand and right foot. I lost a lot of my motor skills in my right hand and it got to the point to where I could hardly write anything. My fingers just didnt move that way. My right foot cramps when I walk. Not the type that doubles you over in pain but just cramps as in all my uscles bunch up and they stay that way making it impossible to walk unless i stop and stretch it out some then i can walk a few more feet before it bunches up again. (you dont know how embarrassing this is when you go grocery shopping) Anyways In December 2009 I saw a neorosurgeon and had some tests done. I turned out that i had 2 discs blocking fluid in my spinal cord at the C6 & C7 level. The solution? Surgery... On Feb 8th 2010 i had ACDF surgery. When I woke up my whole left leg was all warm and tingly. My foot felt normal again. But that only lasted a day or two. After a few months i felt some relief. It wasnt all gone away but it was MUCH better... I could walk further and do stuff around the house like wash dishes (without breaking one) but the symptoms have come back. I have no pain (thank god) so i just have a problem with nerve damage and these motor skills. I asked my surgeon and he said:

"The nerves grow back on there own. You either recover or you dont. It takes a full 2 years to get full results if you have any. There is nothing that can help it get better just time. We did the surgery to prevent further damage. Any reverse nerve damage is just icing on the cake"

I have heard B12 helps and some kind of sport message therapy helps. But I am not sure. My goal is to repair the nerve damage or at least improve my motor skills. If anyone has ANY advice I would appreciate it ty.

I presume what happened is that you had two disc prolapses and that these were pressing on the spinal cord and possibly the nerve root(s) at the lower cervical area.

While the surgeon's answer was blunt it probably sums it up. The nerve damage would have occurred a very long way from the target organs the nerves supply. - that is the hand and foot. Generally after three months you has some idea of how it is going to turn out. At the three month point the nerves fibres that were only bruised (neuropraxia) and not destroyed will have come back on board and should be working.

Where the nerve fibres are destroyed there is the possibility of these fibres regrowing from where damage occurred in the neck, all the way down to target organs. However, this is really a theoretical recovery; nerve cells regrow at a very slow rate (works out at roughly 1 mm per day) and there is absolutely no guarantee that they will regrow in the direction where you want them to. There is no evidence that I know of that taking any vitamin or other substance really improves this outcome

There is one other area of interest to you. While you may not be able to do anything for the nerve cells that are damaged, the cells that are intact maybe able, to some extent to take over the job of the cells that are destroyed. This process is called neuroplasticity and occurs at many parts of the nervous system. What drives neuroplasticity in the direction you want is extensive practice of the tasks you are having problems with - so lots of strengthening, and practicing of the the motor skills of which you are having difficulties. Sensory training for the areas where the sensation has been affected can help. Neuroplasticity can occur at any time but it is probably optimal within the first few weeks/months of the injury.

Thanks gcoe for your kind reply. I would also consider whether this currently situation is truly worse that the recovery you had previously. If things we a lot better than they are now and have regressed then perhaps there is something additional going on again at that level. Perhaps it is worth another scan if this is the case so long as their is something post the last intervention to compare it to. An easier route also may be to repeat nerve conduction studies from post op with now (again only if you have something for that comparison). It would be nice to see if things are actually different.

Yes physiobob is right on this point. Always worth knowing exactly what you are dealing with. A CT scan or MRI would reveal structurally what is happening to the spinal cord an d nerve conduction tests would give you an idea about the functioning of the nerves supplying your arm and leg.

One thing I didn't ask is this your dominant hand and how is this affecting your work? These issues are important. The importance of the loss of motor skills is an essential matter to consider in any rehabilitation.