Without your nervous system, your brain could not communicate with the rest of your body. Your nerves allow you to move, feel, and even perform basic bodily functions like breathing.
If your nerves are damaged, you can experience symptoms that range from mild numbness to a complete inability to move or feel a particular part of your body. Some types of nerve damage can improve over time, and others cannot. Here’s a brief overview of how nerve damage happens and how it is treated.
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What Causes Nerve Damage?
There are many different ways your nerves can become damaged, but these are some of the most common.
Injuries
Whether you get hurt in a car accident or suffer a bad fall on the soccer field, a single incident can cause lasting nerve damage. A sudden physical impact can cut, overstretch, or overcompress nerves.
If you have any of these symptoms after an injury, you may have some level of nerve damage:
- Partial or complete loss of sensation in one area or multiple areas
- Inability to move an arm, a leg, or any other body part
- A burning or tingling sensation
- Sharp or stabbing pain
Some nerve injuries can be repaired, but prompt medical attention is important. And if you have many injuries or a catastrophic injury (as you might after a particularly bad auto accident), it can be hard to tell that some of your nerves have been cut or otherwise harmed.
Certain Medical Conditions
Many different medical conditions can cause nerve damage. Typically, this type of nerve damage develops gradually. For example, suppose that you have a cancerous tumor that is steadily growing. The tumor might put so much pressure on a nerve that you develop pain, numbness, and other symptoms of nerve damage.
Diabetes is another medical condition that can lead to nerve damage. Diabetic neuropathy, a common complication of diabetes, involves steadily worsening nerve damage. When it affects the nerves in your feet, legs, or hands, it is called “peripheral neuropathy.” As many as 50% of people with diabetes develop peripheral neuropathy.
Autoimmune Diseases
Various types of autoimmune diseases can also lead to nerve damage, including:
- Guillain-Barré syndrome
- Sjogren’s syndrome
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Lupus
Nerve damage caused by autoimmune diseases is likely to worsen over time. If you have received one of the diagnoses listed above, you can work with your doctor to develop a long-term management plan.
What Are the Different Kinds of Nerve Damage?
Different nerves have different functions. Some help you move, and some help you taste, see, hear, smell, and feel. Other nerves regulate involuntary functions like your heartbeat.
Since these nerves have diverse functions, the symptoms of nerve damage can be dramatically different depending on which nerves are injured.
Damage To Sensory Nerves
Sensory nerves help you use your five senses. The nerves that are primarily responsible for your sense of touch belong to a part of your nervous system called the “somatosensory system.” They are located close to the surface of your skin and, therefore, more vulnerable to injury.
Injuries to these nerves can cause a wide variety of symptoms, such as:
- Tingling and numbness
- Pain
- Burning sensations
- Problems with positional awareness
For some people, these symptoms will be constant and appear as soon as they suffer an injury. For others, the symptoms might come and go.
Damage To Motor Nerves
Motor nerves help you voluntarily move parts of your body. You use your motor nerves when you walk, text, take out the trash, or do anything else requiring movement. If your motor nerves suffer damage, you might start to have problems with everyday activities.
These symptoms after an accident or injury might indicate motor nerve damage:
- Paralysis in one area of your body
- Muscle weakness
- Painful cramping
- Muscle atrophy in the area of the injury
- Unexplained twitching
These symptoms can also be a sign of many other kinds of injuries. Don’t try to diagnose nerve damage by yourself. An experienced medical professional can give you the correct diagnosis and the best chance of recovery.
Damage To Autonomic Nerves
Your autonomic nerves regulate a number of functions that your body performs without thinking, including:
- Digestion
- Heartbeat
- Thyroid function
- Breathing
Autonomic nerve damage can be especially dangerous, and the symptoms can look vastly different depending on which nerves are compromised. You may notice gastrointestinal problems, bladder issues, or excessive sweating.
What Are the Possible Treatments For Nerve Damage?
Some severe nerve injuries require surgery. Others may heal with rest. Regardless of what kind of treatment your nerve injury needs, you should know that nerves take a very long time to heal. Sometimes, it takes many months or even years.
Once your healthcare provider understands the extent of your injury, they may recommend treatments like physical therapy, medication, or surgery.
Physical Therapy
If nerve damage has impacted your ability to move a part of your body, your doctor may recommend physical therapy as you start to heal. During physical therapy sessions, you’ll learn and practice movements designed to help restore muscle in the area and reduce your risk of injury once you return to full function.
Medication
Not all kinds of nerve damage come with pain. If yours does, your doctor may work with you to create a pain management plan. Anti-inflammatory medications and drugs used to treat seizures can be helpful. When compression of the nerve is causing problems, corticosteroid injections might help.
Surgery
Your doctor might recommend surgery to repair damaged nerves. One type of surgery is nerve grafting. It involves replacing the damaged section with a piece of healthy nerve. Alternatively, a surgeon might directly reconnect two ends of a nerve that has been severed.
Contact an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer If You’ve Suffered Nerve Damage
If you have developed nerve damage because another person was negligent, you already know how much it impacts every aspect of your life. You might struggle with your career, your finances, and even routine daily activities. Permanent or long-lasting nerve damage can seriously disrupt your quality of life.
At Perenich, Caulfield, Avril & Noyes Personal Injury Lawyers, we’re here to help injured people recover the compensation they deserve.
To some, compensation is just money. But if you are healing from a catastrophic injury you didn’t cause, financial help can make the difference between struggling to get by and being able to completely focus on your recovery.
If you’ve been injured due to someone else’s actions, we want to hear from you. Contact our Clearwater personal injury lawyers today at (727) 796-8282 to schedule a free case review.
