You’re an athlete who loves your sport. You’re no stranger to sports injuries. Sometimes injuries occur because you overdid it on the tennis or basketball court, while other injuries may result from hard contact with another player. You know the typical home remedies such as the RICE method (rest, ice, compression, elevation) when you sustain a musculoskeletal injury.
But home remedies won’t work if you have nerve damage.
Nerve damage results from an injury to the nerves in the spinal cord, brain, or peripheral areas of the body. If you are experiencing any of them, our experienced team at Coastal Empire Orthopedics in Savannah, Georgia, can help.
The following are four symptoms of nerve damage. Call our office for an appointment if you experience any of these issues.
Does your foot or hand become numb on occasion? You might have to shake it or rub it to regain feeling. Loss of feeling isn’t normal, unless you’ve simply fallen asleep with your hand under your head and caused temporary numbness that goes away when you shake it. Persistent numbness requires prompt medical attention.
Pain comes in different forms: aching, throbbing, and stinging/burning. Do you feel a jabbing, stinging pain in a hand, foot, or limb? You just want it to stop. This type of pain can make it impossible to sleep, and usual over-the-counter medications don’t relieve it.
Likewise, tingling, while not as disruptive as stinging pain, isn’t normal. The tingling or stinging sensation means nerves are affected.
Is it hard to hold a coffee cup? Does one leg seem weaker than the other? Is it difficult to move your fingers or toes?
Do you find yourself tripping often when there’s no barrier on the floor or pavement? Have you started to lose your balance? Muscle weakness leads to accidents.
Likewise, if you start to experience twitches or cramps in your extremities, call our office. Muscle weakness, cramping, and twitching can be signs of nerve damage.
Do you feel dizzy sometimes? Are you sweating excessively, or hardly at all? These symptoms, too, can be signs of nerve damage.
Physical health-related symptoms are your body’s way of telling you something’s amiss. If you have any of the symptoms above, call our office for an appointment. Delaying treatment for nerve damage can result in muscle atrophy, drop foot, or even paralysis.
If you have diabetes, you’re at risk for peripheral neuropathy. Numbness in your feet or legs could result in painful, hard-to-heal ulcers.
Our orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Jonathan Shults, performs nerve repair surgeries. If your nerve damage doesn’t heal, Dr. Shults can reattach nerve pieces or perform a nerve graft.
If you have symptoms that suggest nerve damage, call or message our office today for an appointment.
