I've seen the advice of looking at nerve maps to figure out how nerve paralysis would affect things in the sense of paralysis and I was hoping someone could expand on that? (Im not being purposely obtuse or anything, I promise).
With slashing and gash injuries with the proper depth(?) to have nerve damage, do more surface injuries of the nerve cause effects too or just severed ones? Like could it cause velocity issues instead of a complete lack of signals-- or maybe its just gonna feel all buzzy?
Is the end of a nerve being severed going to cause a visable difference or is it better to kept focus on the beginning of the branch?
Also, are there any specific charts you recommend? is there a good 3D chart out there? The chart thing helps plenty for non traumatic paralysis and numbness, but I've felt kinda lost otherwise. (Maybe I should really have a better grasp on this since I have nerve issues in my legs but they dont know whats up yet and it just cause pain and my legs to fall asleep really easily so *shrugs*)
Sorry if any of this seems/feels like its really obvious, I have cognitive issues that make multi-factor things like this kinda jumble and get tangled alot.
Hello,
Nerve injuries, complete and incomplete, are kinda just recovery gambling. Any time you injure a nerve at all, you can have temporary or permanent effects of all different kinds - loss of movement, loss of sensation, incorrect sensation, tingling, numbness, pain, pins and needles, incorrect temperature perception...
If the nerve is fully severed, it means it won't recover (at least not on its own), and whatever is managed by that nerve won't work (although specific symptoms still differ between people). An incomplete injury has the potential of healing, sometimes even fully.
There is no 100% correlation between depth or type of injury and specific symptoms. The most predictable ones are the complete injuries; some people will get a nerve fully severed, and have complete loss of movement, reflexes, and feeling in that body part. Others will have shooting pain at the end of the nerve due to neuromas forming.
For injuries that aren't just complete destruction of the nerve, it can be truly anything. Some people for all intents and purposes function as if their injury was actually complete, some heal fully, most are in-between and often in chronic pain.
Generally every important nerve has its own name and can be mapped which exact body parts it's responsible for. If you know the injury is in, let's say, the forearm, you can look up effects of radial nerve palsy/paralysis specifically. For writing purposes usually an anatomical diagram of major nerves (+ cranial nerves if talking about the face) is enough; just pick the nerve that's the closest to the injury site and go from there. There are obviously many, many other nerves, but unless you're writing for The Pitt it's not really relevant, at least in my opinion.
For spinal cord injuries specifically you can get to almost any information just going by the exact vertebrae. They all cause very specific things, especially in the cervical portion, so there are many resources that talk exactly about which movements are possible and which ones aren't, for example.
I hope this helps somewhat,
mod Sasza