Weeks 1–2
Pain
Take the pressure off.
Hands-on work opens up the space the nerve is being squeezed in and settles the inflammation around it, starting your first visit.
What We Treat
Nerve pain treatment in Washington.
The tingling that wakes you at 2am. The hand or foot you have quietly stopped trusting. Nerve pain is not random. Something is pressing on that nerve, and finding it is the whole job.
You’re all set.
We’ll call during business hours to lock in your time. Prefer to call? (202) 670-8874
Sound Familiar?
Does this sound like you?
- Pins and needles at 2am, and you shake the hand out to get it back
- One shooting line of pain that fires when you turn your head a certain way
- Dropping your keys because your grip picked that second to quit
- Numb patches you keep testing with your other hand to see if they are still numb
- Getting a shirt on one-armed, because the other arm will not go over your head
- Sleeping in the one position that does not set it off, and not moving all night
Two or more? Keep reading.
Why It Happens
Nerve pain is a message. Something is sending it.
Nerves are wiring. They run from your spine out to your hands and feet, through tunnels made of bone, muscle and connective tissue. Burning, tingling, numbness and weakness show up when one of those tunnels narrows. A disc can bulge into the space where the nerve exits. A tight muscle can clamp it partway along the route. Swelling after an injury or an operation can crowd a whole bundle of nerves at once. Scar tissue can tether a nerve so it stops sliding when you move.
Which one it is changes the treatment completely, and it is not something you can sort out at home. So we test it: where the nerve is actually being squeezed, and what takes the pressure off. That is why a printout of nerve glides helps for an afternoon and then stops helping. Free the real bottleneck and the symptoms have a reason to leave.
The Honest Truth
Waiting on a nerve is not the same as resting it.
If you keep waiting
- Numbness stops coming and going, and starts being how that hand just is
- The muscles that nerve feeds get weaker, and weak muscles guard the nerve harder
- You build the day around positions that do not set it off, and the day gets smaller
If you start this week
- You know which nerve, and where it is being squeezed, by the end of visit one
- Hands-on work starts taking pressure off it before you leave the building
- You get a plan with an endpoint: a real one, not an open tab of visits
Nobody regrets starting too early. Our reviews are full of people who lived with this for years and say so themselves.
How We Fix It
The same four phases. Built for a nerve.
You are the one everybody else leans on, which is usually why this waited. Every plan here has an endpoint. Here is what the four phases look like for nerve pain.
Weeks 2–6
Prime
Get the nerve gliding again.
Joint and soft tissue mobility come back first, so the nerve can slide the way it is meant to instead of catching every time you move.
Weeks 6–10
Perform
Rebuild what went quiet.
Progressive strengthening restores the grip, the shoulder or the calf that lost power while the nerve was compressed.
Weeks 10+
Prevent
Keep the tunnel open.
The positions and loads that crowded the nerve get retested and retrained, then you finish. That is the endpoint, not just another appointment.
It was so bad that I couldn’t sleep on my left side, couldn’t even drive. … Today I can do all my daily activities. I am living my life again!
Shared by Fernando G. · Nerve pain after surgery
Where nerve pain usually starts: tingling, numb patches, and a hand or foot you have stopped trusting
Where the plan ends: motion, strength and grip retested, then you are done
Nerve pain
A plan with an endpoint
Questions, Answered
What people ask before booking for nerve pain.
Usually not, and waiting on one costs you weeks. A careful hands-on exam can tell us a great deal about which nerve is involved and where it is being compressed. Scans routinely show bulges and wear in people with no symptoms at all, so an image on its own does not name your cause. We test you, not a picture of you. If a scan or a nerve conduction study is genuinely needed, we will say so and help you get it.
Not when it is dosed for your nerve. Nerves need to move and they need blood flow, and total rest tends to leave them stiffer and more sensitive. The wrong exercise really can flare things, which is the honest reason a generic sheet of nerve glides so often backfires. Here you work one-on-one with a licensed physical therapist, every visit, so the dose is adjusted to what your nerve actually tolerates that day.
Nerve tissue heals on its own schedule, so nobody honest hands you a number before examining you. What you get instead is a plan with an endpoint. After your evaluation you will hear when to expect the first real change and when you should no longer need us. You will always know which of the four phases you are in, Pain, Prime, Perform, or Prevent, and we reassess as you go rather than booking you indefinitely.
Book Your Visit
Ready when you are.
Request a time and Trupti calls you back herself. Not a front desk. Not ‘someone will reach out.’ The therapist who would actually treat you, on the phone, before you commit to anything.
- Hours Monday–Friday: 8 AM–6 PM · Saturday & Sunday: Closed
- (202) 670-8874 Rather just talk it through? The 15-minute phone consult is free.
- 30-minute Discovery Session first, before you commit to anything
4.9 · 86 Google reviews
Trupti calls you back herself
Step 1 of 5
Request sent.
That’s the hard part done. We’ll call during business hours to lock in your time.
Visit Us
Care this good, this close.
Manual Medicine Spine & Sports Physical Therapy
- 1725 I St NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20006 (opens in a new tab)
- (202) 670-8874
- Farragut West (Blue, Orange, Silver) is about a block away. Farragut North (Red) is roughly two. McPherson Square sits a few blocks east.
- info@mmsspt.com
- Monday–Friday: 8 AM–6 PM · Saturday & Sunday: Closed