Mom made me leave for thanksgiving and I was pissed when I saw the field storm . Glad you had a blast bro ! <| sep |> I ' m a little late to the party here , but hopefully this ' ll still help . When a neuron is damaged in the PNS , the axon segment that is distal to the lesion cut begins to be degraded , and phagocytosed by local macrophages as well as by Schwann cells which normally create the axon ' s myelin sheathing . That process of axonal degradation is known as Wallerian Degeneration . The Schwann cells will then secrete local neurotrophic growth factors , which not only stimulate axonal growth , but they also encourage growth in a particular direction toward the Schwann cells and soft tissue by generating a chemical cytokine gradient for the growing axon to follow . Since the axons follow that neurotrophic gradient , and since it ' s generated mainly by Schwann cells , axonal regrowth usually occurs toward soft tissues which require more innervation and not toward harder tissues which require less innervation .