Hi,
It's not too late to become a scientist, and if you aim for graduate degrees you will only take science classes, not general education classes. Nerve regeneration is not my exact specialty, but I believe stem cell research has shown the most progress in nerve regrowth so far. The last I heard, a few years ago, researchers had reconnected the severed spinal chord of a frog. With recent limitations on stem cell research lifted, progress in this area should speed up.
To address your particular problem, I would suggest you concentrate on neurological development, stem cell technology, and perhaps biotechnology. Electrical engineering is too much of a mechanical macroscopic aproach to apply to a biological system. Nanotech may be useful, but you should start to approach the problem from a biological perspective.
Specifically, you may not even want to pursue a science degree if you just want to focus on fixing yourself. A formal program will have many requirements not exactly aimed at fixing your problem. I suggest you watch the movie Lorenzo's Oil, it's about a regular Joe who's son was diagnosed with ALS. Nerve damage is more complicated though. But if I were you, I would begin by picking up a book. Start reading everything you can. Begin with text books on neurology, then go to medical libraries and start searching journal articles until you know where the frontier of the science is. What is the state of the art?
Once you reach that point you will hit a wall. You will have ideas on what to do, you may even think you know how to cure, or fix, yourself, but you will not be able to do so. Here's why... it's expensive, you won't be able to afford the resources. People with the resources are MDs or MD/PhDs who have been training their whole lives to get a chance to do this work. They are publicly funded, and are somewhat forced to address issues that affect large populations.
I wish I could tell you how to get around the system, how to just figure out how to fix yourself and then do it. I've been trying to do similar things for the last decade, a lot of people are. You'll be competing with everyone for resources. Biological research isn't like theoretical physics, or math, or economics. Stephen Hawking was confined to a wheelchair and became a world expert by applying himself to his subject, but he could form postulates and thought experments and progress the science in his condition. But for biological research you will need resources, cell lines, mice, complete understanding, time, facilities, and the tools to work with these things. If you develope a way to turn astem cell into a nerve cell, how will you get it to the exact spot it needs to be, how will it incorporate into your system, how can you prevent your body from rejecting it?
You will end up losing yourself in a system where the amount of information, and possibility, far exceed the capacity to utilize the information. It will be amazingly frustrating.
But at least you've been warned. Now, all I can say is you only live once. Your condition is an opportunity to become the next Stephen Hawking, but only for nerve regeneration. Throw yourself at the problem and see what you can do.
In a more practical sense, I woud say get involved in research. Just work in a lab and learn how the work is done, see how you can get things done from the inside. How you can get around the system. Use academia, not necessarily to get a degree, but because it will give you access to the resources--the degree is secondary.
Good luck.