Just wanted to check back in. Since my last post I did a lot of research regarding Opiates in general, specifically Oxycontin for me, in relation to neuropathy.

The evidence of a direct link between opioid use and neuropathy is there on more 'official' websites such as the drugs.com or mayo clinic. And there are literally 100's of stories correlating the link on forums such as Medhelp and Bluelight.

The official route is that Oxycontin has a 'less common' or 'rare' side effect of causing 'burning, tingling, crawling sensations in hands, arms, legs or feet'. Sound familiar?

And on the forums I've read of users talking about how using Oxycontin causes PN and when they switch to morphine they're ok; people using fentanyl patches who developed tingling hands but went away around a couple of months free of the patches; chronic pain sufferers describing the hell like cycle between Oxycontin relieving them of their original pain and the PN feelings, but then ultimately they have come to realise it is actually part of the cause of their pain. Even as far as heroin users talking about a side of their body going completely numb for 6 months after injecting.

In the world of alcohol abuse we call our neuropathic pain PN or Alcohol Induced Neuropathy, in the Opioid abuse world they call it RLS (restless leg syndrome) but ultimately the symptoms are identical. AND more dammingly, seemingly almost every user who goes through heavy withdrawals from Opioids suffer some kind of 'crazy legs' or 'charlie horses' as they describe it.

For me personally, the link was very obvious (this is repeated before but I like to be able to read people's stories / timelines when trying to work out what might be happening with me):

Around last October I had my first symptoms of Neuropathy on a sunday - I quit drinking that day and went to the Dr's the following week - Liver enzymes 5 x higher than the upper health limit and all round vitamin deficiencies (especially B's). Changed my lifestyle and the symptoms disappeared 3 weeks later.
I began drinking again a month later, neuropathy returned even worse - stopped again and 3 weeks later it was gone.
Began taking 45mg/day Oxycontin in hospital for treatment of pancreatic attack and after 1 month my neuropathy returned. I quit the Oxy as I left the hospital and it was gone in a week.
Had trouble with more pain and went to see my Dr. who told me there was no link with PN and Opioids and prescribed a dose to 80mg/day (she told me my PN returned due to vitamin deficiency caused by the pancreatic attack). After 2 weeks of this dose my PN came back very strong but it was much more tingly / crawly when I believed it was Opioid induced than it was numb / dead when I believe it was alcohol induced.
I went to the doctors again to check on my blood results to show the cause of my neuropathy but here was the problem...no diabetes, liver enzymes very healthy (I was about 10 weeks alcohol free at this point), B vitamins doing great - high but not too high to indicate lack of absorption etc. The Dr. said it'll still be the pancreatic attack and to not worry. But the pain was incredible, so I booked in with a different Dr and the first thing he said was 'Yeh, Opioids especially Oxycontin has a strong link to pain in the extremities. People have tingling, crawling, burning sensations in their feet, hands and face sometimes'.
So that was last Monday (I quit all Oxycontin use that day) and today is Sunday - Well, I am much, much better. My neuropathy pain was only going one way, worse, and it is now gradually improving. At times I can't even feel the tingling and then it comes back. It's worse in the morning but after a day of activity it's not that noticeable on an evening, and doesn't wake me up now - and this is from being an all consuming pain.

So my theory is this - I damaged my nerves through 5 or 6 years of heavy wine drinking (seems to be a theory out there that wine and spirits are worse than beer) but abstinence and a very healthy diet and exercise brought me back around. The Oxycontin I was taking which usually only affects the nerves of long term or abusive users managed to attack my already weakened nerves within weeks.