--though I'm sorry for the situations that have brought you here. You're right, though; we are a very caring and empathetic bunch.

Reading your post, I wonder if you have multiple, distinct issues, given you mention a spinal as well as alcohol history. One of the nasty things about diagnosing neural symptoms is that issues with the spine, from cord compression to nerve root compromise, can be exactly mimicked by those of more systemic problems such as alcohol-mediated neuropathy. And, as regards the latter, there's still some question as to whether the nerve damage is due to the alcohol outright or more due to the nutritional deficiencies inherent to alcohol abuse, especially depletions of B-vitamins.

Here are two forums it would be good to look around in for more info in these areas--

The peripheral neuropathy forum:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum20.html

The Spinal Disorders forum:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/fo...sprune=-1&f=22