Amazing work and funds re-allocated!!

That is awesome Wide-O .

Maybe think about a special "just for me" reward with some of the money that you have saved by not buying alcohol or ciggies in recognition of your achievements?

I was painfully made aware of this a few weeks ago. My piano technician had restored this absolutely incredible Steinway B grand piano. He let me play it, and it sounded like heaven. Not all of them do BTW, the name in itself doesn't guarantee you'll have a brilliant instrument, but this one surely was it. A once of a lifetime opportunity, as it was for sale. It was meant to be a wedding gift from a dad to his SOL. The piano was found in a castle, in a total state of disrepair. My buddy was able to restore it to its former glory though. 3 months of hard labor.

Then, the marriage was cancelled at the last minute. Dad was seriously ticked off, and had no space, so he told my tech "just get rid of it, I never want to see it again". My tech/buddy - who's married to my piano teacher, said: "This would be a fantastic instrument for you."

"If only I had $60,000 to throw away on this." was my reaction. As that was the asking price. Now, I know that sounds like a lot, but for this instrument, $120,000 would have been reasonable too. Which made me think of all the money I had thrown away over the years. And even just saving the last 4.5 years would have made this possible.

Oh well, I have a great piano, and I'm not even worthy of such an instrument yet. I'll get there though. But I'll think of something a wee bit more small scale as a gift to myself.

I stumbled across a pain management physical therapy program that supposedly helps give diabetic patients some relief from neuropathy. One of the therapy techniques used is dry needling. From what little I know, the process is similar to acupuncture so I have scheduled a consult for next week. I will certainly report back after my appointment.

My consult with the Physical Therapist was a waste of time. They said they can not do this dry needling anymore in that in the last 48 hours the law was changed and can only be performed by medical doctors but I was also given misinformation in that it does not help with neuropathy anyway. I was so disappointed.

Welcome young lady! Your post makes me cringe, mostly because I have flashbacks to the days when my body and alcohol got in fights, and the body rarely won.

Continue on this path and things will work out....good job!

No improvement here but it is so early on in my recovery. I had hoped for a miracle I guess. My neuropathy is quite advanced in that I was diagnosed with it over 4 years ago but I still choose the booze and in that time it continued to advance. I can tolerate the pin and needles and burning but it is the weakness and shaky limbs that are so troublesome. Just hoping in time I can regain back some of what has been lost.
Just checking in in hopes of keeping this forum active.

You really need to give it a bit of time. For me it took almost a year before I noticed a marked improvement. I had also cleaned up my diet, as sugar is very similar to alcohol where the liver is concerned. A diet that is geared towards lessening inflammation really did work for me.

We can't easily rebuild what we damaged over several years in a couple of weeks. Keep busy, avoid excessive stress and anxiety, enjoy being sober, enjoy doing the right thing.

What Wide-O has suggested also worked for me.

I try to eat in a healthy way (no added sugar and minimal highly-processed food) and exercise regularly; I walk for about an hour a day which is good for my aerobic fitness and also lets me notice the sights and sounds of what I experience on my walk (mindfulness).

It took about a year for my neuropathy to subside (it was relatively minor and largely confined to my hands). All I have left is a bit of essential tremor in them which does not affect me to any great degree.

I thought I'd share my story...it starts off very predictable and takes a slight turn!

I drank heavily from 22 until 27 1/2. Around October last year I noticed pain / numbness in my legs...Googled the potential causes and found PN. So I decided to stop drinking. I spent a week with terrible insomnia but got over it, didn't drink for 3 weeks and all numbness, pain etc disappeared. I went back to regular boxing training and all was well.

I then succumbed to drinking again...binged for 4 days (about 4 bottles of wine per night) and had all the signs of PN back again - I was absolutely certain this time it was caused by PN. Went to my doctor's, was prescribed with the usual B vitamins and abstained again. After 3 weeks I again returned back to full fitness...running in the morning and back to work and training.

Stupidly...I went to Ireland to meet a friend from the States (I'm English) and drank to moderation and didn't get PN. I didn't even think about it again but was aware of limiting my drinking.

December 16th 2016 I travel to Houston for the start of a month long road trip with some friends from England. On the 4th night I start getting stomach pains and go down with Acute Severe Pancreatitis, caused by Hyperlipidermia (which they believe was caused by excessive wine and orange juice - I loved a mimosa)!

So 2 weeks in intensive care later (and still no signs of PN) I return back to England with my poor girlfriend and father who flew out to Dallas to come back with me. I went to see my GP on return who referred me to the hospital who admitted me. Two more weeks in hospital and they told me I was free to go.

By this point I hadn't drank since 20th December and it was 20th January, and I actually felt quite good...and I'd decided to never drink again.

But after 2 days out the hospital....the 22nd January, my PN came back to a small degree and made life awkward for a couple of weeks until it then went again. It didn't come back too bad so I didn't notice it go.

Then I have 2 weeks of great health..no PN, I'm training lots, still no alcohol, and my work life is going fantastic. In that time I went to see the doctor about the stomach pain I was still getting from Pancreatitis - this didn't bother me at all as it was very much to be expected after such a serious illness. She gave me an increase in my dosage of Oxycondone (Oxynorm / Ocycontin - an Opiod!) to the point of it doubling my previous daily dose I had from being in hospital.

From that point on for the following 2 weeks up until today, 27th Feb, I have had very bad burning, tingling and pins and needles return in my extremities...knees down to feet, and to a lesser extent my left hand. So I went to the doctors today to receive my blood tests I'd asked for a week previous and they said they were 'excellent' - nutritionally balanced, cholesterol, ALT levels...everything was where they'd like it. So I asked the question to my Dr...I have not drank any alcohol since I quit and my PN disappeared completely, where has this come from?

His ideas where as follows:

Oxycodone:
As I was reporting suffering of many side effects to this already - red face, constipation, itching, dizziness, feeling faint, irregular heart beat.

The doctor said that I wasn't experiencing PN but instead the side effects of the Opioid Oxycodone, because the common side effects also include feeling weak; tingling in hands and feet; pain in the extremities and a burning feeling across the body.

Therefore, if I stop taking this and take some Amitriptyline to help it along its way I will be fine in no time. He also had another potential theory...

Pancreatitis:
Because my body and mainly digestive system had been recently under so much stress from the Pancreatitis that I probably had a vitamin deficiency while in hospital and I'm suffering the affects of that now...and it's just a case of waiting. Which could be true as they told me in Dallas I had Anaemia which went away.

So, where does this leave me...

When I knew the alcohol was to blame I could handle the pain and the constant frustration because I felt I knew the cause and would be healing myself soon by abstinence...but now I don't know why it's back for sure, I feel so down. The only thing that kept my mood up previously was the Oxycodone because that killed the pain for awhile...and now I can't take that because the Dr. thinks that that is the cause.

Does anyone have any experience of knowledge of PN with Pancreatitis or PN type symptoms from taking an Opioid which turn out not to be PN?

Can anyone guess how I managed to make full recoveries previously but now it's come back without drinking any alcohol...and it seemed very, very, very closely linked to alcohol previously - I've also had tests to exclude the possibility of Diabetes.

Please some good news...how I'm feeling I don't want to wait years for this to stop hurting.

Supplement wise, here's what I've taken daily since November:

Inulin
Milk Thistle
Aloe Vera
B Vitamin Complex
Thiamine
CQ 10
Papaya Enzyme
Digestive Enzymes
Multi Vit
Lipoic Acid
Ginger Root
Tumeric
Grapeseed Extract
Garlic
Primrose Oil
Bioglan Supergreens
Bioglan Greens Boost
Ginseng
Manuka Honey
Selenium
Magnesium