Good evening all. I am moved by what I have read so far as it certainly sounds like my symptom trail. I have been diagnosed with Neuropathy but not specified. Would appreciate engaging with you folks as this is all new to me and I want to understand what is happening and what I can do about it.

I have been a binge drinker for several years so in my honesty with my Doc led him to believe it might be self induced.
However out of 4 living males I being the second youngest at 53 am the only one with these symptoms. I am an intelligent, engaged ,family committed business owner who still works out every other day for an hour and see myself as being in better shape than most my age.
I am told I have a disc that is shot in my lower back but they are asking me to take blood test already sent off to Athena Diagnostics.
Athena says that they are the only company who does the test ordered by my Doc. It is coded in their system as Test Code 287 which looks at Guillain-Barré Syndrome, Hu paraneoplastic syndrome, Anti-GM1 motor neuropathy, Anti-MAG neuropathy, Sulfatide neuropathy, GALOP neuropathy.
Are these test worth the 3K out of pocket and or should I push the back issue more? I am not buying the alcohol thing and not as denial of abuse but rather I am not an every day get the shakes drinker.
One other thing that strikes me with the infection hypothesis being the source, I did contract MYRSA prior to my symptoms is that something you all have seen or heard about in relation to the disease? Sorry for rambling just part of my nature to control my environment.....My wife hates it.....LOL

I still wanted to believe it was my back but am leaning towards

Hmn--it seems as if you're already familiar with the problem in diagnosing peripheral nerve symptoms--problems in the back and spine can produce symptoms almost exactly mimicked by those of more systemic causes.

What type of work-up have you had already? It seems interesting that the test you mentioned was ordered for you, as it represents a search for rather rare causes of neuropathy. Moreover, Athena is not the only lab that does those tests--Quest and others certainly do (I've had them all). But have you had a multii-hour glucose tolerance test, antibody tests, tests for vitamin/nutrient/toxin levels yet? (Alcohol abuse can lead to neuropathy, but it is more often from nutrient depletion than the alcohol itself.) And have you had directed nerve conduction studies to see if your back might be the cause of all this (I assume you've had an MRI)?

This clinical application paper lists the initial line of serum tests for neuropathy causes--check it against what you've had done:

http://www.questdiagnostics.com/hcp/...eralNeurop.htm

And, do come on over to our peripheral neuropathy forum, if you haven't already:

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

Welcome to NeuroTalk.

It is possible the antibiotics you took were toxic to your nerves.

Can you remember their names?

I can't recall. I will find out though. Indeed the MYRSA was in close proximity on my back to the bad disc but I have had a problem with my back since High School. I need to get my MRI to the Doc as he claimed he has not seen it. I have a call in for Monday for the Neurologist regarding the testing as it strikes me that he should not of ordered these test until he ruled out the issue with my back diagnosed after CT scan as Degenerated Disc L5-S1. Am I wrong?

There are many drugs that are known to cause Peripheral Neuropathy.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread122889.html

Flagyl, Levaquin, Cipro, Zyvox, Avelox, are possibilities for you if they gave any of these to you for your Mrsa treatments. Or if you used them for other purposes in the past.

Please read the thread, there are more listed.

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Happy to see you have come to be with us. Just let us know if we can be of any help.

There are great number and caring fellow members here to assist you. Our shoulders are here for support in many ways.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Darlene