So I went to see a doctor, who is going to run some blood tests, hope to try and see the reults by Monday or Tuesday, otherwise they are going to mail them to me. Anyway, he set me up to see another doctor on the 20th, who will then set me up for more doctor appointments. sigh!

I was thinking about having an EMG test done out of pocket. Does this sound worthwhile? My only reasoning being that whether it was positive, or negative, ect, that the results would tell me alot, or rule many things out? Does that sound right? Pretty new to it all. My only thing is, I'm right now 12 days away from seeing a doctor, and I doubt that If he gets me in for a EMG test through my free Parkland medical services, that it will take forever to get the appointment, or best case, another few weeks, which means it could be a month to get one, best case scenario.

Thoughts?

They also are staring me on one 300mg pill of Gabapentin tonight. My 25mgs every six hours of tramadol isn't perfect, but at least I was able to sleep last night and I'm not in constant pain. I'm am a little bit worried about going off the tramadol and just taking Gabapentin as wiki says it can take two weeks to get into your system as you slowly add the pills. Any thoughts on this?

Could I have Guillain–Barré syndrome or is that just cuckoo talk?

Ryan I wouldn't want to say what you have or don't have not being a physician and from just reading (though it is a thorough amount of info) but from books I've read many cases of GB, they can't even get out of bed. I could be wrong, though. As I said, layman here.

Neuropathy in of itself is tough and onset of any sort is difficult. Mine was not so sudden. I will reiterate the advise of attempting to stay calm through it as stress only exacerbates the symptoms, at least for me. I have a tremor in my arm that comes and goes depending on flares. Yesterday it was flapping away. Stress.

So if you can try and stay as calm as possible. I know, asking a lot when you have vibrating, burning et al, taking place.

I did not tolerate gabapentin well enough to titrate up so I can't comment on that. They wanted you to stop the tramadol though, huh?

Well, I wish you the best and hope you get quick appointments.

if you didn't, intentionally or not, convince the Dr to take you off the Tramadol. You sounded pretty freaked out about it being too strong in your last post. Going forward, you need to be careful in your communication w/Drs. If you sound hysterical, BAM, you get the label. Some patients carry in notes written in the calm and peace of your own home and it will cut down on the emotions that seem to take over if given an open floor for discussion. The EMG wil be forthcoming soon enough IMO and it might confirm Periferal Neuropathy but that about it. Later on you might get a skin biopsy to confirm another form called small fiber Neuropathy. Good Luck, Ken in Texas.

GBS typically is mostly motor, and comes with paralysis of some degree.

Some doctors do suggest that sensory symptoms may be a form
of GBS, but there is no proof of that.

EMGs are only valid for motor issues for the most part.

Here is a good overall article:
http://www.aafp.org/afp/1998/0215/p755.html

[QUOTE=mrsD;1192277]GBS typically is mostly motor, and comes with paralysis of some degree.

Some doctors do suggest that sensory symptoms may be a form
of GBS, but there is no proof of that.

EMGs are only valid for motor issues for the most part.

Here is a good overall article:
*I had to remove link as I can't post links yet.

I was drinking kind of heavily for the last few months. Heavy by my standards anyway. Doesn't an EMG tell you if you have alcoholic neuropathy? I looked at that flow chart on the website you posted. It looks like an EMG could tell me alot by what it shows or doesn't. Right?




So last night I started my Gabapentin. Hopefully this will help. One pill a night for the first five nights.

Long standing neuropathy from alcohol abuse may affect motor nerves, so an EMG will show that.

Sensory neuropathies tend to not show up on EMGs though.

Here is our alcohol recovery thread where some posters there may be able to help you.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread104096.html

This is a long thread, but covers quite a bit about alcohol abuse and recovery.

Thanks for all of your help. The more I think about it, the more sure I have alcoholic Neuropathy caused by a b12 defecency. I take a lot of antacids as well as pantoprazole acid reflex disease. and according to the thread you posted, antacids also cause a b12 deficiency. I also looked up pantaproazole, and that to maybe causes b12 defecencys! sigh!

I have a bunch of b12 on it's way, as well as many other vitamins, but I want to get started on the b12 and benfotiamine right away. I'm going to go to the vitamin store tomorrow. Please let me know a few things.

One, which brands would you recommend on both?

How much b12 can I start taking? I want to really load up on that ****. LOL

Two, it was mentioned in the thread that you posted that you have a vitamin list for alcoholic Neuropahthy? Can I get that exact list? Thanks. :-)

A point of clarification.

"Some drugs do contain fluorides..prozac for one."

Some drugs, like Prozac and the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics contain the element fluorine (F) linked in a covalent bond to the element carbon (C). The C-F bond is very strong - it is very unlikely that it will be cleaved during drug metabolism.

The anion fluoride (F-) is a controversial additive to drinking water in some places. The fluoride anion and a fluorine atom linked in a covalent bond to a carbon atom have very different chemical properties - fluorine and fluoride are not the same thing.

You can start with 5mg of methylcobalamin a day on an empty stomach. Just chew it up and swallow with some water. Walgreen's has it as well as Costco and Sam's club.

It is unlikely you will find benfotiamine in a local store. But maybe you will if you go to a good health food outlet. It will cost more locally. iherb.com, swanson's, vitacost, etc have it.
I use Doctor's Best brand. You can start with regular thiamine if you can't find it, at 100mg 3 times a day. All stores carry this form and it is less costly. Vitamin B1 is a mainstay for alcoholism recovery.

MANY pop tums like they are candy. One friend ended up losing most of thyroid due to calcium deposits on her thyroid as her MD told her Tums was OK for calcium needs!!!

I can remember my sil and daughter living on tums during their marriage. Sadly he died at 55 and she now takes DGL which protects the stomach and especially for ulcer issues...DGL addresses reflux, heartburn, gerd..... I found DGL about 6 yrs ago as I ended up with stomach ulcer from pharma anti inflammatory many yrs ago.