Nothing to report, apart from being 730 days sober, which apparently equals 2 years. ;)

Awesome, just awesome. You are just fantastic, I know only to well how hard it can be and you should be giving yourself a clap on the back. Very well done.:hug:

ya got it going on
one day at a time
me

Congrats Wide-O! Keep on keeping on!!

SWEET! Good job, proud of ya my friend!

1065 days sober.

Took 10 days of vacation in MN and OH this past month with the lady. 2,200 miles of driving through multiple States and LOTS of walking.

We even took off one day and went exploring through a forest looking for an old mining cave. After 2 hours of corn fields, knee high grass, creek crossings, hills, mud and crawling through thick forest we found it! Then we had to turn around and find our way back....

4 hours of this was enough for my PN and I was ready for a nap!

Point is, I did it, and although I was sore as crap the next day I was proud that I can do this kind of thing again....and so can you!

Have a great day everyone!

Well I went a year, almost.
 

Hi gang. I would have one year complete abstinence on August 4, 2014, but I intentionally had a few adult beverages with some old friends (older than we want to admit ;) ) last week during a trip to St. Louis , Mo. It wasn't without considerable thought that I did this, so I wanted to, in the spirit of 'rigorous honesty', report my experience. I hadn't seen these two guys since the late 1970's, we were great friends growing up in high school and in college. These guys , and their wives, are not a huge Party Group, but I knew that alcohol would be quite available, and I gave a lot of thought about how I wanted to go forward.

In the past year, I have benefited greatly from avoiding alcohol. GREATLY!! And I think it would be pathetic to resume drinking like I did, especially now that I am enjoying retirement. However, with the much appreciated exception of complete absence of the occasional 'stabbing pain' I would have early on, my symptoms of numbness and other abnormal sensations of PN are considerably worse now than they were one year ago. Now, I am not that bad, in fact, I swim, play music, workout, I do about whatever I want, and it may be, in fact, that some of my more noticeable symptoms are the result of overdoing my workouts and activities. It seems that way sometimes. But I must say, that a bit of alcohol is much appreciated by me in certain situations, and I have decided to do that again. The reason: I am not at all sure my PN is from drinking, I find it hard to believe that my symptoms would be worse one year later if that was the case. Also, even if it is, I have decided a life of total abstinence is not what I want for my remaining time here on the planet, which I hope is very long indeed, and healthy. And if I find myself slipping back into old and self defeating drinking, I will stop again. I am not being a total nut here, I know that most people can't do this, and maybe I cant either. But it took a face to face meeting with old buddies to realize that this complete abstinence approach is just not for me at the moment.

I dont want to be be a bad example, and please dont resume bad habits because of this post, but I hadnt provided an update , and I do think honesty makes this thing work. I will from time to time provide updates, unless this post disturbs anyone unnecessarily, in which case I will not post anything similar.

I appreciate all the good stuff on here and good luck and keep at it, whatever path you pick, pick a healthy one for you. !!

I respect your decision and look forward to any updates :)

Well that didn't take long :) I dont want to feel like that again, Back to Day 1 for me. The very brief euphoria of alcohol is soon replaced by misery, at least for me, and I have demonstrated that over and over. So anyway, back at it. Now here is a question: Does anyone have access to the study I have mentioned, and others, about how PN symptoms from alcohol abuse get worse before they get better in many cases? The study noted that a "peeling back" process continues even tho alcohol use has stopped. For the life of me, I can not find the study , I have looked at Google Scholar and Pubmed.gov. Can not find it, and I would like to for obvious reasons: I want to see if I can find anything similar and I want to find out who did the study and try to contact them. Now that I have re-embraced abstinence after more "field research" as they say in the program, I suppose it really doesnt make much difference, but I would sure like to understand this better. How can you have a mild case of alcohol induced PN and have it get worse with a year of abstinence?? makes no sense to me. I know many of you get frustrated as I do, but does it actually get worse for you in total abstinence? I didnt think that was supposed to happen unless the symptoms are very severe.

Thanks!!

LOL, I was preparing a friendly, understanding, yet cautiously-skeptical-without-being-a-knowitall reply, and now this. :D

It's not easy, and it might be impossible. Once you crossed that bridge, moderation just doesn't seem like a valid option. It really is a 99% doesn't succeed story. Good thing you caught it early on.

I can't really help with the cause and effect situation when it comes to PN. I have separated the two in my mind and just decided that I don't want to drink anymore ever, and I'm going to do my utmost best to keep it that way. Been there, got burned, got sober, and still extremely happy I took that decision.

PN seems pretty elusive, and I really suspect co-morbidity plays a big role for many of us. I hurt my back on monday by misstepping, and now both my legs feel like they are asleep again - just like 4 years ago; that's how my PN started. In hindsight it seems that the "mechanical" nerve problem in my back jump started the PN that was already building through alcohol abuse/B12 deficiency. It doesn't hurt as bad as back then, but it did freak my out quite a bit. I was about 80% "cured", and didn't expect this to happen at all. "Not again!" was pretty much on my mind, coupled with a few well chosen swear words I won't repeat here.

I'm seeing an orthopedist in 2 weeks and hopefully he can get my back in working order again like last time.

Anyway, thanks for being honest. I do understand the thinking process behind it, I really do. Remember, that year is not "lost", and if you keep your mind to it, it will soon just be a distant blip, and a reminder that we do seem to have a small problem with ethanol. ;) Me I was on day 777 yesterday, and it's still fun seeing the number of "days without hangovers" go up.