Hi 10decisions

Welcome to NeuroTalk.

A few thoughts which I hope that you will find helpful:

My understanding and experience is that alcohol-induced PN is insidious - it does not switch on and off depending on whether somebody is drinking or not.

I see that you a taking a lot of supplements - are there any medical reasons for this? I know about some of them.

When I stopped drinking my psychiatrist prescribed thiamine for a month because thiamine levels in people who drink to excess can be depleted. He stressed that taking it for longer than that is, in the absence of a medical reason, not necessary and may have adverse health outcomes. I followed his clinical judgement.

Papaya enzymes (probably papain) and digestive enzymes (could be anything) are just proteins. Your gut has many digestive enzymes which rapidly break down ingested proteins, including enzymes, into their constituent amino acids. Because of this I doubt that taking enzymes as supplements would be of much benefit.

There is reasonable evidence that manuka honey has antibiotic properties. I use it, applied topically, when I have minor cut or graze. Apart from that it is just honey which I eat because I enjoy it. I doubt that eating it has any special health benefits compared to any other kind of honey.

All the best.

Thanks for replying. Most of the supplements are for general health and I added about half after the Pancreatic attack.

Spending time every morning and night going through them and researching helps me to not drink.

Well it's been 24 hours since I stopped the morphine opioid tablets and I would say there's an improvement in my symptoms, probably about 25%. it has been coming and going over the last two weeks but I think that was related to the pain killers I was taking a lot off numbing me, I'm now totally pain killer free.

My general understanding from reading lots of forums is that the significant majority of people and almost all young people who quit alcohol within months of experiencing sysmptoms make a full recovery, and that was my experience, hence my confusion.

The feelings are different this time. It used to be stabbing pains and incredible weakness....now it is just tingling throughout my extremities. Given I have had and have so many side effects from the morphine I'm going to hope it's that and hope it goes as that leaves my body. My doctor said it will take a few days to a week so we will find out soon.

I am far worse since not drinking, perhaps because I am not numbing my body with booze or perhaps I am trying to be a bit more active. I also believe I have neuropathy damage to the vegus nerve as my heart races a lot.
This is hell and would be so easy to crawl back into the bottle but that will only help for the moment and what has put me in this painful situation. The neuropathy is throughout my body but my poor legs, weak, wobbly and on fire.
The one day at a time thing won't work for me now. Better to look down the road 1 to 5 years hoping for improvement. That is what keeps me going.
Good Lord, what have I done to myself? You young ones, smarten up before it is too late. Your chances for a full recovery are still good.
I am forever grateful for this forum to share. No one knows that I am an alcoholic as I am a loner because of the disease and when I do go out I would never drink as I know one or two would never be enough and my secret would be out. Family and others in my very small world know about the neuropathy but I blame it on unknown reasons. Only here can I share that I have done this damage to myself.

Hi, just thought I would check in. I can't believe my first post in this thread was back in 2014 and I was only at 209 days! I'm now at 1,252! My neuropathy didn't improve and I will be doing a trial with a spinal cord stimulator in hopes of obtaining some relief. I'm going to do a trial with the St Jude Proclaim with burst technology that has shown positive results with neuropathy. Also, I have learned that Cipro, a strong antibiotic in the fluoroquinolone class may have contributed. My feet were ok until I was hospitalized for pancreatitis. I was in ICU for 7 days and hospital for 15. When I got out my feet were awful and I could hardly walk. It was always considered alcoholic neuropathy and I believe alcohol made me more susceptible to the effects of the antibiotics. A perfect storm so to speak. I was curious if anyone else has seen a link of alcohol, fluoroquinolone antibiotics and peripheral neuropathy? This could be why my condition is severe (large fiber) and did not or will not improve. I know alcohol can only make it worse and I can honestly say I am really enjoying life alcohol free! My wife also quit and our restaurant bills are about half now!

Okone, congrats on your sobriety but sure wish you had better news to report about your neuropathy. Thanks for checking in.

Alcohol is one of the best (if not THE best) PN pain killers, sadly. That's what kept me in a loop for a year after being diagnosed before deciding to get sober. I knew from a first attempt there would be hell to pay in the beginning. But I also knew it would keep me out of a wheelchair.

It will not continue to be as painful as now. But I can sympathize that the first months feel like hell, almost like a "wrong choice". It's not.

10decisions, secondchances, Okone1, KingTut...

Another welcome to all of you and I am so glad to see new faces that are looking for answers to this quirky ailment we have. It will never be a cut and dry fix but the socialization here along with bouncing ideas of each other is priceless.

Keep it going!

Oh yeah, 2039 days sober today. Been doing Yoga for 3 weeks now and I find it a little boring. I also found a Chiropractor about an hour north of me that specializes in PN....hmmm.

Your words of encouragement came at the most perfect time. I was filled with self loathing, fear, regret, pity and much physical pain and crippling leg weakness to the point I had given up and almost sought solace in the bottle. Knowing that it can get worse before better saved me. Going forward I will go with "One day at a time" instead of my last plan of looking down the road 1-5 years in hope of improvement. Thank you my friend.

Awesome job on 2039 days Icehouse .

I can relate to yoga - I tried it when I was in a psychiatric hospital, dealing with my clinical depression and alcohol abuse - one of the nurses there taught it.

I learned a bit about stretching exercises which I still use but its technicalities passed me by.

SecondChances, "One day at a time" surely worked for me and I hope that it will for you too.

Does anyone else feel that their speech has been affected by alcoholic SFN?