10decisions

Hi, new to the site and relatively new to being sober! I'm 28 years old, didn't drink until 22 and drank heavy since then. First Jack Daniels and Coke, then Cider, then finally wine.

I only really planned to surf around the forums and take advice, but I really wanted to put my experience with being diagnosed with Alcohol Neuropathy.

After 12 days of being sober I relapsed and spent 6 days drinking pretty heavy. On the final day, a Sunday, I woke up and my legs were numb and had tingling down them, and the odd shooting pain in my hands. Occasionally my feet would burn. This will sound familiar to some! So I decided enough was enough, abstained from my usual 'straightener' in the morning and began staying sober.

I thought this was yet another attempt to clean up my act, but hoped for success. I've continued relationships and work etc, but all suffered badly from my drinking. I arranged to see my doctor on the Monday...my brother is 3 months sober and he advised this course of action.

I attended the surgery, we discussed alcohol and then she diagnosed me with AN, and told me that the nerve damage is none reversible and permanent. An initial google seemed to back the up...and I felt like my world had ended. I subsequently spent endless hours researching every forum online and found 50-60 stories which went 'Had AN or PN, abstained from drinking and it went in the end'. Which gave me hope.

So I've gone from struggling to walk with numbness and burning, to today being able to train as normal at the gym...altho the feeling wasn't quite normal, there was no pain and I could almost do what I used to be able to in terms of activity. And that's over 3 weeks. The pains and numbness still return, but the initial prognosis of 'it's permanent' and none reversible certainly hasn't been true for me.

So here has been my diet for the last 3 weeks:

0 alcohol

Daily supplements:
Thiamine - doctor prescribed to increase deficient B vitamin levels in alcoholics
B vitamine compound - doctor prescribed again as above
Alpha Lipoic Acid - improves function of nerves
Tumeric - pain and inflammation
Magnesium - some people have found low levels of magnesium to cause their PN
Folic Acid - recommended by many sufferers
Coenzyme Q10 - as above

And I then try to eat a generally healthy and varied diet.

I've always walked for an hour each day.

My symptoms haven't gone but have reduced by 75%. My new doctor told me that if action is taken early to stop drinking and drastically improve your health, then Alcohol Neuropathy is reversible or at least recoverable to a manageable state in almost every case.

So there is hope. It's not a life sentence like many articles online, and many doctors will have you believe.

Hopefully my recovery continues.

Fusion

Yes, I had 'alcoholic neuropathy' in my hands. Every night I would awaken, and my hands were 'dead' no feeling, but still painful, if that makes sense. It would sometimes occur in the day also.

After stopping drinking just over two months ago, the symptoms have completely disappeared and I no longer suffer: I have cured myself.

Since stopping drinking, I too took the usual recommended daily supplements and feel that they were beneficial, supplemental to the main benefit and effect of abstinence.

SnazzyDresser

The numbness in my feet has improved a little in the 5 months since I quit. Chief Bromden mentioned in another thread that his neuropathy had decreased over years iirc. So yeah, it's not open-and-shut that it's irreversible in my experience. Obviously people should ask their doctors etc.

Good to hear yours is getting better, 10Decisions!

Dee74

Welcome 10Decidions - glad to hear you're getting some relief

D

10decisions

Tatsy - brilliant news, hopefully by your stage I will have healed myself too!

Snazzydresser - Are you taking all of the recommended supplements? Exercising and how's the diet? Did you drink for any time after you started to have the symptoms of neuropathy? Sorry for all the questions, I'm just very curious about people's recovery depending on their circumstances!

Dee74 - Thank you.

Erratic

Hi 10 x

The specialist alcohol doctor who i see is a big promoter on thiamine as not just that we get deficient in b vits but it helps the central nervous system in repairing and stop further damage. Thats what she thinks so i have since and before my dtox have taken 3 times a day for couple of months now. xx

Great job on improving ur situation xx

Verdantia

I had the same symptoms you described, 10d to the point that I could hardly walk and also had very bad leg cramps. I took lots of thiamine and B-complex vitamins. I had relief after a month and after 6 months they'd gone away completely, so I agree that the damage can be somewhat reversed.

PurpleKnight

Welcome to the Forum 10decisions!!

Steely

Great news 10decisions. So many benefits found in stopping, hey?

10decisions

Thanks for the support guys.

Unfortunately 3 days after my post...and feeling fully recovered in terms of Neuropathy and feeling excellent mentally I decided to share a bottle of wine with my partner.

I hid my drinking pretty well in the past and not realising I had a big problem...she encouraged me to have a drink with her on the Sunday over a meal out, which I did...and then she went home and got on while her normal life while I spent the next 5 days drinking heavily to the point of passing out regularly, and hiding away from her and my work colleagues - I can work remotely so it's not all bad work wise.

Well by the Friday morning I could barely walk again with the Alcoholic Neuropathy, extreme burning sensation now in hands and feet, and complete muscle weakness. It came back so, so quick this time, and probably felt even worse. We'd booked a weekend away for the Christmas markets and I went but was in an awful state...couldn't really talk, looked awful, barely had any clean clothes so was wearing stuff I wouldn't even wear to my gym out for meals while she was dressed immaculately...all reminding how much drink takes away your dignity.

So today is Tuesday lunch and I've not drank since Friday morning (weirdly the morning is by far my favourite time to drink...if I make it to the afternoon I seem to lose the desire even mid binge), been back on all of my supplements, healthy diet and been walking 2-3 hours per day. This time I had complete insomnia Friday, Saturday and Sunday night...not 1 hour of sleep in 3 nights, so yesterday I was prescribed Valium by my doctor, which really helped last night.

I took 5 x 5mg yesterday, and should take 4 x 5mg today, slowly tapering off to none at all by 7-10 days. At the 2 week stage, apparently you can become very addictive to valium. But to be honest, the better I'm feeling, the less I feel like I need it. But knowing my personality...having been addicted to everything from smoking to much more serious drugs in years gone by (now clean of all), I'm very very conscious of replacing one problem with another even easier to conceal problem.

So an update on the numbness, burning and weak feeling...well on my fourth day of sobriety the burning has gone, the unbearable tingling is gone and replaced by an annoying tingling. The muscle weakness is significantly improved. I really do thank g-d because I have read a lot about people who are diagnosed with AN, and repeatedly drink just simply cannot recover in the end because the damage is too much. I have no idea yet if I'll get back to the perfect state I got to last time after almost 4 weeks, but if it improves another 50% I could live with it.

So after this episode I have had to come clean with everyone about my drink problem...parents, partner, work colleagues and some friends. And it feels great. I'm attending my first AA meeting tomorrow night, and a second on Thursday and a third on Friday. My brother, who attends about 5 AA meetings a week, has suggested I try a few places first before picking one, and even potentially regularly attend more than one.

I do feel like the weight has lifted now I have revealed my problems, and my partner has been amazing. I've wanted a baby for awhile...we've been together from 17 with a 3 year gap in the middle, but she has a very successful career and wanted to wait until 30. Well last night she told me if I can demonstrate genuine change she's happy to start trying in 3-4 months.

I really do now know beyond any doubt that I cannot ever drink again. 1 drink turns into a 5 day binge, which turns into barely being able to walk, continue my career or even maintain a relationship. And the added motivation of starting a family has really brought this home to me.

Hopefully I'll be reporting back with better news in a week, month and a year.

Ariesagain

Thank you for this update. My husband has neuropathy in his left arm and hand and he blames it on shingles, because he does have postherpetic neuralgia...on the other side. Since I quit drinking nearly 11 months ago, he has cut waay back and I have just now realized because of your post that he hasn't been complaining about that hand pain waking him up for a while now.

Hope things continue to improve for you!

August252015

Thanks for the update. I think AA is a great plan and your brother has some very sound thoughts. I am just nine months sober and I work a program similar to his- 4 to 6 meetings a week, at my MWF home group each of those days work schedule allows, and meetings of different kinds at two other clubhouses (both quite different in make up than my home group). The people with long term sobriety whom I respect seem to maintain this diversity- and many, the level of attendance- years into the program. Good luck. Perhaps the suggestion of 90 (meetings) in 90 (days) will make sense to you so you really give AA a shot.

I was given a year, 18 months to quit when I saw my (then new) liver dr in Feb. I quit cold turkey from a handle of vodka roughly every two days habit. I went through pretty significant PAWS (have you read about this? check digitaldharma.net for a super article) for about 100 days. That included a lot of AN symptoms; I wasn't dx, perhaps because we put my symptoms in the PAWS category and were focused on other things like my liver. Those symptoms have faded or gone away. Now I get tingling or cramping - my feet often are very tight and it can be hard to take my first few steps in the AM- occasionally that I largely associate with working long hours in a restaurant, not my alcoholism. Could be some of both, but it's very livable.

ScottfromWI (and others) often mention that our symptoms and ailments when we quit usually get worse every time we start over. I was such a critical case that I had one last shot at getting sober and will never take another as I know it would lead to death, whether in a week, a few months or a year or two; I'd be back where I was and probably worse (which is hard to imagine!).

You can make this your last round of getting started.

Good luck.

JudicatorPanzer

During my first week of sobriety I had a weird pain in my calves and my hands would get tingly and go numb. Thankfully it went away, but boy did it suck!