@bluesky222 I don't recall the MA being alarmed by the "shadow." I believe she thought it merely "interesting" in light of my admission of long-ago drinking. She certainly didn't link it to PN. PN wasn't even on the radar at the time. Since receiving my PN diagnosis, I have mentioned the drinking to my various neurologists, thinking one at least would cry, "A-ha!" but none has. It may be, as you say, PN as a result of alcohol generally comes on quickly. When I mention 30 years of sobriety, the most I'll get as a response is, "Oh, well, alcohol may have been a contributing factor, but a minor one, but certainly it's not THE factor."

@bluesky222 - Just another example of how unsure Neurologists are in understanding causes and symptoms of PN. I have shared just about possible idea I’ve had with the Neurologists I’ve had from the different states I’ve lived in over the 7 years I’ve had this idiopathic thing. Anything from chemical exposures throughout my career to possible poor drinking water in vacation rentals to eating a lot of seafood. I even asked to be tested for arsenic poisoning since there were no good explanations. When I have suggested any types of my beer/wine consumption over the years, they’ve ruled it out because I did NOT have gradual or worsening symptoms over a period of time. They said the numbness & tingling usually presented awhile then would gradually get worse to varying degrees as time goes on. I guess also because blood suggested no vitamin or nutritional deficiencies that usually go with extraordinary alcohol use, and probably other symptoms. They also are unable to know for sure if an infection I had at the time my PN hit me had anything to do with it. My point is that there are a only a few causes of PN that doctors seem to be sure about in diagnosing, and for the other causes, doctors seem to be grasping at straws like we are. I finally got to @njed state of focusing on how we can improve or maintain the hand we’ve been dealt vs wasting valuable energy on trying to figure it out ourselves since trained Neurologists aren’t able to even get consensus on what we might think are the simplest things. They seem to agree that once you know you have PN, that alcohol won’t help it, so I’ve chosen to avoid it altogether now. I can’t say it helped anything since it had been awhile since my PN hit that I had a glass, but don’t want to test to see if having one now might make me worse. I’m going with Ed’s idea that we probably got it from chasing mosquito spraying trucks in our youth 🙂