Brief Answer:
Heavy alcohol consumption may affect this area

Detailed Answer:
Good morning sir. My name is Dr. Saghafi and I'm a neurologist in the XXXXXXX OH area. I'd like to give you some thoughts on your question.

The numbness that you're feeling at the bottom of the ribcage where they placed the incision is a leftover effect of the surgery because of the fact they needed to cut through nerves that give sensation and feeling to the skin and structures below the skin. Once cut, regeneration and healing are either incomplete or take an extremely long time to get back to normal.

Think of the cut nerve endings then, as the "weak link" in a chain of electrical conduction of sensory information from your skin to the brain. If the severed nerves can heal and if that healing process is reasonably complete and you get some sensation back you know that electrical signals are now being transmitted, right? However, they are going over "lines" that were severely damaged.

Therefore, if another insult were to come along in the future and do anything to disrupt their ability to carry on at full strength (given the fact they are now in a weakened disposition) you would once again start noticing numbness, tingling, perhaps even pain if they really start to function badly.

You've identified one particular risk factor of causing these nerves to work at less than their full capability which is heavy drinking. Alcohol tends to "deaden" nerves throughout the body. That includes nerves and their connection at the level of the brain as well as throughout the body to the different organs and to the skin. Think of it like an anesthetic that you get at the dentist's office. The area that is anesthetized gets number and number as the medicine takes hold.

In this case alcohol becomes the anesthetic to the nerves of the skin. The reason the rest of the body doesn't seem to be affected the same way is because it was injured, it wasn't compromised, it's not working at a lesser capacity than the nerves which were severed down under the ribcage. Therefore, the nerves that are working with that handicap are going to show effects to the "anesthetic" or alcohol in this case first and foremost.

Does that make sense?

Now, here's some food for thought. If you continue to drink alcohol heavily enough to bring on the numbness in that region then, every time you numb up those nerves they could lose some of their potential which may result in their not being able to get exactly back to the baseline status they had before. It's almost as if the alcohol's effects were slightly permanent.

Over time, if enough episodes of numbness occur then, there will come a point where those nerves will simply give out and you could lose sensation to that region where they are distributed on a permanent basis.

If I've provided you with useful information that you feel has answered your question then, I'd appreciate some written feedback from you and a STAR RATING that would reflect how well I hit the mark as far as what you were looking to learn.

Also, I'd greatly appreciate your CLOSING THE QUERY on your end if there were no further questions on your part.

Here's to your health. Best of luck.

This case required 60 min of physician specific time in review, research, and final draft documentation for envoy.

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