Spinal Stenosis

[Wild Bill]

Good luck! As others have stated, stick with the PT and be patient with your body as it heals.
I'm sure you'll be back in good shape before too long.

 

[jabber]

I am at home. Dr said it was successful. No pain in legs but my back wheee he made the cut hurts like hell. But I got meds for that.

Now UT needs to do better

 

[jabber]

Thanks for all the thoughts and comments

 

[Vanishe187]

Good luck. Been dealing with back pain 19 years now. Dr doesn't want to do surgery due to my age. Hopefully you get some relief back pain is the worst.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Hope you're feeling better @jabber
I gave up on the PT and injections and went with surgery Sep 30th. Things are much better, not perfect but still much better. 15 months of not being able to lay down in a bed made me a grumpy ol' cuss, still a grump but the back isn't the primary reason now.

 

[jabber]

I got my full release last week. It was the best thing I have ever done. No pain in the legs and the back is almost pain free, just have a little every once in a while, but I really believe that is the muscles not being used to working and just being sore.

 

[44hunter45]

Following.

It's good to hear you have relief.

My knee doc recently told me that what seems to be knee issues may be stenosis/sciatica.
I am scheduling a back pain evaluation.

 

[Matthew57]

I got my full release last week. It was the best thing I have ever done. No pain in the legs and the back is almost pain free, just have a little every once in a while, but I really believe that is the muscles not being used to working and just being sore.

That's great to hear, i'm happy things are going well. I've been having some back issues the last couple of months, hoping physical therapy will help with it.

 

[noharleyyet]

I got my full release last week. It was the best thing I have ever done. No pain in the legs and the back is almost pain free, just have a little every once in a while, but I really believe that is the muscles not being used to working and just being sore.

Just seeing this jabber, good news.

 

[IDFireLass]

My back has been bad for years. L4 L5 look like a Z. This last year has been almost no sleep for me. Maybe at best 5 hours a night. Some nights I'd end up sleeping in my chair.
Anyway got really tired of it seeing a chiropractor and he suggested red light laser. I'll have my 4th visit tomorrow. But I also bought a belt he developed for lower and sciatic back pain.
It's all working. I'm sleeping fully of night and getting up with little to no pain.

Now if I could get the left shoulder rotator cuff to heal I'd be good to go.

 

[300xbm]

I feel for everybody on here with injuries have herniated the disc between my L4 and L5 in my mid twenties. Biggest advice I can give is Stay Active. Body weight exercises and stretching daily.

#1 killer in our country, in my opinion, is a Couch!

 

[Akcabin]

I just had a knee replacement and going back to the surgeon today about my back pain. I want to be in as good of shape as I can. I have grandkids to teach

 

[Dave N]

I just had a knee replacement and going back to the surgeon today about my back pain. I want to be in as good of shape as I can. I have grandkids to teach

Good luck and glad to see you back!

 

[Shmeegs28]

I hurt my back about 2 1/2 years ago lifting about 20 pounds and turning with it. Been doing pain management, injections, pills & PT, for the pain I am having in my back and my legs since then. They have had moderate success. But the pain has been getting worse and the procedures not lasting very long so I decided it was time for the next step because I did not want to continue living like this. Tomorrow I will be going under the knife to have a Laminectomy which is where they go in and remove a portion of your spine to relieve the pressure from the discs. I am not going to lie, I am little nervous of the thought of a portion of my spine will be removed but do look forward to not living with the ongoing pain in my back and legs. If you have it in you, give me a thought or prayer, or better yet give it to the dr.

Hope all went well! Im dealing with a similar issue, spinal stenosis and degenerative disc disease. Have had two rounds of injections with no effect so now doc wants to fry my nerve endings in my spine if not fuse my vertebrae together. I feel your pain and I hope you're doing better!

 

[RealMuddyboots]

Spinal stenosis is one of those diagnosis that if not careful, can lead to terrible atrophy of your lower body. Trust me, I know this far too well. Your electrical nerve signal is slowly abated as your spinal cord is compressed and or flattened. This happened to me due to a surgeon based his opinion of surgery not on your body deterioration but the amount of pain you are in. Luckily he left practice and I was assigned to the one of the best neuro surgeons in Midwest. He immediately put me into a PT program to build me up as much as possible prior to surgery. It was really lucky I got him and worked my ass off prior to surgery since you will need every bit of strength you can muster for post op to be able to learn how to walk with your spine fused. It is a significant physical effort that you can't believe until you go thru it. My spinal cord was flattened at L4&L5. But stenosis was bad also at L3@L2 so I was fused L2-L5 with 2 long titanium rods with same 8 bolts. I also had scoliosis which he straightened out. A wandering vertebrae reset. Interesting is I am bit of a Sasquatch size and he could not use synthetic spacers for disks. My vertebrae space is larger than anything made so thankfully my disks are still in great shape. I am now back to being 6'5"!

Post surgery is a crap shoot depending how your body responds to lots of nerves being cut since your back is opened like you are filleting a fish. Unfortunately I had terrible post op pain to manage, none of it from the actual surgical repair. All from nerve pain. Doc tells me basically luck of the draw with nerve pain. But I knew IMMEDIATELY that my back repair was not the culprit, I just could feel that. I have zero back pain since surgery. First time in almost 10 years!

Once I got approved for PT, about 60 days post op, I got rolling. Now 8 months post op, I have restrictions but doc believer in physical PT. He wants high reps at low weights. Leg press for leg and calf. I am now doing 125 leg presses at 100#, 50 calf presses at 100#. Recumbent bike 30 min higher rev so 6+ miles in 30 min.

Still fighting balance and lower body strength from terrible lower body atrophy due to surgery being later than it should have been. Slowly recovering. Doc tells me slow process maybe as much as 18-24 months. But workouts are now permanent part of my life at 3/4 of century old!

 

[Hawk Tuah]

I am glad the surgery helped.