spinal stenosis

Buckbuster

Senior Member
At age 54 in April of 2007 I started having pain in my right forearm. I assumed I had pulled a muscle or something working in the yard. Pain kept getting worse, finally talked with my general practice doc, he prescribed some oral steroid tablets, the pain went away. Two days after stopping the RX, the pain was back. We did an mri and found stenosis in C 3,4&5. I didn't want to talk to anyone about surgery on my neck, afraid of being paralyzed or worse. Pain kept getting worse in my forearm and then my hand started going numb. Is August my left forearm started hurting. The first neuro surgeon I went to said he had to remove the bone spurs and arthritis. Clean up the bulging discs then fuse everything in place with hardware. I decided to get a second opinion. The second neuro surgeon said he could fix it without fusion. He went in through the back of my neck, cut through each vertebrae and inserted a spacer thus making the opening larger for my spinal cord to pass through. The surgery was a success but I still have nerve damage and have to take large amounts of Neurontin daily. Two years later I had to have L3&4 fused, now I am suffering with pain coming from L2 and L5. April of 2016 I had a spinal stimulator implanted to reduce the pain in my lower back.

Sounds like you have really had a hard time, people don't realize how fortunate they are to not be in constant pain. My pain is 95% gone now. I am limited in what I can do such as lifting and bending.
 

formula1

Daily Bible Verse Organizer
re:

You can read the posts about my son in Post #16 and #27 if you like.

This stenosis stuff doesn't seem to want to quit. After his 1st surgery everything was fine for awhile. He is even down to a 17 handicap in golf. But it has come back with a vengeance and not only did he have to stop playing golf but we are looking at another surgery soon. The good news is there is nothing to fuse (C4 to C7 already are fused) but they have to make room for the spinal cord by something called a laminectomy, which sounds similar to what jdmo353 went through. Really though, since my son is only 15, I wish they could just put a titanium spine in so we won't have to keep doing this over and over. Unfortunately there is no such thing yet!

jdmo353, I wish you only the best of outcomes in your situation. This stuff can be debilitating sometimes but keep on fighting!
 

riprap

Senior Member
My mother just had this surgery. Her problem area was up towards her neck. She didn't have that much back pain but has been suffering from headaches, dizziness, feeling of constant sinus drainage...She had every test done imaginable for these symptoms and finally one doctor seen the growth on her spine. They hadn't been looking much in that area since most of her complaining was more about the headaches and such. She has really looked drained and not feeling like doing anything for the past year due to this ailment and that's not like her. She is very active. She just had this done Wednesday so I hope it relieves her symptoms. It had compressed her spine down to about the size of a quarter. They had to go through her throat for the surgery.
 
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