severe spinal stenosis and travel

hi joe, i know this situation you wee in. standing has been brutal. and no strength for walking. i am reassured by the success of your laminotomy! i’m so happy to know you found relief from that! ihave gotten back in my feet and can stand again for longer and longer periods. i attribute that to the combination of the active release therapy and all the core exercises i am doing (almost constantly!) i also walked over two kilometres (albeit slowly) yesterday! i’m getting there! and determined to become educated and reclaim my body the best i can! funny how these things can change our lives.. at first for the worst , but as we gather more knowledge, perhaps for the better, because we are determined to maintain our health and strength for as long as possible!
thanks for your shares! all this really helps as this is new to me and came in fast and hard (and agonizingly painful) a few months ago. as much as i’m still in shock from the diagnosis and the searing nerve pain, i’m making progress and thanks to all the input here too, making big improvements.
😊😊😊

The spinal bifida causes leg weakness on top of the neuropathy. I have lost feeling from knees to my feet. I wear compression hose because I have problems with lymphedema and the swelling from the neuropathy. As far as my spinal stenosis it’s severe with bone spurs. I have had neck and lower back surgeries. I have tremors from the motor neuropathy so the flight attendant fills my glass half full so I don’t spill it. I also travel with a cup with a lid. I put my bottled water in it so I don’t spill it down the front of me. I carry sandwiches and hand foods to eat on plane. There’s times I can’t hold silverware from the tremors. Sit the timer for your pain meds or Tylenol. I set my alarm every four hours

Fifi, I am new to this site and ran across your post which I realize was a year ago.But I thought I would take a chance and comment and ask how you are doing now?
I also recently found out thru an MRI that I have severe spinal stenosis in L4 L 5 area. I had very bad symptoms in spring ...not able to walk much, had to cook sitting down, etc. It has improved since then with PT which is ongoing right now. And I am faithful to the exercises at home also. But still have pain when sitting for a longer time and going to get up and since we have a trip coming up , I am concerned about it.

I would be interested from you and anyone else about non surgical approaches and managing this.

Thank so much!!

@gidget1280 I traveled tons before I am ended up having my eventual surgery. Honestly, don’t wait too long if you have a good orthopedic surgeon and they recommend surgery because my nerves were crushed in my spine L3 L4 L5, and they have remained dysfunctional ever since, but the surgery was 100% successful! How are used to travel to answer your question was with pain medication? I take Percocet low-dose for 30 years and I would need it for a long stance on the airplane in the economy section. I also packed a heating pad and a small compactible pillow that would go between my knees at night. Now they give you lots of extra pillows in the hotel rooms so I don’t need to pack the pillow. RFA radio frequently ablation is considered non-surgical and I had those they were very successful for about 15 years. Ask your pain management doctor about that. Good luck.

@gidget1280 I also have severe L4-5 stenosis and was experiencing crippling sciatica pain. I began following the Gokhale Primal Posture method and have now been pain free and avoided surgery. Start with the book, but I recommend some training with a certified Gokhale teacher.

@gidget1280 hi hi! oh this sounds so familiar! so, a year ago i was barely able to walk, was on lyrica for extreme nerve pain and tramadol and t-3’s for pain.
mri showed large protrusion (laminal stenosis) L-4 impinging on nerves, and boy, did that pain run down my leg right into my foot! i had a trip booked to bali and that was a huge motivator for me to get stronger! i am determined to avoid surgery for as long as possible. core exercises are hugely important. (i also have a hip labrum tear so sometimes i’m not sure which pain is coming from where! 😬😅). i found an “active release therapist” who is a chiropractor and does not “crack” bones but does mayo-fascial release. she has helped me immensely! and i got to bali! i walk every day…(had to learn how to walk differently: always engaging lower abdomen and glutes) , sit differently and i do my exercises as often as i can. someone here on this thread suggested looking into a walking and sitting technique and i looked the therapist up on youtube and got some good tips. you’ll have to scroll back to find the name of that practise. i also got some hot tips by a physiotherapist on youtube who is very pro-active in preventing surgery. his site is called el paso manual therapy. search him on youtube and add spinal stenosis. i had been going to a physio and discovered that some of the things they told me i should be doing, this el paso guy said was not helpful! i still have bad flare-ups but i’m back to gardening (do 50 percent less than you think you want to do!) , making pottery and even dancing on good days!
when i went to bali, i took a square blow up cushion to sit on on the plane and support my lower back. it helped a lot! i also took a “foot hammock”, 12 bucks on amazon… to help elevate my legs and take support off my spine. i made sure i got up every hour or two to walk around. i did fine! and that was when i was still walking and moving quite slowly.
for at home self-care, i also bought one of those massage guns to help loosen up my muscles as sometimes it’s the spasmy muscles around the injury that cause the greatest pain! i am extra careful around too much bending and lifting…i sit to do some tasks too, but can stand for much much longer than i was able to last year. last year i couldn’t stand on my toes to reach into the cupboard… extreme pain! now i am doing stand-on-my-toes exercises with my glutes engaged and can feel my body getting stronger instead of weaker! all this after i was told i might end up in a wheelchair. and my last mri said the large protrusion had diminished in size! the laminal stenosis is still there but these exercises are supporting spine health and creating a bit more space between those discs. keep in touch! happy to discuss further. take care and listen to what your body is telling you! don’t get discouraged if you can help it. it’s not an easy road but if you are seeking non-surgical support, you can potentially build strength you didn’t have before. sending healing vibes. ☺️

@sbcarcht yes! was it you who told me about this? i was trying to recall the name to share with gidget. this helped me a lot! and her information was aligned with what the el paso manual therapy guy on you tube talks about. good stuff!

@gidget1280 ah yay, someone here mentioned the method i was trying to recall! the gokhale method. there’s some of her stuff on youtube,

@fifilacarnivali Yes, I’m the one who first mentioned the Gokhale method here. I’ve been pain free for several years now and avoided surgery.

@sbcarcht wow! well that’s inspiring! thank you for that share! it sure helped me, and i used the sitting method on the plane to bali and use it in my car all the time. it wasn’t easy learning how to walk differently! still have to do that very consciously. 😊🙏🏼😊