@bigmuscle72
I am a 55 year old female who had L3-L5 decompression and fusion surgery in August 2024. Very painful (off the charts 11/12 out of 10) because I had open surgery to deal with my severe central stenosis, degenerative disc disease and neurogenic claudication (very painful). It cause lower back, hip, buttock, leg and foot pain, numbness and weakness. It was really hard to stand, walk, do stairs, etc.

Post surgery, numbness has really improved and pain/weakness improved over time. I am still dealing with nerve pain in my hips/hip flexors which makes walking/standing up/going up stairs difficult. My understanding is I also had gluteal tendinopathy and hamstring tears both bilaterally presurgery which made recovery more difficult. The new nerve pain in my hips post surgery may be from nerves regenerating after being severely compressed for 8+ years.

If I would suggest anything pre-surgery would be to do physical therapy to strengthen your body as much as possible which will help in your spine recovery. I didn’t do this and wish I was recommended to do so to support mobility during recovery.

Good luck with preparing your home, self and support system for your surgery. The longer you wait, the more potential damage to spinal cord/cauda equine/nerves/nerve roots and decline in quality of life. I was delaying surgery using spinal injections which stopped working. A doctor said to me that I may not want to wait to do surgery when older because recovery may be easier when you are younger. I decided to schedule my surgery after she said this to me.