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Severe spinal stenosis: Would you do surgery?
Spine Health | Last Active: Jul 27 8:04pm | Replies (207)Comment receiving replies
I had surgery for my Severe Spinal stenosis. In the healing stages as described would take some time due to the nerves having been pinched / crushed for a long period of time. Yet it was my final solution. Being made aware that if I had any serious trauma to happen to my back, such as being rear-ended or fall on my back, that the potential for paralysis does exist. Did not want to take that chance. However, everyone is different. It depends also on the surgery options presented to you.
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"... the potential for paralysis does exist."
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That is the part I struggle with the most. The first surgeon that was reluctant to do a multi level fusion said "pain should be the deciding factor" but first I needed to be off prednisone.
After a biologic was started, surgery was revisited after I got off Prednisone. I needed to be able to pause the biologic for a couple of months. That wasn't going to happen very easily and I didn't want surgery anyhow.
Then an orthopedic surgeon who was investigating why my knee replacements hurt said not to ever have any surgery again because of heterotopic ossification. I thought that was the final word and I was good with that.
Then the supply of my biologic was interrupted during Covid. I was off the biologic for several months. I developed some incontinence but mostly numbness from the waist down. The neurosurgeon that looked at my MRI said a synovial cyst had formed along with all the other problems. My symptoms were causing a concern for cauda equina syndrome. I reluctantly agreed to surgery but not as soon as the surgeon wanted. A date for surgery was "penciled in." I insisted that I wasn't having that much pain when the surgeon said, "It wasn't about the pain anymore." She sounded frustrated with me because I wanted to wait a year before doing the surgery.
In the interim between the above encounter and the penciled in surgery date, the supply of my biologic improved so it was restarted. Prior to my pre-op visit, the surgeon wanted another MRI. The surgeon reviewed my MRI results and said the synovial cyst was gone so there was more room for my spinal cord. We discussed the pros and cons to a "single level" vs. "multi level" fusion but in the end we mutually agreed to erase my surgery date.
No follow-up visit was scheduled but the surgeon gave me her card. She seemed very cordial and said for me to call her when I was ready. That happened more than 2 years ago. Nothing seems any worse but the whole thing is hanging over me. Maybe I should get it over with.