@sue4
Great questions! 🙂

I started getting injections at L4-L5 which was severely stenotic in late 2020. My first 2-3 injections worked for at least 2-3 months and one time it lasted for 4-5 months. My lumbar spine symptoms worsened in 2023 (worked a desk job for 9-12 hours per day so sitting long periods has not been kind to my spine). I started getting monthly injections December 2023, January 2024 and February 2024 when my feet would totally go numb when standing or walking. They didn’t help anymore and my symptoms worsened March through June 2024 so I started working with my surgeon to plan surgery.

The reason surgery was needed and not ablation is because there was not just one spinal nerve to ablate. I had bilateral symptoms of neurogenic claudication and my L4-L5 central spinal canal was totally blocked by bone overgrowth plus herniated discs. My surgeon needed to cut away a lot of bone to open up space for spinal canal and nerve roots/blood vessels. My L4 vertebrae was also slipping over my L5 vertebrae (spondylolisthesis) so my lumbar spine was not stable and required fusion/hardware.