@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. ☺️