@gidget1280 hello beautiful warrior!
during the couple of months when i was at my worst, there were no good days. and the pain meds and nerve meds did little to ease the pain. i recall even standing on my toes was unbearable. the pain in my hip joint felt like someone was sawing off my leg with a dull blade. 😬
i lived with a stack of clothes at the foot of the bed so i could easily get dressed. there were days i needed help with that.
it appears your cause of the stenosis is a bit different than mine, but all involve disc degeneration. my understanding is some people can have the condition but with few symptoms! but once diagnosed with “severe” stenosis (mine is severe laminal stenosis), it’s a much rougher road to “recovery”. and you have to be extra vigilant in doing only exercises that support your condition. my sister in law has a bulging disc situation and she uses one of those inversion tables and has experienced substantial relief. thought of trying one but don’t really have the space for it!
out of all the meds i tried, the t-3’s helped the most. one t-3 with one extra strength tylenol. helped me sleep at least. 😊 now i occasionally take the tylenol if needed and very occasionally resort to the t-3 combination. when i feel things flaring up, i start doing my glute activation exercises and it seems to calm things down. see, it’s often the muscles around the area that cause a big part of the grief. that’s why doing extreme exercises like sit ups can do more harm than good if we haven’t yet established core strength. 🙏🏼
i too have been very active in my life so it was shocking to all of a sudden be hit with this. im very energetic and i could out-dance the youngers on the dance floor and am more bendy than most. (i was told the flexibility may have gotten me in trouble tho, doing things with my body that stretched areas that shouldn’t be stretched if the core strength wasn’t established).
i have tried acupuncture and dry needling and neither helped me. but it may help you! again, if we don’t do the core work, none of these treatments will “stick” for long. 😅 if only there were a quick fix! 😊 just having to get your head around the fact that this is your life now and you will always have to work on this, is a big pill to swallow. but your body will eventually be stronger for it. it won’t completely eliminate the pain but you will feel more in control and be stronger than many your age. (i’m 67 so i’m determined to get more mileage out of these not-THAT-old bones! 😊🙏🏼 ) i recently had a stretch of ten days without ANY real noteable pain! i can still feel the nerve pain twitches but they haven’t been bad for months and months). but my body is traumatized from what i went thru…(what you are going thru now. ) whenever i get a flare up, i freak out a little, thinking i’m gonna go back to that state. but i recover fairly quickly now! i have learned to rest, walk and activate my glutes when a flare up threatens and it gets under control fairly quickly. there is hope, spine sister. ❤️🙏🏼
yes, sitting can be problematic and i find i have to get up and move around to ward off the muscle contractions. (glokhale method of sitting helps, but i’m a horrible sitter!). or maybe a gentle bend (as instructed by el manual guy).
i understand why you’d want to stay home and take care of your body at this time. but family will bring you love, which is good medicine. just don’t over-do anything! sending positive bealing vibes. 💜