Spinal stenosis

Yes… my last episode where I went to the ER produced a stabbing pain that radiated around my right hip to my right thigh, down to my knee. I had to call for help to get out of my chair.

@ou14mejc thanks for your response, and the most scary part is I never NOT want to feel like I’m unable to move my legs !!! Lower back surgery is tomorrow I truly hope I get some good relief

I have spinal and lumbar stenosis. For year it was essentially asymptomatic to the puzzlement of my neurologist. Then, suddenly, at the beginning of 2025 it started radiating serious pain down both legs. A really good pain doctor gave me an epidural steroid shot and it stopped the pain. That was almost 18 months ago. But I have a great minimally invasive neurosurgeon on call for when the steroid shots stop working.

I am an 81 YO male. If the steroid shot stops working, and a new one doesn't work, I will go to my neurosurgeon and try to get it fixed. My view is that when we stop fixing the body, we start giving up and getting old and feeble. At 80 I had a right total knee replacement and I was back on the golf course after 27 days.

But a caveat: I also believe that there are very few truly great surgeons and the trick is to find them. I found one of the very best hip/knee replacement surgeons (if not the best) and he replaced my left hip five years ago and my right knee 12 months ago and I had no pain either time. My neurosurgeon is equally skilled and has written a text book for other surgeons on how to do minimally invasive spinal surgery.

@ladyawarrior good luck! I pray your back pain is relieved by your surgery. My surgery is the 20th!

Thanks so much and best wishes to you as well for your upcoming surgery

I had pain radiating down my left leg for years, it would even wake me up at night. I coped with epidural steroid injections and nerve ablations for about 5 years until I suddenly started having severe lumbar pain when my L4-5 disc herniated. With a diagnosis of DDD, radiculopathy and myelopathy I had a laminectomy and fusion at L3-S1 last March. I just had my 6 month check up with my surgeon and all is well. Everything feels so much better. I still have an occasional bout of nerve pain in my left leg but my surgeon assures me that it is because the nerve was pinched for a very long time and it is still healing. I can now go days without any pain at all so I know he is right and we both expect it to finally disappear altogether. 6 months is still early days and my lumbar spine is still healing. I am very happy with my results. I wish you the best of luck and I hope your results are as great as mine are.

@llander1966 thanks for sharing glad you are healing nicely

Everything I read about surgery for spinal stenosis says it is not very successful and if it is successful it is short term. What kind od stenosis surgery have people had that works. I read things like it is only successful about 50% of the times.

@steveinarizona Was this the Jiffy knee?

@neigenfindk Spinal stenosis can occur anywhere in the spine. In 2009 I was having issues with balance and spasticity in my lower extremities along with other neurological signs. Pain was really not an issue. I had severe stenosis of the central canal in my cervical (neck) spine which was compromising my spinal cord. Underwent a C3-7 decompression laminectomy (no fusion). When I woke up in the recovery room I could tell immediately that my legs felt “normal” and mist of my problems resolved. Still dealing with thoracolumbar stenosis and similar symptoms like back in 2009 and I’m being worked up at UCSF but thankfully pain is not my chief complaint and so far is only periodic. Good luck to you! Sometimes lifestyle changes can make a huge difference (such as weight loss and appropriate exercise). Have not had much benefit from epidurals in the past but if I do have an exacerbation of pain and neuro symptoms, Medrol and/or gabapentin seem to work best for me (and I take the gabapentin very reluctantly and as small a dose for the shortest length of time as possible!)