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.