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What helps spinal stenosis besides surgery?
Spine Health | Last Active: 1 day ago | Replies (193)Comment receiving replies
@hat First let me welcome you to Connect. Surgery is always a choice that has to be considered carefully and balance the risks against the rewards. May I ask how physically active are you? Do you enjoy walking and get a bit of exercise for your health? How is your balance? Can you get up from a chair easily?
With aging, for some people, these can be challenges, and possibly lead to a fall. Your surgeon makes a good point, that a fall in your condition can lead to paralysis. I've seen both of my elderly parents fall, get injured, and then require wheelchairs. Fall prevention is really important with aging, spine surgery or not. I have heard of other patients with no pain who are shocked to learn that they have severe spinal stenosis. When you have a vertebrae that can slip and move a lot, it has potential to damage the spinal cord by contacting it. With enough constant pressure on the spinal cord, parts of it can start to die and dissolve, creating disability in what ever body part it were servicing.
There will be trade offs to having surgery with loss of movement of the spine. Spinal stenosis can also lead to incontinence which can become permanent if the spinal cord is not decompressed with surgery. There may be a window of time where you could benefit from surgery, and if you wait too long, it may be too hard on your body to recover or your spine could start fusing itself because of collapsed discs. I don't know when that would be, but it may be worth asking about.
I had spine surgery because of a collapsed C5/C6 disc and also had retrolisthesis. For me surgery was a good choice and I got my life back. There can also be risks to the surgery such as a paralyzed vocal cord from a frontal approach, and difficulty swallowing which could lead to aspiration. Often aspiration pneumonia is a big problem in the elderly. You have to think about how your condition can change as you age further and what gives you the most benefit for preventing problems that could develop. Aspiration was an issue for my dad. These are just a few examples, and it is a big surgery with a long recovery time, but I am so glad I did this. I was in my late 50's at the time.
I would like to ask my fellow mentor Chris @artscaping , if she could share her experience of spine surgery, and also other surgery as an older patient, and the recovery time.
What questions can you think of that you would like to ask your doctors?
Replies to "@hat First let me welcome you to Connect. Surgery is always a choice that has to..."
I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to say "Thank you" for your reply. Right after I sent my original question, my husband fell off the bottom step and pulled his quad muscle in his leg and had to have surgery. I cancelled all my appointments in re to my spine issues until recently. I just had an appointment to review the results of the remaining tests. Now, I'm at the point of decision making and I'm more confused than ever! (I have severe cord compression of C5-6, moderate cord compression of C4-5 , disk bulging of C6-7, Disc collapse of C5-6 and C6-7, cervical spondylosis with myelopathy, and spinal stenosis of cervical region. Also, I have head tremors only when laying flat. (The tremors stop the very second when I sit up). With all of these issues, I still have absolutely no pain and am still pretty active and lucky to enjoy life at age 78. NOW my dilemma is - the surgeon is recommending surgery which will be a two-day surgery consisting of a corpectomy of C5- and C-6, with a C3-7 ACDF and PSF. After listing all the risks of having the surgery he also wrote that the patient understands that there is a risk that I could be no better, or I could be worse after surgery. He said if it was his mother he would recommend surgery, but he definitely could understand if I chose not to have the surgery. I have NO pain or other issues! If I didn't have the head tremors when laying down, I wouldn't even know any of this! He is planning on going through the front of my neck, staying at the hospital that night and the next morning going back to the operating room to go through the back of my neck to insert a rod and screws to stabilize the front surgery from the day before. ( The surgeon said must be done because my bones are thin.) Do you know what the recuperation would be? It just seems to me, if there is a risk of having surgery, and there is a risk of not having surgery I don't know what my answer should be!! Any recommendations would be wonderful!!
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Good evening @hat. Thanks for the introduction @jenniferhunter. I have to admit that I am not as medically prepared as Jennifer. All I knew in 2013 is that my arms were painful and also had tingling and numbness. I thought these symptoms were just left over from a reverse shoulder surgery after falling down a mountain. What was actually happening was related to a pretty devastating fall from my Arabian gelding. After that fall, I was "hung" in a hammock-like sling over the bed in the hospital for several days. I didn't pay attention very well and insisted on continuing to play volleyball without any consideration of the healing going on in my neck.
For the fusion to take place well, my surgeon insisted that I spend three months in a complicated neck brace both day and night. He was quite insistent and followed up with me to make sure I had a good chance of full recovery.
I am now 80 years old and I thank him every day for being so insistent. Although my neck cracks and pops, I am not in pain. I have two MFR (myofascial release) sessions every week and one of my two therapists begins with the neck. I know that the treatment is working when I can turn my head from one side to the other smoothly and without pain while lying on my back.
As Jennifer knows, I am a "Quality of Life" advocate. I will have surgery regardless of age if it means that my life will be enriched. What I see is that many older folks postpone corrective surgery not realizing that even at 80 they deserve to be all they can be.
In the last two years, I took stock of my aging body, sought information, and chose medical practitioners who I trusted to make me "better"! So, the list so far has included, a second TKR, total knee replacement, a second thumb joint surgery on my right hand, cataract surgery, and monitoring of my aging eyes. This year I also was fitted for my first pair of hearing aids, and last but not least, I went through urological testing and recently had bladder sling surgery. Now, I can play with the grandchildren, walk a couple of miles along the river, and sit for three hours of Mahjongg.
Yes, pre-surgery preparation is a must and I am now involved in a post-surgery program that hopefully will prevent stumbles and falls.
May you be free of suffering and the causes of suffering.
Chris