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My condition will lead to me being a quadriplegic. Advice?
It’s been a rough three months. I’ve had stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal opening, for a decade, but it started pinching my spinal cord about three months ago while on a trip to Peru. Since September, I’ve gone from slight pain in my legs to severe pain in arms and legs, loss of feeling, and loss of strength upwards of 80-90%. I can barely walk with two canes as my legs buckle regularly. Unstopped progression ends with me a quadriplegic.
The orthopedic surgeon in Albuquerque says I need surgery quickly to stop the progression but I may not recover any lost function, although with the quick onset of problems means recovery of function is more likely.. I sent my MRI to Mayo Clinic in Phoenix and I’m looking for a second opinion and possible surgery there. We’ll see this week how fast Mayo Clinic can move on this. I’m failing quickly and if no relief is forthcoming, then motorcycles, surfing, and drums are over and that makes me depressed. Trying to hang in there, I am. The Yule brings hope of lengthening days and I see this as hope of better days ahead. I did get an epidural Tuesday and it helped. Just trying to get some relief until a procedure.
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UPDATE: I have a cervical laminectomy scheduled for Feb. 27 and it will involve C3-C7. I'm looking forward to getting it done and seeing how much function I can regain.
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2 Reactions@billsapp That must feel good to have a plan in place. Have you started planning for your recovery? Do you have clothing easily accessible for when your doctor says no twisting or bending? I had lots of t shirts folded in a bin about waist high and I did all the laundry so I wouldn't need to do it after my surgery. One thing that helped was having elastic shoe laces in my gym shoes so I didn't have to tie my shoes.
I too had a sudden onset of symptoms related to issues in the area of L5-S1 and compression of my left sciatic nerve. Within 4 weeks I went from relatively mobile to unable to stand for 1 minute or walk more than 20-30 feet.
X-rays showed stenosis and disk compression but nothing unusual for a 70 year old woman. Turns out I also have mild scoliosis. None of that explained my symptoms. Next came the MRI. I was expecting them to tell me I had a herniated or bulging disc. Turns out I had a synovial cyst that had suddenly became symptomatic. I met with a neurosurgeon and was informed that these cysts don’t resolve with physical therapy and that the sooner I had surgery the less likely I’d have long term damage. The surgery was scheduled 4 weeks after meeting with the surgeon.
It has now been 2 months since surgery. Recovery has been slow but I am improving. I still have intermittent pain along the sciatic nerve and some mild low back pain but I’ve started PT and am hopeful I can resume some of my favorite activities like hiking this summer.
@shannonjp That's good to hear that you are on the mend. That always takes longer than you expect. hiking is a great goal to work toward. That was a goal of mine after an ankle fracture.
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