Spinal stenosis

Hi! I have recently been diagnosed with cervical spinal stenosis. Pain has diminished some, but now I cannot lift my left arm, Driving is difficult, and I need help to get dressed. Will this go away on its own, or is surgery the way to go? The pain mgmt doc is referring me to surgery. I just feel so overwhelmed with this. I'm a swimmer and cannot even swim at this point... Thanks for any insights.

See if they can do minimally evasive surgery. My son had major pain in his neck, going down his arm to his hand. He couldn't work. They made a small incision in the front of his neck and did a cervical fusion. He was fine in 2 weeks. All pain is gone.

Thank you so much for this info!

I developed spinal stenosis about 4 years ago. I was put on 20 painkilling pills a day. It went down to 16! I had the operation. The doctor didn't make any promises. I tried to get off the painkillers too soon.

I've tried several things. The latest is a combination of accupuncture and lazar. The first treatment was, "Hmmm! Maybe it'l work. I'm on my 7 or 8th treatment. I've not experienced any SEVERE pain in the last two weeks. I've even gone 6 hours between pills. So far, it seems to be working. About 3 weeks ago, I had a miserable week. I had chiropractic after my accupuncture/lazar treatment. The chiropractor had given me a treatment that I used to get before the onset of spinal stenosis. I know now that is not right for me. A reduced treatment without the twisting of my back is helpful. Especially if my right leg is stretched. This relieves pain.

Based on my experience if you do try the accupuncture/lazar treatment Don't stop with one. You will need two or three before you will start to get relief.
As for the operation, I'm glad I had it. Again, don't expect miracles right after the operation. My accupuncturist had the operation and walked out of the hospital and continued improving.

I didn't feel that there was any improvement for about 5 months. Then it was slight. I'm still improving. I drove my car about 10 miles yesterday. Did some housework and walked the dog at a neighbouring park.

Good luck! Welcome to a new world. Keep remembering, it could be worse.

Wow. Thank you for the information and your honest comments. I'm definitely still wrapping my head around all of this. It's hard to even have a doctor have a good discussion with me. The lack of function -I can't raise my left arm- has me terrified. Will this improve??

I have no idea. Spinal stenosis is caused by pressure on the spine. For some reason, the spinal column starts to close the space where the spine is. That's why there is pressure on it. Looking back and learning more, I think I was born with the predisposition. Then as I got older the space between the spinal cord and the vertebrae got smaller.
I suspect that once the pressure is removed from the spinal cord, things will improve.

I understand that the lazar treatments are reducing the inflamation around where the injury/operation was. Personally, I don't care what it's doing. I just want it to keep doing it! Think positive!

@beckybee Hello and welcome to Connect. I had cervical spinal stenosis and had symptoms very similar to you. Anything I had to raise my arms to do was exhausting, so much so that if I drove to the grocery store, pushed a shopping cart for half an hour, I could not drive myself home without taking an hour long nap in the car. The good news is that surgery did fix all of that, and I got most of my strength back. I did not have any compression of nerve roots, it was all spinal cord compression. Generally speaking, the sooner you correct the compression, the better your surgical results may be. I don't know what your condition is, but my PT had advised me to try to have surgery within about 6 months of major symptoms.

My surgery was at Mayo, and fusion of C5/C6 done with a donor bone spacer and without hardware. I stayed in a neck brace 3 months until fused. That was a very good choice and I no longer have pain. I was a swimmer too in my younger days. I am an artist and it was very distressing that I couldn't paint anymore because I lost coordination in my arms. I did get that back and had to rehab a bit to rebuild some strength. I encourage you to find a great surgeon. That makes a difference in having a great outcome. You can shop around and different surgeons like different hardware. I didn't want that because my body is reactive to metals. Mine was excellent, Dr. Jeremy Fogelson at Mayo Rochester. Not all surgeons would do a "no hardware " fusion, but Dr. Fogelson did that for me.

I developed spinal stenosis about 4 years ago. I had an operation about 2 years ago. I really noticed a change about six months after the operation. I had gone from 20 pills a day to 5.
I kept trying different things to reduce the pain.

About a month ago. I tried a combination of acupuncture and lazar. GOOD NEWS! It seems to be working. I haven't had a Tramadol/Acetomenophen pill for back pain for 4 days!

I have no idea if this would work for others. I just know it is working for me. I hope it keeps working.

Same here with the spinal stenosis. Mine developed about 5 years ago, plus I just found I have a pinched nerve. I have an appointment with a surgeon this Thursday. I hope I can find relief like you did. Glad to hear your Journey has a good end.

I stopped taking Tramadol for a few days. I didn't need it. Then I work up in the a.m. with this awful feeling like someone had a band around my heart trying to stop it beating. I went to the hospital. The only thing was I had high blood pressure. I was sent home. I was recuperating the next day. Then the next day, I started getting some minor pains. After doing a "self-diagnosis" on the internet and contacting the Medical Help line, I went back to the hospital. My blood pressure was down.
I'm beginning to wonder if it was due to my suddenly stopping the Tramadol. I have an oppointment with my family doctor Monday.