About My Spinal Stenosis And Sciatica Pain

Four Years Of Crippling Spinal Stenosis And Sciatica Pain

Having personally suffered from severe spinal stenosis and crippling sciatica pain for over four years, I finally had laminectomy surgery in October 2010.

I had tried everything I could to avoid surgery for my spinal stenosis – having heard war stories for years about how ineffective they had been for so many people.  I had epidurals, pain medications, therapy – some of which gave some temporary relief – but the pain only got worse.

Finally, my spinal stenosis got to where I had no choice – my pain management doc looked at my latest MRI and told me that my spinal stenosis was so bad that there was nothing else he could do for me and strongly recommended I have surgery unless I wanted to spend the rest of life in excruciating spinal stenosis pain – and probably a wheelchair.

Laminectomy Surgery For Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

My wife and I reluctantly agreed and met with the back surgeon who also reviewed my latest MRI.  He agreed with the pain management doctor and recommended that I have a laminectomy as the obvious solution to my spinal stenosis.

Before the surgery, I could not stand or walk more than 3 to 4 minutes…even standing to take a shower was quite literally a major pain.

The laminectomy operation took a little over an hour and required a one night stay in the hospital.  I had the usual post operative restrictions on lifting stuff, etc….but the pain was completely gone from the time the meds wore off.

Since the surgery, I am happy to report that the spinal stenosis pain is 100% gone and that I am now able to walk and stand for hours…and have even been able to hike the Appalachian Trail again!

Amazing.  Now, in hindsight, I wish I had agreed to the spinal stenosis surgery four years earlier!

Because of my own history with this kind of spinal stenosis back pain, and the success of my laminectomy surgery, I wanted to start this spinal stenosis blog as a collection point for articles and comments from folks so that others might be able to also find relief from their own debilitating pain.