by Galen Gregory

Created on: February 28, 2009

Five years ago I was in better shape than I had been for a long time. I had lost 50 pounds, walked 2 miles a day, and had finally sought professional help for my long-standing depression. Life was good! Then I began to notice that my legs ached and cramped when I walked. Over time, the muscle cramping got worse and my walks got shorter and shorter. I noticed sensations of pins and needles in some places, numbness in others.

During the next 4 years, as my activity level decreased, my health problems increased. I gained weight, was diagnosed with diabetes, struggled to control my high blood pressure, and finally had a heart attack last summer. Almost every time I saw a doctor, I expressed my concern about the pain in my legs and how it limited my activity. First it was chalked up to diabetic neuropathy. Then I was checked for peripheral artery disease, but that test came back negative. Meanwhile, I had done a lot of reading on the internet, and I thought that spinal stenosis might explain all my symptoms. Last spring I asked my doctor to order an MRI of my spine, and, sure enough, it showed that I had lumbar spinal stenosis.

I'm surprised that it took so long to get a diagnosis. Spinal stenosis occurs in 5 of every 1000 Americans over 50, so it can hardly be called a rare condition. It is a narrowing of the spinal canal which impinges on the spinal cord or on the nerves as they exit the spinal cord. This results in pain, cramping, tingling, numbness, weakness, and clumsiness in the legs, which worsens with activity or standing. The pain is relieved by sitting down and somewhat by bending forward, which is why you might see older people leaning on their shopping carts at the grocery store. Conservative treatment includes physical therapy and steroid injections, but these generally provide only limited or short-term relief. The more aggressive treatment is major back surgery, which may or may not relieve the symptoms. A promising new treatment is the X-Stop Spacer, which involves a minimally invasive procedure.

So, having been recently diagnosed, I'm still receiving conservative treatment. I'm hoping that, after the conservative measures have been tried, I'll be a candidate for the X-Stop. Meanwhile, I have to say that I'm very frustrated. I'm a person who loves to work in my yard, walk my dogs, explore state parks. Right now, I can't do any of those things. I can only walk for about 15 minutes before the pain, cramping, and numbness are so bad that I have to sit down; a trip around the grocery store is about all I can manage. I work as a pediatric occupational therapist, which requires me to lift up to 50 pounds, so right now I am unable to work and am out on short-term disability. I am having to consider the possibility that I won't be able to return to my career of 30 years, and that is unsettling, to say the least, considering my age and the state of the economy.

So, that is how I'm "dealing" with spinal stenosis. I'm taking charge of my medical care, adjusting my expectations, fighting my limitations, struggling with the impact on my career, trying to stay as active as I can so my health doesnt deteriorate any more. What else can I do?

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