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December 28, 2011 - 11:53am
Skiing
Hello, several years ago after being referred to many doctors I was finally diagnosed with spinal stenosis for my leg pain and have been able to manage it with medication. However in recent years it seems to have been getting worse and I've had to take medicine more frequently to control the pain (even though the doctor said it was not a degenerative condition). I've also had a long standing tradition of skiing with family every year. But in relation to the condition seemingly getting worse, skiing has been getting increasingly difficult with it causing shooting pains so debilitating I have to take multiple breaks mid run. Is this to be expected with my condition? Do I just need to stop skiing? Thanks for any help that can be offered.
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Welcome to Spine-Health.
I had stenosis at my L4/5 level before surgery and yes, it can be/become debilitating. If I were in your situation, I'd talk to my doctor before I did any more skiing. You really don't want to permanently damage any nerves in your back and have this pain the rest of your life.
You may need a new set of tests to see if it's time to start injections or other measures to help the stenosis. It's a killer, I know - I couldn't stand for more than a couple of minutes before the pain got so bad I had to either bend forward or sit down.
Let us know what happens, ok?
Take care,
Cath
~ October 21, 2008 - ACDF, 3-level (C4/5, 5/6 6/7), with hardware and eight screws. All fused and hardware is stable.
~ January 6, 2010 - TLIF at L4/5, two rods and four pedicle screws.
~ July 2010 - New CT and MRI on cervical shows further problems above fusion at C2/3 and worst at C3/4.
I am in no way affiliated with the medical profession. Any recommendations I make are based on my personal experiences only, so do not take my comments as medical rules.
Hi, I've heard people mention injections before... What do those do, more powerful pain med? I'd rather go to oxycontin/medical mj before that.
What would be typically used for stenosis is a diagnostic nerve block injection to see if the nerves that are being compressed could be burned off and aleviate the symptoms and pain. The nerve block injection simulates what would happen if you had a nerve burn (rhizotomy).
There are many people who've benefited from this, and others not so much, like myself.
Being stenosis, I doubt that pain medication will help much as it doesn't take away the nerve pain. You might want to try some meds specifically for nerve pain to help the shooting pain.
Cath
~ October 21, 2008 - ACDF, 3-level (C4/5, 5/6 6/7), with hardware and eight screws. All fused and hardware is stable.
~ January 6, 2010 - TLIF at L4/5, two rods and four pedicle screws.
~ July 2010 - New CT and MRI on cervical shows further problems above fusion at C2/3 and worst at C3/4.
I am in no way affiliated with the medical profession. Any recommendations I make are based on my personal experiences only, so do not take my comments as medical rules.
You should probably come to terms with the fact that you wont be skiing again.
Also if your job/school requires thinking try to stay off painkillers, makes it so hard to think