Spinal Stenosis

Hi All,

Was wondering about people’s experience with spinal stenosis. I’ve recovered from TMS mid and lower back pain several times throughout my life. On January 22 of this year I slipped on the ice and landed on my butt. This was at work loading a van. Though I had moderate low back and SI joint pain, I had no thoracic pain and worked a 12 hr day ok. Those symptoms persisted for about 2 weeks and then got better. However workplace made me go see a doc and have X-rays and ultimately MRIs. Of course it showed a mild spondylolisthesis at L4-5 and in my mind I thought “ oh no maybe this is serious” and then I began to have serious mid back pain, exactly same area I had years ago which went away with TMS thinking. Ortho also told me I had mild spinal stenosis at the L4-5 level. Then my PT told me to go get the actual MRI report, which I read and which said “advanced central canal stenosis” and I freaked out. The thing is it reported lateral narrowing on the right side, but I have tingling in my left foot ( now that doesn’t make sense). In spite of this I’ve somehow gotten thru work and tried to keep jogging some (prior to fall was running 25 miles/week and had no pain or tingling anywhere ). Ortho said ok to jog but every time I do it makes the tingling worse. Mid back tightens up afterwards as well somewhat. My question is: is this TMS or is it that the stenosis is a true structural issue?

 

"Ortho said ok to jog"... They told me I risked paralysis if I ever jogged again...so I sprinted. They have a stock answer for everything and 'stenosis' is tacked on every disc thing I have ever heard of. I allegedly have it too...and a broken vertebrae, and a congenital fusion and (blah,blah,blah on and on forever)

all of your symptoms are identical to all of the ones I had twenty years ago when I read HBP and they have all gone away. You got symptoms after the diagnosis? of course you did...that is some scary shit ...or not.

as Sarno once said "It would probably be better if we consulted no one". I broke the vertebrae falling off a ladder in '13. I only discovered it the next year after it had healed. I was so obsessed with my thumb that got severed in the fall I never thought to check the rest of my body...and had no symptoms. Thank GOD. Would a scared the shit out of me!

If you're TMS prone the odds are 99.999999 % on "TMS relapse"

 

Mtngal,
According to both Dr. Sarno and Steve Ozanich stenosis doesn't cause back pain. Stenosis is the normal physical aging of the spine, like when our hair greys and our skin loses elasticity. I have bone spurs in my back and they cause me no trouble. I also have them in my feet and TMS plays around with pain in my right foot, but mostly I am recovered there. You can treat this as TMS and recover as you did with your back.

 

Thanks Baseball65. Can’t believe the docs told you you’d be paralyzed if you jogged. And that you sprinted! Your post gives me hope.

 

Thank you for the encouragement Lizzy. I know that stenosis is one of the “gray hairs” of the spine but hard to wrap your head around it when you think nerves etc are being pinched. Our good friend Doubt is always with us TMS people!

 

Mtngal,

Read these posts and parts of the books over and over, your mind will follow. You have the way through in your mind from before, so keep going over that path when the doubts come. Yes, the doubts are sometimes relentless, aren't they!?

 

Yes. That's what they told me... multiple Drs. and Other people with the 'system' . One of my greatest Joys after recovering was riding my bike up to the SCOI (chronic pain center in the Valley) and seeing my therapist. I Jumped the curb and came to a screeching stop right in front of him. He of course was "OMG...have you lost your mind?". The only place I was 'allowed' to exercise was in the pool due to the lack of gravity

These people sometimes really DO care about us. He was a good dude. He was just doing what he had been trained to do. Our Docs and so forth THINK they are helping people..it is not some evil conspiracy to keep us down...however they have a near unbreakable enduring Bias. Think about it...if Sarno is right, then everything they learned has a giant asterisk next to it. In the 2 decades since I first read Sarno I have met a very,very small number of people (under 5) whose chronic symptoms aren't OBVIOUSLY TMS. If you do the math backwards, that would imply that Osteo's and Chiro's and Surgeons would lose ALL of their livelihood if they acknowledged it. They are like flat-earthers. Everything SEEMS to support their assertions, but there are Giant holes of unexplained phenomena that their theory can't account for.

 

I agree with you that hopefully most doctors are acting in good faith yet they turn a blind eye to evidence that is contrary to what they are doing. The only spine surgeon I know of who actually quit doing back fusions etc for pain is Dr. Hanscom. But he is one in a million. I think doctors told Steve O. That he could be paralyzed too, if he fell or hit his back in some way. I work in a doctors office where we clear cardiac patients for surgery and I’ve heard that from a few patients as well. Yet I wonder if there has EVER been a person who was paralyzed by not getting surgery!