After 2.5 months of ongoing persistent back pain, my mri reveals “moderate to severe bilateral foraminal stenosis.” oral steroid trial helped, but only while taking it. any anecdotal experience regarding training with this condition? I am a doc, but the patients I see are typically not active physically, so I am interested in experiences of this forum’s active crowd. I am buying an endurance bike frame for training, but am concerned about training, after doing only light work, core strengthening for past 2 months. thanks in advance for input.
“Foraminal stenosis” doesn’t occur in 3 months. This radiologic finding is something that has existed inside you for years, but yet your pain is only 3 months old. What’s even worse is that you’re being compared to what’s “typical” based on a static picture. We don’t know, but this image may be quite normal for you. The short story is that radiologic findings do not reliably correlate to pain, especially in the spine. There is plenty of peer reviewed research to support this view.
Individuals with these symptoms likely have an internal derangement that can be quickly resolved with physical therapy- like noticeable improvement on the first day with the right practitioner. Mechanical Diagnosis and therapy (mckenzie) trained physical therapists typically get the best results. Good luck
thanks for your reply. i agree fully with your thoughts; heck, i did a symptom-free training period and a 70.3 last october. this has to be acute, and inflammatory. PT it is.
This was me last year. It was bad. Real bad. I was losing alot of feeling all the way down my left side and was having horrendous nerve “spasms” all across my back and shoulders into my tricep.
I had a c6/c7 ACDF last June. I woke up from the surgery with no pain and i am 100% back to my fitness from before.
I was fortunate in that everything happened rather quickly so as to avoid too much permanent nerve damage.
good to hear!! what is ACDF?
From spine health.com
Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is a type of neck surgery that involves removing a damaged disc to relieve spinal cord or nerve root pressure and alleviate corresponding pain, weakness, numbness, and tingling.
Crazy it’s a 2 hour procedure. I was home by 3pm same day. First 8 weeks were slow going. Walking only for two weeks. On indoor bike by week 3. Running by 8. Swimming took a while longer just due to tightness.
This was me last year. It was bad. Real bad. I was losing alot of feeling all the way down my left side and was having horrendous nerve “spasms” all across my back and shoulders into my tricep.
I had a c6/c7 ACDF last June. I woke up from the surgery with no pain and i am 100% back to my fitness from before.
I was fortunate in that everything happened rather quickly so as to avoid too much permanent nerve damage.
The key is to avoid too much permanent nerve damage. If there is indeed nerve impingement, get it taken care of. You don’t want to wait until you have significant weakness before having surgery. The more damage is done before surgery, the longer and less complete your recovery will be.
I say this as someone whose father waited until he had foot drop and could barely walk before getting a decomp and fusion. He eventually recovered enough to walk with a cane, but it was an 18 month recovery to get to that point.
Absolutely…my time from my first symptom to the surgery was less than three months.
I have to really focus on finishing my left stroke in freestyle as there is still a lack of strength there. Not terrible, but as a lifelong competitive swimmer and a swim coach I know an imbalance when I see and feel it.
I read about lots of people going 3-4 years with symptoms and the results are not good.
Yeah, my dad had leg pain and weakness issues for 4-6 years that were not diagnosed as stenosis despite many doctors visits. I guess no one thought to do an MRI on his spine. He also typically tries to suffer through things thinking they will get better over time. He once sliced his knee open with a chainsaw and just used steri-strips to close the wound and went back out to keep cutting down trees. Don’t be like my dad. 
After 2.5 months of ongoing persistent back pain, my mri reveals “moderate to severe bilateral foraminal stenosis.” oral steroid trial helped, but only while taking it. any anecdotal experience regarding training with this condition? I am a doc, but the patients I see are typically not active physically, so I am interested in experiences of this forum’s active crowd. I am buying an endurance bike frame for training, but am concerned about training, after doing only light work, core strengthening for past 2 months. thanks in advance for input.
Hi Doc:
If this is thoracic or lumbar stenosis you’re talking about, then +1 on PT, esp McKenzie protocol (if appropriate for your situation.)
My diagnosis is lumbar, both sides. foraminal (nerve exit tunnels), not spinal. Final diagnosis is facet pain and foraminal stenosis. mostly Father-time arthritic degradation. Trying to find a way to train. is tricky.
Same here except cervical foraminal stenosis, c3 - c7 all are moderate to severe with bone growth at the facets that seem to be the primary reason for narrowing passage for nerve roots. No symptoms until boom… 3 months ago tingling and pain down both arms and stabbing pain at shoulder blades. Your post was from 2 1/2 years ago; any tips on how to beat father time? Also wonder how bufordt is doing with the ACDF. Fusion seems to be the go-to but I believe there’s a high incidence of issues with the vertebre above and below the fusion.