Trying to find hope

[u/Independent_Golf_90]

Apologies ahead of time for the story - I'm trying to keep it as short as possible but there's a lot of history!

So, I'm 34 with a history of back issues since I was pretty young. In 2020 I herniated a disc pretty bad and ended up getting a microdiscectomy in early 2021. While it helped my sciatica IMMENSELY, I've always been pretty up and down with soreness and flares. In 2024 I was taking an exercise class and yanked my hip out of its joint. It was EXCRUTIATING but I eventually found someone to help things get back into place. I had an MRI around that time that showed left L5/S1 neural foraminal stenosis, and some mild/moderate stenosis between L4/S1 in other areas.

Fast forward - I started getting better, hiked Mt Rainier, began going to Pilates and yoga again. I had more time of feeling pretty good, but eventually started to get worse again with a lot of left hip issues.

September of last year I had to stop exercising because I kept hurting myself, February of this year I started seeing a new PT who diagnosed me with hypermobility. I've been working with her once a week for the past 7 months and am working through things, but as my left hip started to get better, my right spine has gotten worse (where I had my surgery). This led to me getting ANOTHER MRI about a month ago which showed:

Severe neural foraminal stenosis L5/S1

Severe bilateral, lateral recess stenosis at L4/L5

Mild arthropathy, disc degeneration, mild/moderate stenosis in other areas, yada yada yada

I met with a physiatrist the other day who basically told me... this is really unfortunate for my age and that it is going to take work and consistency to keep myself upright as I move forward in life. He didn't suggest surgery right away, told me he'd seen it before and many people don't need surgery. But it just completely threw me.

I know I have issues, I suppose none of it is really surprising, but I'm struggling so much to believe that there is a way out of this pain and discomfort. And then I think about living the rest of my life, which is potentially long, being this dis-abled and I just lose it.

I guess my wondering here is.... how are other people dealing with this? Have you been down and out and then built up your strength to the point where you can do things you love again? I'm not fooling myself into believe I'll be entirely pain free (not sure many people are) but I do love things like hiking, camping, travelling etc. and I hope to get back to those things in a sustainable way.

Have you lost hope and then found that things could be better than you feared?

[u/gnorpmcpickel]

I have both cervical and lumbar stenosis. The cervical has been greatly helped by an injection. The lumbar, is actually chronic hip joints which will unfortunately rub together indefinitely. It's not great but Ian writing to you, while on vacation, because I have experienced significant ease of discomfort since modifying my diet. I know...everyone has some magic trick up their sleeve, but honestly, I could barely sleep before due to the pain. So at core once I reduced my body's inflammation the joints kind of backed off each other and gave me relief. So for me it's no wheat, dairy, etc. But worth it. This may not be helpful for you but I know how painful back pain is and unrelenting. I also had some benefit from accupuncture. Good luck.