On March 19, 2003, I hiked Pierce and Eisenhower with a friend. It seemed a perfectly routine hike at the time. Little did I know ...
That evening I felt unusual pain in my back. I know all about the aches and pains that a senior hiker gets, but this was without doubt different. So I rested for a week. Soon I felt well enough to resume hiking, though at the back of my mind I was worried ... at my age new and unusual pains are not a good sign.
True enough, on June 24 I was hiking Osceola alone when I felt agonizing shooting pains down both legs. It took me a couple of hours to return to my car; it had taken me less than half an hour to go up.
An MRI showed spinal stenosis, and the first treatment was an epidural steroid injection. It was effective, and the pain was substantially diminished. A pattern quickly developed: a few months with almost no pain, then mild pain, then increasing pain, leading to an injection that would decrease the pain markedly.
The lesion would have required fairly major surgery (including spinal fusion) and two surgeons agreed that, given my good response to the epidural steroids, surgery was not indicated.
This winter my hiking ability went down, lots of Tecumseh, Pierce, Waumbeck and similar toy 4Ks, almost no "real" 4Ks. I attributed it to ageing, an inevitable happening.
Then on March first I found my left quad extremely weak; going up the stairs was an expedition. The stenosis, which had been affecting the pain nerves, had now started pressing on the nerves to the muscles. That obviously called for surgery. Spinal surgeons are busy people, and it took about six weeks to schedule the surgery. During those six weeks I walked as little as possible, losing strength in both legs and losing whatever fitness I still had.
After surgery the doctor told me to exercise as much as I felt able to, but with the proviso of no hiking, or other activity that might bend or twist my spine. Walking and physical therapy for the legs was OK.
So over the last ten weeks I increased the weights on my ankles in the strengthening exercises, increased the distance and steepness of my walks, and added StairMaster as I felt that walking was rather different from hiking.
I am just back in Thornton from a visit to the doctor in Boston. He is very pleased with the healing of my spine, and amazed how much muscle I have put on my previously totally flabby left quad.
Tomorrow I go for my first hike since 2/28/09.
Life is good!!!!!
That evening I felt unusual pain in my back. I know all about the aches and pains that a senior hiker gets, but this was without doubt different. So I rested for a week. Soon I felt well enough to resume hiking, though at the back of my mind I was worried ... at my age new and unusual pains are not a good sign.
True enough, on June 24 I was hiking Osceola alone when I felt agonizing shooting pains down both legs. It took me a couple of hours to return to my car; it had taken me less than half an hour to go up.
An MRI showed spinal stenosis, and the first treatment was an epidural steroid injection. It was effective, and the pain was substantially diminished. A pattern quickly developed: a few months with almost no pain, then mild pain, then increasing pain, leading to an injection that would decrease the pain markedly.
The lesion would have required fairly major surgery (including spinal fusion) and two surgeons agreed that, given my good response to the epidural steroids, surgery was not indicated.
This winter my hiking ability went down, lots of Tecumseh, Pierce, Waumbeck and similar toy 4Ks, almost no "real" 4Ks. I attributed it to ageing, an inevitable happening.
Then on March first I found my left quad extremely weak; going up the stairs was an expedition. The stenosis, which had been affecting the pain nerves, had now started pressing on the nerves to the muscles. That obviously called for surgery. Spinal surgeons are busy people, and it took about six weeks to schedule the surgery. During those six weeks I walked as little as possible, losing strength in both legs and losing whatever fitness I still had.
After surgery the doctor told me to exercise as much as I felt able to, but with the proviso of no hiking, or other activity that might bend or twist my spine. Walking and physical therapy for the legs was OK.
So over the last ten weeks I increased the weights on my ankles in the strengthening exercises, increased the distance and steepness of my walks, and added StairMaster as I felt that walking was rather different from hiking.
I am just back in Thornton from a visit to the doctor in Boston. He is very pleased with the healing of my spine, and amazed how much muscle I have put on my previously totally flabby left quad.
Tomorrow I go for my first hike since 2/28/09.
Life is good!!!!!
