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A STORY OF LUMBAR SPINAL STENOSIS SURGERY
It all started 5 years ago with a severe pelvic pain. An MRI revealed lumbar spinal stenosis. Surgery was the solution. Of course, I refused to have surgery in the beginning. However, my complaints gradually increased, limiting my walking distance and standing time. I barely walked and it hurt to stand for as short as 20 minutes. Then, I was looking for a place where I could sit down to decrease my pain. It made me really happy when I could walk for 30 minutes, which happened very seldom. Additionally, I was suffering from numbness on my left leg.
Another MRI revealed an increase in amount of stenosis. Walking increases the amount of compression on the nerves in the spinal canal, creating back and leg pain—preventing my walking ability.
As a 62-year-old man, I did not want to spend my life like that. Also, since I had two stents in my heart, walking is an extremely important activity for my health. Finally, I decided to have this surgery!
The surgery was March, 31 2014. I was discharged on Saturday of the same weekend. The recovery period was one month, during which I wore a brace. Then I was back to my normal life and started walking, which I had missed so much! There were no traces of pain while I walked.
Afterward, I saved my walking paths via a smartphone app. Starting from May 16, 2014, until today I walked a total of 400 km.
These include;
- 10 km walking in the Euresia Marathon on 16.11.2014 (Time: 1.5 hours)
- 12 km walking (mostly climbing with 10 kg of weight on my backpack) in Likya - 1st path Ovacık-Faralya road on August 2015 (Time: 3.5 hours)
- 10 km walking in the Euresia Marathon on 15.11.2015 (Time: 1.5 hours)
Keep on walking….
Fikret KURTAY
İstanbul, 18.11.2015