Hi,
Mark Schultz, Olympic Champ here, talking about my journal to a knowledge of the truth about something everyone will suffer from....spinal degeneration/compression of the cord and peripheral nerves....to one extent or another. Went all the way to Munich thinking my problem was discogenic (disc related) pain. Found out it's stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal and nerve root canals). Everyone's discs degenerate over time and pressue...bones thicken....ligaments lose their soft supple breasts (oops meant to say suppleness) and strength and become hard, thick, weak, and brittle...sometimes breaking or collapsing into the spinal canal and stabbing the cord. So....we're all going to lose space in our canals due to these things. So what to do....DO NOT GET A LAMINECTOMY!!!!. Get a minimally invasive procedure first called by different names all meaning the same thing.....micro foraminotomy....micro decompression...minimally invasive reconstruction (MIR)... Endoscopic decompression...all names for the same thing. The doctor goes in through either a small hole in the lamina (back of the vertebra) or one of the nerve root canals (intervetebral foramens) and cleans out the overgrown bone, ligament, and disc material invading the spinal cord and peripheral nerve root canals down the arms and legs. Most doctors use a dental type drill but some use hand "biters" similar to tile biters. The bottom line is they widen the holes for the cord and nerves without taking out giant pieces bone or disc. It's always better to have a minimally invasive procedure first and then get more invasive as the minimally invasive ones fail. Up until a few days ago I was not aware of how widespread these new minimally invasive procedure were. Part of the problem is doctors don't advertise well and everyone is using different names so you can't search for an exact name. Maybe soon they'll all just agree to call it minimally invasive decompression surgery or something. Many surgeons are just now beginning to do this but I went from thinking this was only done in Germany to finding 2 doctors in America to finding TONS of doctors in America that do it. Don't know when I'll be back to this forum but PM if you want to contact me.
I'm new by the way...hi everyone.