Crystal is a woman from the southern part of Washington who is 82 years old and lives on her own.  Her family lives in California.  She had severe spinal stenosis in her lumbar spine at multiple levels.  This is a condition where bone and ligaments grow around the spinal canal and cause a constriction of the nerves passing through.  It resembles the narrow part of an hourglass. As the nerve compression gets worse standing and walking become increasingly difficult.  The classic symptoms are numbness, weakness, fatigue, and pain in your legs whenever you are upright.  She could not walk for more than half of a block without having to sit down.  As she had been this way for several years she was becoming increasingly weaker.  She was very unhappy at the prospect of losing her independence in addition to experiencing a lot of discomfort.  Because of this her anxiety was through the roof.

I performed a laminectomy on her at L2-3, L3-4, and L4-5.  This procedure removes the narrowing and about 70% of the time patients are able to walk without pain.  It takes a while for the strength and endurance to return.  Most patients don’t engage in the rehab enough to experience the full benefit of the surgery.  As she was so frail my optimism for her was tempered.  I knew her leg pain would improve but probably not her strength.  She also just did not seem like the person who would engage in a full rehab program.  As I never give up I still talked to her about the DOCC project and gave her this web site.

The surgery went well and her legs felt better.  At our first phone appointment she began to ask a lot of questions about the web site and had begun the writing exercises.  She was slightly encouraged and I was pleasantly surprised.  It evolved into a somewhat extended conversation about the central nervous system and conditioning.  It is difficult to make the effort to exercise when you have a lot of anxiety.  To see a full recovery I want all of my patients in the gym working out with weights three to five hours per week.  She was interested in getting completely involved in the process.

At one month from surgery she was sleeping better and felt her anxiety was lessening.  She was out walking a little bit.  I encouraged her to join a gym.  I really did not expect her to do so.

I talked to her a few months ago and heard a different person on the phone.  Her voice was energized.  She had joined a gym and was working out four or five times a week.  She felt a dramatic increase in her strength and endurance.  Her anxiety was down by 80-90%.  She was going out with her friends and socializing.  She was ecstatic and I was shocked.

The tools on this website are self-directed.  My observation is that it is not “if” you get better it is “when.”  The consistent factor is a patient’s willingness to engage.   It is stories like hers that keep me moving forward with this project.

NH