Question for my dad

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I am posting on behalf of my dad who has been diagnosed with Moderate/Severe

Stenosis since 2004. He is very active and is not in any pain most of the time.

He does tend to get tingling in his legs and cramps at times. He also complains

about constant mild numbness in his toes. Every once in a while he feels weak in

the legs and needs to sit down but becomes fine quickly after sitting down for a

few minutes. We have seen a few doctors and gotten a few MRI's done as well. The

Surgeon he last met has scared us a bit by telling us that my dad needs to get

surgery done and there is nothing else that will help him. He also told us that

he may become paralyzed or loose bowl/bladder control if we don't do anything

soon.

Last week we met a spinal doctor at the Presbyterian hospital in NYC who

specializes in non surgical treatment who told us that my dad needs to try some

non surgical treatments before considering surgery since surgery is not a

guaranteed solution. He prescribed some medicine for the tingling in my dad legs

and also for 4 week of therapy. He checked my dad with motor tests for strength

and control and felt my dad did fine. He felt any surgeon would want my dad to

try non surgical treatment before going for surgery and so feels we should try

physical therapy first and if that doesn't help spinal injections to manage the

pain.

We discussed the options with our primary care physician and he is telling us

that physical therapy is not going to help and that surgery is what needs to be

performed. We are also being told by the spinal surgeon and the primary care

physician that if the surgery is not performed he can get paralyzed and then it

might be too late for surgery.

We are very confused as to what we should do and if we should peruse therapy

first or if we should go for surgery. Is it true that if my dad were to loose

bladder/bowl control or become paralyzed it would be too late for surgery?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Murtaza