🎶These boots are made for walking...not...

 Pain due to spinal stenosis is a tricky thing. Depending on which nerve that’s pinched, the pain could be located anywhere and at different places every day and by that affect different parts of your body.

My own pain is mostly concentrated to my lower back, and about once a month I get my Ischias nerve pinched. This pain is more intense and goes from my lower back down the butt cheek and leg and makes it very difficult to lift my foot. This makes me dragging my foot as I walk. It's always my right side that gets affected by this, which could be easily seen on the sole of my right shoes....

If you then add yet another diagnosis, such as neuropathy, things can become twice as tricky.....

The common symptoms for spinal stenosis in the lower back is:

• Numbness or tingling in a foot or leg
• Weakness in a foot or leg
• Pain or cramping in one or both legs when you stand for long periods of time or when you walk, which usually eases when you bend forward or sit
• Back pain

The common symptoms for peripheral neuropathy is:

• Numbness or reduced ability to feel pain or temperature changes
• Tingling or burning sensation
• Sharp pains or cramps
• Increased sensitivity to touch — for some people, even the weight of a bedsheet can be painful
• Muscle weakness
• Loss of reflexes, especially in the ankle
• Loss of balance and coordination
• Serious foot problems, such as ulcers, infections, and bone and joint pain

As you can see there are several joint symptoms, and they are all affecting the feet or/and legs. So if you have both of these diagnoses it’s not an easy situation in terms of walking or even standing for a longer amount of time. 

This causes a lot of other difficulties, for example when it comes to exercise. One of the best medicine for pain is to keep your body moving one way or the other, and then preferably the body parts that's affected. It's also important for keeping your weight in balance, especially when you have a sedentary job.

This has been a real problem for me the last couple of years. I try to use my treadmill to walk on the weekends when I'm home, but during the weeks the only walking opportunity is to and from work since I'm too exhausted and in too much pain for walks or exercise in the evenings due to my long work days.

Well, next week will be informative but also a bit daunting since I have a doctor’s appointment to review the results of my two day examination of nerve pathways and muscles at the county hospital's physiological clinic.

Wish me luck...

XOXO  💋