Holy hell. I’m very sorry you’re having to deal with this, and hope that you continue to improve and that your team is able to give you relief.
I am so sorry you have been in this pain and that was such a scary situation to go through. I’ve dealt with excruciating bouts of sciatica, and I cannot imagine the pain you must have been feeling. I agree about the steroids, they helped me a lot, but as a doc you know they need to be tapered and ended. I tried PT, I ended up getting epidurals which (I know the jury is out) helped me immensely. Do you know or have an idea where your case is going? Would something like that give you more function/control, or do you think it will be a surgery? I am crying for you. Please keep us posted.
Damn, I’m sorry. I’ve known you on the board for over 20 years and I’m sad to hear this news. I’m almost 50 now and I remember when you would give me advice in my 20s.
I’m assuming they are going to recommend surgery, and whatever they recommend I hope it goes well.
I have lumbar stenosis, and for now I don’t have much pain. But I know its coming as I get older.
Do you have an infrared heating pad? Those penetrate the skin more than a regular heating pad and get into the deeper tissue, and some people with nerve pain swear by them.
I can’t imagine what those kinds of pain must be like to experience, and I’m sorry you’ve experienced them. So here’s another rando from the internet wishing you the speediest recovery possible.
My father had a spinal stenosis, I don’t know many of the details, he wasn’t the type to share, but he said it caused pain in his legs. I guess it wasn’t constant pain, because he didn’t have it operated on until my mother died. He never fully recovered his ability to walk more than a few steps after that, but he said the cessation of the pain was worth it. I believe him more than ever now.
Glad to hear the gabapentin and steroids are moving things in the right direction and very glad the fall didn’t do any more damage.
Have you thought about taking up auto racing?
As a long-time chronic pain sufferer (neuropathic corneal pain), my heart breaks for you. I still remember the story of your plane crash. I hate to think that the earlier chapters and the later chapters of your life must both be marked by rather unthinkable trauma.
May all of your tomorrows be better than any of your yesterdays. May they get the pain safely and profoundly under control, and may you dodge the iatrogenic stuff that plagues so many (raises hand) along the way.
My sympathies, Doc. You will be in my thoughts.
Ironically, the good doctor lives only a few miles from a well-known auto racing course. 
Damn! That’s some pretty serious stuff. I hope it gets better soon.
I hope you feel much better soon
Damn dude, what a frightening and painful experience!! I am glad the pain subsided and you got in and out of opioids. Definitely keep us posted on what comes next!!
I worry about my spine health. My dad had issues in his cervical and lumbar spine (and a fentanyl habit from that woo!), his dad had lumbar problems, my mom has lumbar problems, her mom had lumbar problems. I am already showing both lumbar and cervical problems. Being that some of us had physical jobs and some of us have office jobs, I’m thinking it’s hereditary.
No one has ever told me of signs to look out for, for when “cervical problems” become “cervical emergencies” and now your post has me thinking about it and knowing to look out for it. So I’m grateful for that.
Also was your trip to the ER actually quick or do you mean that the physical getting to the ER was quick? Because I am not familiar with an actual quick ER trip 
Glad to hear you didn’t suffer severe harm. But by “stenosis,” do you mean your neck vertebrae was naturally getting tighter and tighter (less and less space in between disks) and that was what was causing the edema? So, no particular injury, just a natural progression and worsening with age prior to your falling on face?
Holy hannah! I hope all goes well from here on in. Best wishes for a quick and effective recovery.
Another well wisher chiming in. I don’t have anything to really add here, just best wishes for you.
Yikes! Good to hear you’re headed back in the right direction. Hope that continues unto normalcy.
Well, the pain flared up again yesterday afternoon for no apparent reason, and kept me pretty miserable for the rest of the day. It was only about 1/4 as severe as it had been, but that was more than enough. Fortunately it quieted down by midnight and I had a decent rest. Now my hands just feel like I’ve overexercised them and that’s not too bad. Steady on with the meds, and hoping for slow improvement.
Interestingly, I got an AI call from from the hospital today, with a robotic voice asking me questions as to whether I was getting better or not, and having to push buttons to respond. I found this very annoying and hung up after the 4th question. Such a dehumanizing touch! That seems the absolute worst place to use AI for follow up. A genuine human voice from some sort of nursing professional would have been reassuring and proper, not that ridiculousness.
Our current medical technology can work miracles, and my ER experience was most positive, but at times I do feel despair about the mechanization of healthcare, especially since it’s at the expense of human interaction, and for corporate profits.
I’m known around here as something of an AI evangelist, but I fully agree with you here. There are proper and improper applications of AI, and this one was horrendously inappropriate. In fact it wasn’t even really AI, but sounds like just a variant of a dumbass IVR system, and undoubtedly the result of some low-ranking hospital administrator trying to be “efficient” in the worst possible way, and hoping to get a bonus for it. 
Get better soon! We’re all rooting for you!
If you’re open to trying a far infrared heating pad, this one may be good.
When I was having really bad back pain and regular heating pads didn’t help, getting a FIR heating pad worked much much better.
Just a note to update those who are interested.
My neurosurgeon agrees I received a ‘stinger’ to my cervical spinal cord due to the stenosis present, but there’s no acute bony damage to the spinal vertebrae that needs surgery to correct, so that’s nice. He did offer me a C5-8 spinal fusion if I wanted it, in order to give some additional spinal cord protection should I face-plant or otherwise self injure due to issues with balance and gravity. Or I could practice not falling and continue to watch and wait for new symptoms to appear, or current symptoms progressing. I’ve opted for the latter, conservative approach.
And now 1 week out, the gabapentin should start kicking in. I still have low level sensory changes in both hands, and sensitivity to light touch there too. At least it’s sensory only, no problem with motor skills, and my keyboarding actually seems a bit better than before the contusion, strangely enough. But it is irritating to get a slight zing whenever I touch or grip something, or when my wife lays her hand on mine, etc. I may be stuck with those symptoms, but we’ll see. If that’s the case, I got off lightly.
I’m currently busy collecting maple and walnut sap to convert into syrup, so that’s a nice distraction. I’ve made 3/4 of a gallon already, and should have enough sap in the pipeline to make another 3/4 gallon. And I’ll probably get a pint of walnut syrup from my single walnut tree.
Sounds somewhat promising. Enjoy the Syrup harvesting and making.
'Zactly.
Good news all around.