A few days before Christmas my mom was taken to the hospital with severe Wikipedia reference-linkradiculopathy pain in her right hip and front of right leg. This is the 2nd acute flare-up (1st was summer 2009). Wikipedia reference-linkMRI (then and now) reveals lumbar Spinal Stenosis with bulging L2-L3 disk. Bulge last year was 2mm, now it is 5mm. She also has "severe osteoporosis" in the lumbar spine.

My mom is 80 but very active and otherwise very healthy. She exercises and is completely independent. She already knew she has osteoporosis.

She received 1 epidural injection last Thursday morning, and will receive the 2nd one tomorrow (thursday). She improves every day, but it's hard to know if that is due to the last week's epidural, or if she might have improved without it.

Anyway, last Thursday (1 week after admission) she was transferred to a health care rehab facility for PT. She is receiving excellent nursing care and is very happy also with the PT. Every day, she walks further and more often, and needs less and less pain med. When the pain does flare up, it still is severe but less so. She is not a complainer so I know the pain must be excruciating if she mentions it or refuses to take more steps.

She is hoping to return home next week after receiving more daily PT at this facility. I am overseeing her care, and will assist her when she returns home until she can be independent again. We're beginning to discuss out-patient PT and other options to help her return to as much independence as possible.

She's is open to surgery if the other measures don't provide enough relief. We've been told that the surgery to scrape the disk is very successful and "not a big deal", even in the elderly. However, an orthopedic surgeon told me he is reluctant to do that with her "because of her age". (Would a neurosurgeon be the best for this type of surgery?)

I want to support her in all she wants to do (within reason), and not push her into anything that might hurt or hinder her recovery or set her back.

Can anyone share any information with respect to this surgery to remove the bulge, and also the best PT to prevent this from occurring again? Her arms and legs are very strong because of the exercise she has done on her own for years.

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