Spinal stenosis and possible tumor

[mej1]

I'm asking this for my 70 y/o grandmother. She has been diagnosed with two different back disorders. One doctor suggested back therapy and a neurological surgeon suggested surgery to shave something off (can't remeraber what it's called). I suggested she get another opinion from an orthopaedic surgeon.

I can't remeraber the two things she was diagnosed with. I think one is lurabar spinal stenosis and the other is degenerative disc disease. She had an MRI done between the first and second diagnosis. I was reading about spinal stenosis and the article said it can be caused by a tumor. Oddly enough, grandma has a bump on her back that the physical therapist says looks like a cyst or tumor.

Do you all think she should have the bump looked at by a dermatologist before making any decisions about her back? She's in a lot of pain so she's really anxious to get treatment. I don't think she wants to worry about a bump. But I'm thinking that if there's a possibility that it's a tumor, that maybe it could be playing a part in the back pain. None of her doctors or the nurses said anything to her about it. I just happened to see it when I putting sunscreen on her back. I thought it was odd that no one said anything about it. Although, if it was a tumor, wouldn't it have shown up on the x-rays or MRI?

 

[redsmom]

This is the definition of Spinal Stenosisinal stenosis is a medical condition in which the spinal canal narrows and compresses the spinal cord and nerves. This is usually due to the common occurrence of spinal degeneration that occurs with aging. It can also sometimes be caused by spinal disc herniation, osteoporosis or a tumor. In the cervical (neck) and lurabar (low back) region it can be a congenital condition to varying degrees.
Spinal stenosis may affect the cervical, thoracic or lurabar spine. In some cases, it may be present in all three places in the same patient. Lurabar spinal stenosis results in low back pain as well as pain or abnormal sensations in the legs, thighs, feet or buttocks, or loss of bladder and bowel control.

Please don't think TUMOR as a main factor right away. I had a lump on my back and it just turned out to be a Lipoma which is a tumor i.e. a pocket of fatty tissue formed under the epidermis and can be easily removed and no it wouldn't show up in an x-ray it's just fat tissue. It's quite common and can form any where but yes you should get a referral to see a derm doctor to look at it first and rule all things out but given her age DDD other wise known as Degenerative Disk Disease is common for elderly due to lack of calcium and for others who are young its hereditary. I know we tend to think the worst first but if it's soft more than likely it's a lipoma. Just hold her hand and tell her everything will be okay and not to think the worst until she sees the doctor and gets the results because it could be nothing, no sense in projecting our fears onto our loved ones and making theirs worse. I just went through a similar thing with my 80 year old dad who was worried he had cancer but I kept telling him that even if they found the worse it was still caught early on and everything was be just fine and turned out he was negative. He scared himself silly. Be strong for her but arm yourself with information, all the information you can find because knowledge is power.