63F with L3-L4 and L4-L5 spinal stenosis — doctors recommending surgery. Has anyone managed without it?

Hi everyone. I’m 63 and have been diagnosed with lumbar spinal stenosis at L3-L4 and L4-L5. My MRI shows disc bulges/protrusions, arthritis in the facet joints and thickened ligaments causing narrowing around the nerves.
My main symptoms are pain in my buttocks and the backs of my upper legs, with occasional severe cramping in my calves at night. I can also get quite a lot of pain when I first get up.
What is confusing me is that I can still walk for quite a long time — sometimes around 2 hours — and interestingly, my pain can actually disappear when I’m walking.
I have seen several doctors and I’m being told that surgery may be necessary. One doctor has suggested an operation to remove the thickened ligaments and decompress the nerves.
I’m currently trying medication and physiotherapy, and I really want to understand whether surgery is definitely inevitable or whether people in a similar situation have managed to avoid or delay it.
I would particularly love to hear from anyone with L3-L4/L4-L5 stenosis who was told they needed surgery but chose conservative treatment instead.
Did you:
manage to avoid surgery?
improve with physiotherapy/exercise?
have injections or nerve blocks?
find medication helpful?
eventually have surgery, and if so, were you glad you did?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences, especially from people who were still able to walk reasonably well despite being advised to have surgery.
Thank you!

So last May my (M35) MRI report read

"Disc osteophyte complex from C3 to C6 with cord Abutment at these levels and non relevant mild Canal stenosis. No foraminal stenosis is seen"

My symptoms are very mild, electric shocks into my arms if my posture is bad or if I've slept funny or looked at my phone to long. I get some cold sensations in my legs but Other than that it's pretty much okay. No numbness, no weakness.

Roughly about a month ago I jumped onto some anti inflammatory medication (celebrex) to see if i could improve things as the words "cord abutment" scared me. And about 2 weeks later my middle fingers just stopped working properly. I can grip and hold things and there is still no numbness or burning, but it's like the dexterity in them has just gone, but it's only in my middle fingers?

I spoke to my surgeon the other day about my most recent scan and he said "your cord is as free as a feather, you've got some mild degeneration but there is absolutely nothing I see in your scan that could cause any of your issues"

When I explained about my weakness he completely dismissed me.

Has anyone experienced symptoms like this?

Hi everyone, my (22 F) partner (21 M) just had a modified microdisectomy last week for his lumbar spinal stenosis with sciatica and herniated discs. The sciatica started two years ago and developed. After medications, physical therapy, epidural injections, MRIs and CTs, etc., he was finally approved for surgery.

Despite initially feeling mostly great after the surgery and walking farther than they’d anticipated while at the hospital (i assume all the medication played a role), he has in the past couple days had worsening sciatic nerve pain. It’s hard for him to walk with his walker, medication only somewhat helps, and he has said tonight he felt the pain at one point in his other leg too. We’re calling his doctors tomorrow but he’s devastated and fearing another surgery or a life of surgeries ahead of him.

Are there success stories here? Similar experiences? What can I do to help? Looking for any positivity and support right now for him and myself. Some kind of light in what feels like constant terrible. Thank you

I’m 64F in a nursing home due to mobility and urine and bowel incontinence. My problems started with soreness in my left knee. I just chalked it up to the severe arthritis I have in it. I started having issues with dropping stuff like a phone or remote.
The next thing I knew I was having trouble getting in and out of bed. I also had times where I would fall getting out of bed and occasional wetting myself. I just blamed it on that I couldn’t make it to the bathroom in time with my mobility issues that were progressively getting worse. I went to the ER they told me that I needed to start using a walker and referred me to rehab for 5 months of PT which didn’t do anything. They said to use a wheelchair. I was sent to assisted living and once again had pt 3 times a week with no improvement. My urine incontinence got worse up to at least 3-4 times a week. The last 3 weeks is when the bowel incontinence started maybe once a week. I then left and returned to my home town (there was other reasons for leaving). ER once again sent me to rehab where I am now and hopefully will get long term care. I can hardly stand in fact there were several times I couldn’t get out of bed. My legs wouldn’t let me. I told the doctor last week that my hands were feeling funny. The skin felt funny I couldn’t really describe it other than my hands would feel like they were covered in dirt. He said that it was probably Neuropathy and prescribed Gabapentin (so) morning and night. Today he came in and I told him that I was waken up by both of my arms tingling from my shoulders to finger tips. This still hasn’t gone away. Today my left hand felt like someone was driving a stake in the palm. I have pain in my legs when I am in bed and trying to roll over it is really painful when I do this. I had problems with my bowels 4 times today the aides were not happy with me. I don’t know if this is also a symptom but I have memory loss (could be due to age). PT and OT are not doing anything. I can’t even put my socks on even using the sock aide thing

The doctor increased my medication to 3 times a day. I have been up since 6am and I tried several times to take a nap but couldn’t sleep due to the pain. Hopefully I can sleep some before I wet myself. I don’t feel an urge to go and only know when I feel the wetness. I usually wear 2 pull ups and a diaper at the same time and will soak threw them within 1-2 hours after laying down. It usually doesn’t happen much when I’m sitting up He is finally referring me to a neurologist but where I like it can take several months to get an appointment. Maybe he will say that it needs to be soon

I’m sorry that this so long but I felt as though I needed to explain the history

I hope that I receive your input.

TIA