Tony Sancillo of Saltillo finally “got tired of hurting” and did something about his back pain.

“I’m in sales, and there’s a lot of walking and standing. I was having trouble just making it through the day,” Tony says. “It was hard to walk, hard to stand. I couldn’t lay down or sit down—nothing was comfortable. It was just hard to function.”

Not only that, but the pain was raising Tony’s blood pressure. To alleviate the pain, he was taking high doses of prednisone, a steroid medication.

“It caused my appetite to increase and, consequently, I gained a lot of weight," Tony says. "The added weight made everything worse.”

Neurosurgeon Dr. Carl Bevering diagnosed Tony, 62, with lumbar spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal in the lower back.

Because the most common cause is gradual wear and tear to the joints over time, the condition is common in people over 50.

Symptoms may include:

• Back pain
• Pain in the buttocks and down the legs (sciatica)
• Numbness, tingling, cramping or weakness in the legs
• Loss of sensation in the foot and/or foot drop (when the foot slaps down when walking)

“This pain gets worse when you walk or stand, so your activity level gets markedly reduced,” Dr. Bevering says.

In August 2022, Tony had back surgery at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo to widen the space between his vertebrae.

“Usually what happens is that the sac of nerves in the lower back becomes narrowed due to overgrowth of ligaments and bone,” Dr. Bevering explains. “What we can do is open the area up, most often by just removing the bone and ligament to reduce the compression on the nerve roots.”

Sometimes the surgeon also needs to stabilize the lower back by fusing together some of the vertebrae.

“The biggest thing it improves for people is their ability to be active again,” Dr. Bevering says.

For Tony, surgery offered almost immediate relief and has made a huge difference.

Hitting the pavement has gotten much easier—both for making sales and for exercise.

“I’ve lost 70 pounds, and my blood pressure is back under control,” he says. “I’m feeling better, working every day and doing what I want to do. I’m very pleased.”