Hey there! My name is Jordan, I'm a 36 year old single mother and I’m on a medical journey to try and fix the spinal stenosis in my lower back, specifically my L5-S1 joint. L5-S1 stenosis occurs when the spinal canal or the intervertebral foramen (the opening through which nerves exit the spine) narrows, compressing the spinal cord or nerve roots, which can result in pain, numbness, and weakness.

I’ve dealt with back pain since before my son was born, but it always seemed to go away or lessen with rest and over-the-counter medicines. In August of 2024, I decided to change what kind of work I was doing and started to learn how to become a machinist. This included a lot of heavy lifting, bending, standing for long periods of time, etc. My back would hurt, but I attributed it to working a manual labor job.

At the beginning of 2025, I started noticing my back pain was pretty severe and wasn’t going away despite taking Tylenol, stretching, heating pads, herbal teas, everything I could think of to relieve the pain. It started affecting my ability to bend over, and then standing became a major problem. Then the pain started radiating down my legs, making sitting down for long periods of time difficult.

I was missing a lot of work due to the back pain, and on the days I did work, I was miserable. In August of 2025, I started working shorter days to see if that would help with the pain while still trying to pay my bills. I discovered that working in the machine shop in any capacity was almost impossible, so I decided it was time to do something about it.

In September 2025, I went to a chiropractor who helped relieve the pain temporarily, but it would return within several hours. He suggested I get an x-ray to see if more was going on. At the beginning of October 2025, I went to my primary care doctor and got x-rays of my lower back where they saw a narrowing of the spine, specifically the L5-S1 joint. I was referred to a physical therapist to do PT for 6 weeks and was prescribed NSAID steroid tablets to help with the pain. Again, the relief is/was very temporary.

On top of the back pain, my energy levels are always low, fatigue rules my life, and it’s taken a major toll on my mental health. My ability just to do chores around my house is hit or miss depending on my pain levels. I feel as though my life has been severely diminished by the pain and I desperately want to get my life back.

The pain has progressed to where I’m not currently working, and my days continue to be more difficult as I try to figure out what’s going on. I have an amazing support system at home, but I’m needing more help.

My insurance doesn’t cover long-term disability, and I recently reached out to several insurance companies outside of my own, only to find out that they won’t insure me due to the fact that my injury was “pre-existing.” This was a life raft I hoped would cover me, but now it’s not even an option.

Right now, we are living in rough times, but anything you are able to give would help me with medical expenses, paying my bills, and helping to keep food on the table while I’m not working.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read this! Any and all help given is a blessing. ❤️