Need help understanding mri report

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kenzibenzi

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I'm new here, so hello everyone. :wave: I had my first mri done and here are the results... It was a thoracic spine mri. Can anyone help me understand it?:confused:

Findings:
The spinal cord is normal in size and signal intensity and terminates at eh L1 level. There is normal thoracic alignment. There is mild disc space narrowing and associated end plate degenerative change at the T7-8 level. This is degenerative in nature. The bone otherwise are unremarkable. There are no acute osseous abnormalities. The remaining disc space and vertebral body heights are maintained. End plate degenerative change and disc space narrowing is partially visualized at the C5-6 level. There is associated diffuse disc bulging with minor effacement of the ventral aspect of the cervical cord. If indicated, this could be further assessed with mri of the cervical spine.
T7-8: There is minor diffuse disc bulging. This minimally effaces the ventral aspect of the spinal cord. There is no frank central canal stenosis. There is no focal disc herniation. There is no visible nerve root impingement.

Impression:
1) Mild degenerative disc disease and diffuse disc bulging at the T7-8 level. The bulging disc minimally effaces the ventral aspect of the spinal cord with no central canal stenosis.
2) Degenerative disc disease and disc bulging are partially visualized at the C5-6 level. If indicated, this could be further evaluated with mri of the cervical spine.
3) The remaining portions of the thoracic mri are unremarkable.
 
Thought I better explain the reason for the mri. Had 2 fractured ribs (outer 6&7) about two years ago. Don't know how that happened. Since then I have went to the ER twice with bad chest & rib pain (basically all over rib cage area and chest). Both times they diagnosed me with costochodritis (spell check) after ruling out my heart.

I had previous xrays that showed the narrowing of T7-8, but my doc never investigated further. After two years of pain I went to another doc. First thing he did after looking at all my labs (hypothyroid) & xrays was to poke my back right in the middle, after I almost jumped off the table he sent me to have the mri done. My follow up appointment isn't until the 26th of May. I got my results from where they were done and posted them above.

I've been very careful and feeling fairly good for a few days. This morning I dusted my living room pictures with the swifter duster and all my chest pain, left back shoulder pain, and lower left ribs in back pain came back (hope that made sense) I don't really have any questions, as I have been reading all the posts on here and learning a lot. I just wanted to whine for a minute I suppose.

The mri horrified me. My fillings in my teeth were pulsing. I thought they would come right out. Not sure I can do another one.

Thanks for listening, I'm just lonely today and needed someone to talk to.
 
I'm still really stressing about having another mri done. Would a ct scan show enough to get a diagnosis? I'm thinking about asking the dr for a ct scan instead.
 
Hi Kenzi,

I'm sorry that you are in this situation. Your MRI doesnt sount "crazy" bad. SounRAB like T7-T8 is the disk that is effecting the nerves. It also sounRAB like C5-C6 will be an issue too. I would expect you to go back for an MRI of the cervical spine. I'm not exactly sure what they will do about the DDD.

Don't sweat the MRI.. at least they dont hurt. As far as a plain CT scan, I dont know if they will have you do one. They had me do a myelogram which is essentially a CT scan with some sort of dye injected into the spine. It has its pro's and con's. I'll start with the cons... it hurt me. The doc found the nerves in the spinal canal. It felt like a lightning bolt built up in my butt and then exploded out my leg. My hips were nurab for about 45 minutes. The Pro's of it may outweigh the discomfort. The dye will actually surround the nerve roots and allow the doctors to see a good image of your nerves and get detailed images of your spine.

I understand your loneliness. It's a difficult thing to go through. I'm 31 and have a wife and 3 year old daughter. I hate complaining about my back. It's one of those injuries that other people cant see so their first thought is "it's bogus". It's nice to talk to people who understand whats going on.

As far as your pain, it's most likely going to continue to get worse. It did for me and two surgerys later, im still fighting my way through it. It is going to be a long process and you have to keep looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. It will be there.

When I got my first MRI, I looked up the wording they were using and it helped me understand it. Please let me know if I can help or if you just need someone else to talk to.
 
CT's are not as accurate. But to my eyes they didn't seem all that different when I looked at both of the same area. Your MRI seems fairly mild and I would think your pain is not spine related as far as needing spine surgery. Can't speak to other areas where the MRI would show your pain source. Never heard of the filling issue. I had 2 MRI's and no filling problem. I just closed my eyes, enjoyed the warmth, and tried to dose even though it is noisy. The pain is bad enough per your comments, I would do the tests they want and/or see a couple Dr's for different opinions. Just get copies of all MRI/CT's. They should be provided at no charge.

My comments are my non-professional opinions only.


Good Luck,

Ken
 
Personally, I do not think the rib and chest pain is related to the spine (I could be wrong I suppose.) It's NOT nerve pain in my ribs and chest. I know nerve pain, I get it in the middle of my back when I wash dishes, and I get it in my leg if I sleep wrong. And I definitely know the sciatic pain when I turn wrong. That's the most annoying thing. They do xrays and say "nothing is broken, go home." It took a year of complaining of rib pain before I was diagnosed with "healing fractured ribs" on a 3 phase bone scan. What's the point then? We all know fractures don't show up on xrays 99% of the time. I'm pretty sure my 2nd trip to the ER for rib pain on the other side was for the same reason, but will never be diagnosed as that. I may never know the real reason for all the rib pain. But one thing is for sure, I DO know the difference between nerve pain and bone pain.

Sorry I am rarabling again. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. To be honest I didn't think the mri report was too bad after reading around on this site. I am blessed compared to many others on here and that makes me feel bad for whining. I just hate it when WE know our bodies and THEY (dr's) don't listen.

Rugmankc: your lucky your fillings didn't pulse/throb. I thought mine were gonna pop right out of my head. It didn't hurt, just scared the crap out of me.

Joebob254: thanks for your kind worRAB. I hope you get to feeling better.

Hope everyone is having a great day ;-)
 
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