Hi, everyone. I started a post last year about a severely herniated disc in my lumbar spine. I got some pretty great advice, so I'm back for more!

I ended up getting a microdiscectomy to fix the herniated disc, and that's all well and good. But I was having pain in my thoracic spine, too, so I asked the doc to order up an MRI, just to be sure it wasn't another big issue. Well, after getting the MRI and visiting the doctor again, he told me that everything was fine, and I took him at his word.

Months later, however, the pain in my thoracic spine is still there, so I decided to go get the results and have a look. Here's what I found:

"There is mild disc desiccation in the mid thoracic spine. There is mild multilevel facet osteoarthritis throughout the thoracic spine. No significant central canal stenosis or neuroforaminal stenosis."

My first thought is that I'm glad the word severe doesn't pop up, and my second thought is that I'm glad there is no stenosis. But my third thought is why didn't the doctor tell me about this stuff? Is a mild disc desiccation and mild multilevel facet osteoarthritis not worth mentioning? Should he have said everything is normal when the MRI says otherwise, or am I overreacting? What do these "mild" problems mean for me?