Quote:
Originally Posted by tdouglas
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?
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Docs do react differently. I had one doc tell me I needed surgery based on my MRI and I did not. (Mild lumbar herniation that healed on its own.) Then years later, I had a doc tell me that my MRI had some abnormalities but nothing that he would not expect for someone of my age and that the abnormalities were nothing of any real concern. He gave me a copy of the MRI results after he had discussed it with me.
Personally, I think the doc should have told you something similar to what my doc told me after MRI, abnormal but insignificant. To not notify you of ANY abnormality is probably because he did not want to have to discuss it with you since he seems to have considered it insignificant.
The question is........ Are you experiencing pain or problems? If you have NO symptoms, he probably thought it of no significance.
I now have moderate thoracic herniations, multi-level facet osteoarthritis, degenerative discs, and a few other things that I can't remember at the moment.
I would ask him to give you a detailed explanation of why he stated your MRI was "normal" or did he mean that it is insignificant.