Hubby picked up my copy of the MRI I had done a while ago but they won't let me have the results until I see the doctor. Sure wish I knew what I was looking at...just looks kinda creepy to me.

Weird.

When I had my MRI of the spine (actually, both MRI's, done a week apart because the contrast wasnt able to be injected the first time) they gave me both copies of the MRI and I also got a copy of the report...and I hadnt seen my doctor yet. Granted, I didnt totally understand the report, and I waited until I saw the neuro to really start worrying about things. I was pretty sure at the time that that would find something and what it meant. So, I was worrying more about when to start the drugs than anything else.

Creepy? Naw, it's just what the insides of you look like. I was endlessly fascinated with my brain MRI - looking at all the bits, trying to figure out what they were.

Suzy, if this is your first MRI of any kind, you probably won't be able to figure it out. It takes an experienced radiologist to make sense of an MRI, and the spinal ones are even more confusing than the brain ones.

What you're going to be looking for is lighter gray areas inside the dark gray areas in the spinal column. The spinal MRI will show you slices of your spine, along with the vertebrae surrounding it. You'll see an oval of spinal cord with a light ring around it - that's normal. What's not normal is any light spot in the middle of the cord.

But you'll end up driving yourself crazy trying to figure it out. Don't worry about it - just wait for the doctor, and he'll tell you what it all means.

No expert here, but when I finally saw my L-spine, I could see, without a doubt what was ailing me. The C-Spine is so much smaller, I had NO clue! The Brain MRI I saw nothing, but DD who is studying medicine, actually pointed out a lesion, and it turned out to be one!! I was so impressed with her!!

The reports can be hard to read, but the terms used can easily be looked up in a medical terminology book or online to help decipher what the meaning is. But, through experience, I found I over reacted to some things that ment nothing! Thats probably why they are not giving it to you....FWIW.

Let us know what the Neuro says and good luck!

Thank you all. I had no trouble with the brain MRI...there were white areas all over it...dr. said wow it looks like someone dumped a salt shaker in there! lol I'll just (try) not to worry about this one and wait til the dr. can explain it.

Thanks again,
Susan

Hi,Suzy on my C-spine and L-spine MRI my neuro said I have 2 lesions one btw C-2 and C-3 and the other C-6 and C-7 when I look at my copy of my MRI's I can't see the lesions it's hard to see them in the spine I think.But I can see the lesions in my Brain MRI.

Hi all, I get the results of my spine MRI in the morning. I picked up a copy of all the MRI's when I had this one done.So far 2 brain MRI's one with and one without the contrast.Lesions on the brain and had an LP too.
I hope I get concrete answer. So far she calls it "probable MS" .
Good Luck with your results !

Spinal lesions are very hard to spot, as many are very, very small. Sometimes the MRI doesn't even pick them up well.

I've seen MRI's of spinal lesions and I can't even tell when they point them out to me.

Cherie

I specifically ask for the mri reports with the MRIs, just much easier for a layperson to understand.

First neuro didn`t mention some details of my first MRI that were on the report " given the location a demyelinating disease is not entirely excluded " he just jumped to the conclusion that because of my age and history of smoking I had suffered small strokes.

Just made me want to see the reports and form my own ideas, much closer than neuro 1 & 2.