My T spine scan was without contrast and they were still able to find some. As stated earlier, contrast is mainly to find out if any of those leisons are "active". They light up under contrast if they are.

Thanks for the responses on this. I alreay have a dx so I guess it does not matter.

I had a couple of lesions on my brain MRI this summer. One old and one new. I am surprised nothing showed on the spine MRI because I do have the MS hug and my lower body is much more affected than my upper.

It just made sense that a lesion might be somewhere along my spine. But,,,,this is just a weird thing I guess.

I'm kind of suprised to read that the Doctor's orders would be disregarded because a tech couldn't hit your vein. Good news that nothing showed in your spine though.

They're not disregarding doctor's orders if you only have one good vein and it gets blown on the first attempt of starting the IV. I dont know how it went for the original poster, but it hurts when they keep trying to stick you with the IV multiple times.

Erin I hear what you are saying but all I can say is that in my experience if the Physician orders contrast, blood draw etc. we'd have a team on your veins until someone hit the spot.

yeah, but if the patient is in pain from being stuck repeatedly, the patient has the right to ask them to stop hurting them.

Absolutely but I don't recall the OP stating they requested them to stop because of the pain. I was only referring to the OPs experience as I understood it.

My comment about not needing a MRI for them to figure this out (once dx) was really meant for others (without dx) who may misunderstand that they could (possibly) draw conclusions based on symptoms alone. Once we are dx (which you are), then they often make assumptions about what's going on with us MS-wise, without doing MRI's that prove it.

I had given some information on an earlier thread about the hug:


L'hirmettes is another sign of spinal lesions. Some of the other symptoms we get can come from either brain or spinal lesions . . . but I won't go into each of them.

I am a bit surprised they only did a T spine MRI, LA. L'hirmettes is a C-spine problem, and (I think) the hug is too. Why didn't they do the C-spine at the same time?

Also . . . bear in mind that spinal lesions can be sneaky, with or without contrast. The contrast is just to help spot active inflammation . . . but I don't think using it makes a difference with regard to actually spotting damage easier (I might be wrong, but I don't think so). However, spinal lesions can be very small, and unnoticable on a MRI, but still cause problems.

I might ask for another MRI, but only if he will request the C-spine too. At the end of the day . . . it probably doesn't matter one way or another though.

Cherie