I am here to try to find some MRI answers. I was injured at work and had an MRI a week ago. I received the results and there is an abnormal signal on y T7 vertebrae, which is exactly where the pain is. The vocational doc is telling me that the now injured body part has nothing to do with my work injury and to follow up with my own primary care provider. I am wondering how the doctor would know this, if further testing has not taken place.
The report reads "non-specific abnormal signal involving the posterior T7 vertebrae. If there is a cancer history, repeat MR thoracic spine imaging may be performed with contrast for further evaluation." I have no history of cancer and I am now waiting to get an MEG, for what is believed to be a pinched nerve, that was ordered by the Neuro doc. It seems the vocational doc has made up his mind that he is not doing any further testing to find out why there is an abnormal read on my T7.
Someone please enlighten me and tell me what this means in words I can understand. The vocational doc also mentioned to me, "that it could possibly be cancer". How would he know that without further testing?

Hi estevezkid66

Welcome to NeuroTalk .

I hope that you will find the NT community as knowledgeable and supportive as I have.

I don't know much about the details of MRI scans and spinal anatomy beyond saying that the T7 vertebra is about halfway done the back (roughly equivalent to where your seventh and eighth pairs of ribs are).

The "Spinal Disorders & Back Pain" forum within NT is worth checking out. It is absolutely fine for you to start your own thread there. Other NT members should be able to offer you detailed thoughts and suggestions.

All the best.

Hello Estevezkid: I'm sorry I cannot really address your concerns. However I also wanted to welcome you to NeuroTalk. I trust you will find the time you spend here to be of benefit. By the way, here's a link to the Spinal Disorders and Back Pain forum kiwi mentioned:

https://www.neurotalk.org/forum22/

I guess the one observation I can offer here is that, years back, I was a vocational rehabilitation counselor working with injured workers. In that capacity I had a lot of opportunities to be involved with the medical care my clients received. Of course, where you live will no doubt make a difference. But my experience was that a lot of what did & did not get decided, with regard to patients' diagnosis & treatment, had as much to do with who a particular doctor was "connected to" (either the insurer or the injured worker's attorney) than it did what was actually going on with the patient.

This was particularly true in cases where the injury was related to the spinal column. The reality is that everyone develops a variety of spine-related problems as the years go by. And determining whether or not a particular problem is related to a person's work injury, or simply to the effects of living day-to-day, can be mission impossible. At least in my experience it often ended up being something that got argued out by attorneys representing the workers compensation carrier on one side & attorneys representing the injured worker on the other.

Is this a work comp case/claim?
Is the vocational doc a work comp assigned dr??
* If so I'm not surprised by the not related to injury talk..

Do you have your own dr too, if pain/injury seems like it might be serious , seek out a good WC atty... to help you navigate the system..
We have a Work Comp forum also.. not very active, but searchable past post/info/tips & the sticky threads.. https://www.neurotalk.org/forum30/

On the injury itself.. was it a back related injury? Strained or hit by something?
If the injury was not at all related to the back, then the T7 issue might not be related..

I would see your primary , just to have another opinion and that it is documented in the office visit notes..
paper trail & documentation is very important for any claim, you can even make a time line of accident & symptoms. it is so easy to forget some things..

Thank you for the warm welcome everyone. I am grateful for your replies to my question. Yes, this is a work comp case and I do have a vocational doctor assigned to me by Kaiser. The doc is only a primary care doctor and certainly not familiar enough with the spine to explain the results of my MRI to me in layman's terms. He has decided that my injury is not due to work, without the consensus of a specialist, by which I have spoken to my adjuster and the insurance has agreed to send me to a spine specialist, thank the Lord. I am a rigger by trade and was working in a scissor lift when I was hit in the face with a chain motor hook, weighing 5 lbs, which broke my nose, split my lip and left me with the giant goose eggs above both my eyes. While in the motion of being hit in the face, I was thrown against the rail on the lift and smacked my back at the T7 quite hard. I will check back later and share some more of the MRI report and also will check out the other groups ya'll referred me to, Thanks so much !
ANG

Be careful to not post too many details - dates or names , just in case Ins adjuster /staff does a web search.. if claims get into large money they may do that...

Thank you, of course, I understand, we have to be careful of what we share online.