Thanks for the Update!
 

I have been wondering how it went. Thanks for the update. Seems you made it through, with a sense of humor, and copy for yourself! Way to go! Take care. Di

Four years ago it required special software to view it that a big university hospital didn't even have.

They'll probably give you a hard copy of the more interesting points if you ask. They look like x-rays.

Now days, the CD will self-load on almost all PC's to a menu that will allow you to scroll thru the images, probably 4-6 files each. Report may or may not be included on the CD. It will have some interesting tools to attenuate the images but you will still need a clinician or radiologist to interpret it for you. Goes good with chips and an ice cold one!

Ok.....funny story time......my husband had a bone removed from his hand about 6 years ago (severe bone on bone arthritic degeneration) and several huge screws put in to hold it together. Ok.....this isn't the funny part yet. They took xrays to confirm that everything was in the right place and gave it to us for our viewing pleasure (yes, Dubious.....with a nice cold one and some chips). Somehow, the copy of the xray got saved on our computer and filed in our photos (possibly when we viewed the disc?? or if we scanned the results to another doctor??? I do not know).

Anyway, we set up the computer to randomly scroll through all of our family photos.....after our daughter's birth......snow ball fights......various Christmas photos.......birthday's, and, out of the blue, this ghastly picture of all the bones in my husband's hand with three large screws would pop up. We had accidentally saved it in our family pictures and every couple of hundred photos it would scroll through randomly.

We laughed about it.....kept saying, "We really need to remove that", but never got around to doing it and would forget about it. We had company over one night, were enjoying a nice bottle of wine together watching the family pictures scroll through as we chatted when.....yep....you guessed it.......the ghastly hand picture with the screws in it popped up. It was removed the next day. Now we can't find it. Go figure....

Somewhere in all of that was supposed to be the funny part. I hope you found it!! Have a good day everyone!! :)

Here is a screenshot of the MRI image program. Seems they zeroed in on the last disc. Kinda fun playing with it. :D

You use the mouse wheel to scroll through each image, and it tracks where your looking on the other image with a yellow line. This way you know when your in the area you want to scope out.

Cant wait to hear what the results are.

That is so cool. I wish I were a radiologist so that I knew exactly what I was looking at. Hubby's hand picture was much more obvious!! Best of luck!! Let us know what they say!!

Ok I think I figured out what im lookin at LOL.

It was fairly easy to figure out since I could look at healthy disc's.
The two attachments show the L5 S1, and you can see the disc protruding down into the nerves. Looks pretty bad when compared to a healthy disc.

Bad disc Attachment 4476

Another look at bad discAttachment 4477

Here is the same disc but from the other angleAttachment 4479

Allen,
When do you expect the results back??? Let us know what they say!!! Thanks again for posting your MRI.....very interesting to study.

Well it was off to the neurologist this morning, and I thought it was for the MRI results, but they surprised me with an emg also :(

They did a different emg or I would have told them no as I ran out the front door LOL. Still hurt, but not nearly as bad as the one they did a few years ago. This time it was kept below the knee, and they didnt do 10 shocks on each nerve. Plus the needle wasnt done in the back like last time, but was done in the ankle and foot areas. So it wasnt too awefully bad. Right leg still hurts, but not as bad as the last one where I had a hard time driving myself home.

He did say the damage is quite a bit more than the last MRI, and was wondering why they didnt do the surgery he sent me to after the last emg. I told him they said there was nothing wrong with my back, they told me I have RSD. Actually the first time I had ever heard of RSD was back then...2003.

So he tells me that I have the double whammy happenin, lower back bad enough for surgery, and RSD complicating the whole mess. Like I didnt know that LOL.

Here is the MRI results.

Impression:

1. A moderate left paracentral disk protrusion with cephalad extension at L5-S1 causes posterior displacement of the left S1 nerve root in the lateral recess as seen on previous study. The cephalad extruded component of the disk is larger and compresses the left L5 nerve root as it enters neural foramen. There is a mild to moderate narrowing of the central canal. There is a mild narrowing of the the right and severe narrowing of the left proximal neural foramina lateral recesses.

2. Mild central spinal stenosis from L2-3 through L4-5 due to congenital shortening of the pedicles.

3. A 4-cm right renal lesion can be further evaluated by a renal ultrasound.

Im guessing that this makes the pictures above make more sense LOL.

Yikes, Allen.....this doesn't sound good in my unprofessional opinion. I am SO sorry. Ok......two down (EMG and MRI)......has your 50th come and gone already too??? The month can ONLY get better, right?? It sounds like your spirits are good, even if your back isn't. Sometimes things get so bad you almost HAVE to laugh. Keep us posted on what they plan to do to fix you!!