[thursday]

Hello! I've been around on the Thoracic Outlet Syndrome forum for a while but haven't poked around here until lately (Great info in Stickys )
I'm 31 and off work (for almost 2 years now) due to tendonitis & TOS symptoms. I have just recently been diagnosed with some underlying degenerative disc disease thrown into my bilateral-repetitive-strain-injuries mix.
A QME doctor had me go do an MRI last month of the cervical spine and it revealed disc bulges at:

C4-5 (1-2mm no significant central spinal stenosis),
C5-6 (2-3mm left paracentral disk bulge & mild facet hypertrophy causing mild foraminal narrowing on the left, &
C6-7 (3-4mm right paracentral disk protrusion, which indented the thecal sac.)
There was mild uncovertebral & facet hypertrophy. Findings cause moderate lateral recess stenosis & narrowing bilaterally and a moderate to severe central spine stenosis.
Options for care- Cervical epidural steroid injections

Now I really have no idea what this means but I do know that my treating doc wants me to do traction instead of surgery and I know that the QME doctor says the disc problems are preexisting.

Would anyone care to enlighten me on a coupla questions:

1. Can disc degeneration be reversed or just slowed down?
2. What does an cervical epidural steroid shot do?
3. How much does that hurt???!
4. Can an MRI definately prove that this was a pre-existing condition rather than a secondary injury of Thoracic Outlet?
5. And for extra credit: What the heck does the above diagnoses say in layman's terms