[CZZ74]

Hi, just wanted to know if you had any thoughts on these results. I had a c-spine and t-spine Mri- the doctor has emaled me to say the results show multifple disc herniations entire C-spine and T-spine. I have full body rsd, and have been told i am not a canidate for surgeries unless and emergency.
My question is how are these types of problems treated? The reason for the MRI is that I can not lift my own head in the am , I have to use my right arm- sounds stupid but its from pain the pain is too severe to lift on its own. It does improve as the day goes on. Although I can not stand over 20-30 minutes wth out causing severe spine buring thoraic area- and and rsd flare.
Is surgery the only way to fix this type of problem? Thank you so much. cz

[(Broken Wings)]

Can depend on when and how you became symptomatic/injured. Surgery is not the only way. Sometimes even with herniations, it's not a surgical situation unless you worsen, an injurous event occurs....

I had cervical epidurals X3 that helped me. I had to commit to 3, through. First one made me a lot more uncomfortable/worse; 2nd, more uncomfortable/worse; 3rd made me better. Certainly helped me to keep my head up.

The weight of your head, 8 - 10 pounds, is apparently too much on your stressed/injured/sore muscles, ligaments and tendons. Neck braces can be counter-something.

Other things: Physical therapy, Occupational Therapy, Kinesio Tape, magnet therapy, ultrasound, E-Stim, exercise if you're able to tolerate some, Yoga, Stretches, aqua therapy, ice/heat packs, breathing techniques, accupuncture, naturopathic ways, light therapies, medications, transdermal patches. I've heard of bee stinging - don't want to try that. There's other things too.

Hope you find something soon.

Originally Posted by CZZ74

Hi, just wanted to know if you had any thoughts on these results. I had a c-spine and t-spine Mri- the doctor has emaled me to say the results show multifple disc herniations entire C-spine and T-spine. I have full body rsd, and have been told i am not a canidate for surgeries unless and emergency.
My question is how are these types of problems treated? The reason for the MRI is that I can not lift my own head in the am , I have to use my right arm- sounds stupid but its from pain the pain is too severe to lift on its own. It does improve as the day goes on. Although I can not stand over 20-30 minutes wth out causing severe spine buring thoraic area- and and rsd flare.
Is surgery the only way to fix this type of problem? Thank you so much. cz

[CZZ74]

Originally Posted by (Broken Wings)

Can depend on when and how you became symptomatic/injured. Surgery is not the only way. Sometimes even with herniations, it's not a surgical situation unless you worsen, an injurous event occurs....

I had cervical epidurals X3 that helped me. I had to commit to 3, through. First one made me a lot more uncomfortable/worse; 2nd, more uncomfortable/worse; 3rd made me better. Certainly helped me to keep my head up.

The weight of your head, 8 - 10 pounds, is apparently too much on your stressed/injured/sore muscles, ligaments and tendons. Neck braces can be counter-something.

Other things: Physical therapy, Occupational Therapy, Kinesio Tape, magnet therapy, ultrasound, E-Stim, exercise if you're able to tolerate some, Yoga, Stretches, aqua therapy, ice/heat packs, breathing techniques, accupuncture, naturopathic ways, light therapies, medications, transdermal patches. I've heard of bee stinging - don't want to try that. There's other things too.

Hope you find something soon.

Broken wing, thanks for your reply- and all the resources I will be looking them up. I appreciate it. I have had not injury- I do not know what caused all these herniated disc, appartently there are several in t spine and c spine. but the pain is relentless- its hard for me to know which is rsd and which is from herniated disc. thank you again for replying. sincerely, cz

[CZZ74]

Broken wings you were the only one who helped me before so here goes. Hope you can help again or some one esle knows.
Doctor said this was not good , that it was one of the worst he has seen. Also has referred me to neurosurgeon, but has cautioned doesnt know if they can help me as there are so many and my RSD complicates things. My report says
Cervical spine
There is congentiall narrowing of the spinal canal on the basis of short pedicles.
There is a hemangioma wiiith in the C4 vertebral body
C4-c5 bilateral facet hypertrophy-there is neural enchroachment
disk bulging a C-5 and C-6 bilateral facet hypertrophy severe left nerual lforaminal stenosis. right neural foraminal stenosis as well.
C-6-C-7Disk herniation and abnormal signal involving herniated portioon of this disk. There is a associated radial tear a C6-C7/
Thoracic Spine(here comes the bad part)

• Disk bulging T5 and T6
• Disk bulging

T6and T7T7and T8 Disk buldging and midline posterior disk herniation .abnormall signal involving the hernarited portion of disk and a radial tear. Tthere is an exiting nerve rooot impingement at this level.Disk Buldging at T9 and T10 There is asymmetric right facet hyyypertrophy ath this level. there is right neural foraminal stenosis.At T-11 -T12 ther is disk bulging and midline left disk herniation and axial image . there is impingement upon the ventral thecal sac.

My spine pain is very severe. I am able to stand onlly aobut 20 mins at a time.. has anyone else had this much damage. I have not been in an accident execpt for my RSD accident, which my lef went into a sprinkler well and i fell flat on my face full out.???? help please?CZ

[(Broken Wings)]

how old are you?

these are certainly not good readings, but we'll have to take things one term at a time... and it may take time. if you're up, tell me about how old you are. I'll be working on some of it tonight.

Even though you have so many wordy findings, it doesn't necessarily mean they're the culprit or cause of your painful problems. RSD is a dandy pain producer in and of itself. Was everything onset at or around the same time?

You can certainly get some bad injuries from a fall.

Just remember, you can only eat a whale one bite at a time.

[(Broken Wings)]

Originally Posted by CZZ74

Broken wings you were the only one who helped me before so here goes. Hope you can help again or some one esle knows.
Doctor said this was not good , that it was one of the worst he has seen. Also has referred me to neurosurgeon, but has cautioned doesnt know if they can help me as there are so many and my RSD complicates things. My report says
Cervical spine
There is congentiall narrowing of the spinal canal on the basis of short pedicles.
There is a hemangioma wiiith in the C4 vertebral body
C4-c5 bilateral facet hypertrophy-there is neural enchroachment
disk bulging a C-5 and C-6 bilateral facet hypertrophy severe left nerual lforaminal stenosis. right neural foraminal stenosis as well.
C-6-C-7Disk herniation and abnormal signal involving herniated portioon of this disk. There is a associated radial tear a C6-C7/
Thoracic Spine(here comes the bad part)

• Disk bulging T5 and T6
• Disk bulging

T6and T7T7and T8 Disk buldging and midline posterior disk herniation .abnormall signal involving the hernarited portion of disk and a radial tear. Tthere is an exiting nerve rooot impingement at this level.Disk Buldging at T9 and T10 There is asymmetric right facet hyyypertrophy ath this level. there is right neural foraminal stenosis.At T-11 -T12 ther is disk bulging and midline left disk herniation and axial image . there is impingement upon the ventral thecal sac.

My spine pain is very severe. I am able to stand onlly aobut 20 mins at a time.. has anyone else had this much damage. I have not been in an accident execpt for my RSD accident, which my lef went into a sprinkler well and i fell flat on my face full out.???? help please?CZ

**
Okay. just my thoughts... not a doctor

"There is congenital narrowing of the spinal canal on the basis of short pedicles."

Narrowing of any kind can cause pain and/or problems. Not necessarily anything wrong here, though. just noted as a finding that deviates from the normal-radiologist knows it's congenital. "Congenital-existing at or dating from birth/developed in uterus. congenital not the same as hereditary.

Short pedicles-located on the vertebra - you can google with images "short pedicles" till you find them and understand what part of the vetebral bone it is.

**
"There is a hemangioma wiiith in the C4 vertebral body"

how big is it? not much wiggle room in the vertebral body.

hemangioma-benign tumor made up of blood vessels. Again, not necessarily anything wrong. just noted as a finding-radiologist knows it's benign. hemangiomas can be from birth too. not usually a surgical condition. Just the way some people are put together. I don't think science knows why they develop but they know it's benign.

***

"C4-c5 bilateral facet hypertrophy"

hypertrophy - I understand it to be an arthritic or a degenerating/aging condition. that's why I asked your age. Some people get rapid degeneration after an injury. what was your fall date? what was the date of this MRI? if it's soon after fall, then hypertropy was most probably pre-existing-before injury event. It may not've bothered you(dormant condition) but you could've had it. the injury may have brought it into reality(started hurting).

C4-C5 bilateral-means both sides of the vetebrae

facet - joints that join the vertebrae one to another. so facet hypertrophy=degeneration/arthritis of the facet joint, bilaterally(both sides) of the vetebrae.

facet joints and short pedicles are not the same either. close...

**
will work on some more tomorrow night.

[CZZ74]

I am 53 years old. My fall which caused my RSD was July 6, 2003. This is the first MRI i have had (ever) of my neck and upper back. I did have one of the lumbar at time of fall it was clear- I had another recently,(of the lumbar) it was clear. Thannnk you so much for your help. Sincerely, Cz

[CZZ74]

hi, sorry I just noticed I left out two items in the report when i was typing last night. Its almost like it says there are two discs in one spot?
T8-T9
"In addition, there is a superimposed right paracentral posterior disk herniation as seen on parasagittal image #5.
There is impingement on the ventrral thecas sac."
T9-T10
"in addition, there is a superimposed left posterolateral disk herniation as seen on parasagittal image #8 and axial image #9.there is impingment upon the left lateral recess.
And then again at T11-T12
In addition , there is a superimposed midline/left paracentral posterior disk herniation as seein in images......
There is impingement upon the ventral thecal sac.
Ok thanks sorry, I had missed all of the " in addition" lines.

[(Broken Wings)]

There are important meanings to all these descriptions in the "IMPRESSION" section. Impression is the radiologist's medical diagnosis so the referring physician can make a definitive diagnosis and treatment plan. Your doctor should still develop a treatment plan for you. It's just complex with so many things going on. It may not be that you're not a surgical candidate absent other things, it may be more like "in your case" it may cause more problems with your other conditions or they're not sure (right now your doctor probably is not sure) what level of your spine to try to fix first. when you're complicated like you are, conservative may be your best bet. My first pain management visit my doctor said I would be like an onion. I would have to peel off one layer at a time. seems he was right about that too. just takes a long time. At one time, even if I had opted for the TOS surgeries, my lower back was so bad I couldn't lay in a bed for more than 20 or 30 minutes. had to move to another position. so that would have been really painful, actually almost impossible without being knocked out. it turned out I wasn't wrong about that either (referring to an outpatient surgical event-minor-but back gave me a lot of problems - not the surgery on my ear, but my back - actually caused an unsuccessful or not as successful of a surgery-and at the least caused me a lot of pain and suffering. outpatient surgery was a breeze-back pain is miserable pain.

[(Broken Wings)]

hey CZZ74

I've got to work some tonight. try checking out some of my other threads and other TOSer's threads. they understand and are struggling with pain and frustrations too.

keep in touch...