Re: Help with MRI results
I'll tackle it.
First some anatomy and word interpretation. Your spine actually starts at C1 but the neck is considered C3 to C7. Your spinal cord goes down through the vertebrae in your neck and at each vertebra, a pair of spinal nerves peels off(like a banana being peeled)and goes out to the body through holes called "formina". Where you see a words like "patent foramina", that means the holes are fully open. The spinal cord is covered with a thin sack containing spinal fluid(the thecal sac) that acts as a buffer to protect the cord. When you have a ruptured disk , they look to see if it is touching the nerves that exit the cord or touching the spinal cord itself or touching the sac that goes around the cord. It can also move in such as way as to block the hole where the nerves go out of the bone and they rank the severity of the blockage as minimal, mild, moderate and severe(and once I've seen very severe). When something touches the spinal cord, they can actually measure the width of the cord and tell you just how small it is as a result. Another measurement they take is the width of the spinal canal...the actual space within the bone itself. When you are born with a smaller than normal canal, they call it spinal stenosis.
So with that said...let's look at yours.
C3-4...bulging disk but it's not touching or blocking anything
C4-5...you have a disk that has ruptured to the back and left side. It is touching the spinal cord and making it so that the fluid around the cord is only seen in the back of the cord. It is also partially blocking the opening for the nerve on the left side. Measurements show a slightly smaller canal than normal.
C5-6...another ruptured disk is again affecting the left side. The spinal cord has been flattened slightly and the nerve that exits on the left has been blocked but "mildly". Your spinal cord has been measured as slightly less than it should be confirming that it is being flattened.
C6-7...anther ruptured disk but this time it's more right/center. It has touched the thecal sac and seems to have caused less fluid to be there and may touch the spinal cord just slightly in the center but the cord shows no sign of flattening or damage. The holes for the nerves are fine. Your spinal canal is slightly narrowed(stenosis).
So what does it all mean? Your nerves out to your body are pretty good but are probably causing you some pain. But the big problem is that your spinal cord has been affected...mildly but affected. It doesn't show any damage to the cord but it is being touched. This can cause numbness and tingling in your feet or legs and even trouble walking, like muscles that don't want to move.
That said, the cord can take a lot of pressure before you end up with big trouble. I had 5 levels of cord compression in my neck and at one level, my cord was half thickness. It had been slowly but surely compressed from 12 mms. to 6 mms. but it should be monitored. I let mine go almost too long although one neurosurgeon told me to wait even longer before I do surgery.
So what are your symptoms and what has been suggested? Anyone suggest surgery? What kind?