MRI results...

for those of you who were unaware...i've had bad back pain lately...and had an mri and an xray done. apparently i have degenerative disc disease. i have been taking a muscle relaxent called skelaxin and a pain medication called accuflex. the pain med is really more for the arthritis, but i've been taking it with my relaxent too. here is the "official" report:

LUMBAR SPINE MRI – 5/27/2009:

HISTORY: Severe low back pain and hip and thigh pain.

Multisequential, multiplanar images were obtained of the lumbar spine without I.V. contrast.

FINDINGS:
The conus terminates at the superior aspect of L1. At L1-2 there is a central disc bulge measuring 6.3 mm in width x 5.5 mm in AP dimension x 17 mm in craniocaudal dimension. This projects into the region of the laying nerve roots, but does not appear to cause any nerve deviation. Neural foramina are widely patent.

At L2-3 there is no disc bulge. No spinal or neural foraminal stenosis.

At L3-4 there is a small central disc bulge with bilateral facet disease. However, there is no significant spinal or neural foraminal stenosis. There is decreased T2 signal in the disc at this level.

At L4-5 there is a mild broad disc bulge with no significant spinal or neural foraminal stenosis. Decreased T2 signal consistent with disc desiccation.

At L5-S1 there is a broad disc bulge which is slightly more prominent on the right than the left. Stenosis of the lateral recesses. No significant spinal or neural foraminal stenosis. Areas of abnormal signal involving L2 consistent with hemangioma. There is a 16.6 mm right renal cyst. No paraspinal lesions identified.

IMPRESSION:
1. CENTRAL PROTRUDING DISC AT L1-2 WHICH EXTENDS DOWN THE POSTERIOR ASPECT OF L2 AS DESCRIBED.
2. DISC DESICCATION FROM L3-4 THROUGH L5-S1.
3. MILD CENTRAL DISC BULGE AT L3-4 AND L4-5 AND L5-S1 WITHOUT ANY SIGNIFICANT SPINAL OR NEURAL FORAMINAL STENOSIS. THERE IS STENOSIS OF THE LATERAL RECESSES AT L5-S1.

_______________________________________________________________

i looked up a couple of things. first was the disc desiccation, and from what i can tell, it's used a lot of the time in place of the term degenerative disc disease. so i'm unsure if it means the same thing. all i know is it hurts a lot lol! and a renal cyst? i can't really tell from the images on the disk they gave me where it is, but i'll have to take their word for it. the dr. wants to have me go to physical therapy, and we'll go from there to see if it helps. if not, i'm not sure what will happen. i would just like to get pain free, and then see if i can get back to working (after i finish my teacher cerfication of course). thanks for keeping up with me and my new health problem lol!

~toni