Pins & Needles, Numbness, Burning feet and legs, Lower Back pain - MRI July 2014

Last year following surgery i went and had an MRI that identified that I had Cervical Spondylosis in my upper Cervical spine at C5 and C6 and in the C6/C7 area I had a small disk herniation that was pinching a nerve, this being the cause of the pain in my left arm and the tingling in my left hand fingers.

That was over a year ago, since then I have had some physio, the pain in the arm has gone, but the arm now has a numbness running through it and I still get tingling in the fingers and occasional pain in the neck. This is especially apparent when leaning my head on my hands or putting any weight bearing pressure on my head/neck.

I was just going to live with this, afterall we all get old and suffer from wear and tear, but at the same time over the past year I have been getting pins and needles in my feet, with a burning sensation. I get pain in my feet for the first few steps getting up and walking after a while of the buring sensation. I also get numbness in my feet/legs. Around the base of my lower back I have also been getting pain, especially when walking and going down hill - similar to a jarring pain in my back. I went to the doctors, I was thinking that maybe this was pre diabetes due to my weight gain over the past few months. However the doctor gave me blood tests and they came back normal. She suggested I go back and see my neurosurgeon and get his advice. Booked an appointment with Mr Harland and saw him last week, 15th July. He was able to show me my MRI results of my Cervical Spine from last year which I hadnt seen before. ( Must ask him for a copy of them ). He went through basic tests and said he didnt think I had much to worry about but for belt and braces would like me to have an MRI of my Thoracic and Lumber Spine, plus go see another specialist at The Priory for a Nerve Conduction Study.

 The machine at The Spire Parkway on friday 18th was newer and bigger than the one at The Priory so it wasnt as frightening. The whole time in the machine was about 40 mins. This first picture shows the upper Thoracic Spine.

T Spine showing bulge on bottom disc pressing spinal chord. Also mystery dot showing through chord

I am not the consultant but i have compared my pictures with others that I have seen on the internet. On this picture the lowest disc here seems to be showing a bulge of disc/fluid against the spinal chord which may be causing spinal compression of some sort and another.

Closer view of bulging fluid pressing on spinal chord

These pictures also seem to be showing that apart from 3 discs, the other 9 out of the 12 T discs are drying out ( dont know if this is what its called ). So old age is starting to demonstrate.

Whole of T Spine in view - right at top is C6/C7 which had problems last year

This can all be seen quite well in the picture above. The spinal chord is lovely and smooth and curved until you hit the bump near the bottom. Read up about lesions and other stuff at the weekend but I dont think anything like that is showing here.

We now move on to the Lumber spine. This seems to indicate at L1/L2 and L5/S1 there to be some minor disc herniation. Its comparable with looking at other peoples images on Google where they were diagnosed with the same.

L Spine showing at base, L5/S1 bulge

The L1/L2 is tiny , its the one on the bottom at L5/S1 that I think  is probably the real problem. Its probably taking all the pressure when I sit down and be a reason the pains/tingling is more pronounced when I put weight on these vertebrae.

L Spine Sagittal View T2 Contrast - Disk Degeneration?

Another view of the Lumber Spine is shown above. I was able to rotate the Sagittal view using the software supplied and at this angle it now becomes noticeable that L4/L5 is bulging as well as L1/L2. I suppose all of these can only get worse unless I do whatever I need to do to halt this degeneration.  Have seen white papers on the Internet about Disk Degeneration Disease - I might be heading that way.

Am only presuming that nothing can be done about the above to correct the wear. 

Found it fascinating at the weekend comparing my imaging with those of others online, just to see what they were diagnosed and was I similar. Its doesnt seem to be rocket science that the back pain and tingling must be this. Just glad its not something like MS or Diabetes.

I now have to wait for the appointment to see the specialist for the Nerve Conductive Study and then I go back to see Mr Harland on 31st. One thing i want to ask him about is a spot that was showing up on the MRI - and showed below: