twice

Thank you so much for your explanation and sorry for the belated response. The explanation of what stability means in this context is really helpful. I assumed instability meant unstable, as in “wobbly” or hypermobility, and couldn’t figure out how one could know that from looking at just the MRI. Now I know what it means and it makes sooo much more sense.

I do have a tiny protrusion at c6-7 but it is just that, tiny, so I don’t know if that’s even possible to be responsible for the neck symptoms. But it looks to me that from the 2012 MRI to now it’s changed- there seems to be signal intensity in the protrusion. However, the 2012 MRI images are a bit blurry, so it could that more image clarity makes it more visible as opposed to a change.

One thing I’ve been wondering about is that I have two cervical MRI’s- one from 2012, and one from this year. The one from this year lists no findings. The one from 2012 has the finding of the pannus and had the tiny protrusion. I asked the ordering physician if that meant the protrusion and the pseudopannus from the previous report healed and went away. She gave me a kind of non-answer. Troubled by that, I spend some time figuring out how to view my MRI’s and finding those two features. Both still exist on the current MRI even though they are not in the 2016 report. I’m fairly confident what I’m seeing is what I’m seeing, I spent a lot of time staring at MRI films online to get a sense of what these things look like on an MRI. I’m not sure what to do or if this matters. I have not seen a neurosurgeon, but plan to due to a thoracic protrusion that is causing me lots of pain. I don’t want something missed because the most recent report doesn’t accurately reflect what’s there. What is the protocol for something like this? Does it matter?

Lastly, looking at the pseudopannus on the MRI- it does appear to press into the thecal sac quite a bit, though does not appear to impinge the cord. It’s very close though. If I’ve got the scale right (and that might be a big if), it appears there is somewhere between 1 and 2mm of space between it and the cord. Can this cause problems, now or if the pseudopannus should get bigger? This is part of the reason I’m wondering if I should be making sure my that the newest MRI report is accurate. I feel kind of lost; a friend who is a medical professional from another state commented recently how below par the care I’ve received here is. But I’m not sure what I can do about that but it does leave me with some doubt about leaving this discrepancy as is, unless it’s truly inconsequential.