Help with MRI results

Dean601

My problems started in January 2020 with numbness of my toes on both feet , right much worse than left and a feeling of walking on sand, I never experienced any back pain. I’m in relatively good health for a 63 yr old female except for Raynauds, which has only ever been a minor inconvenience. I have always been physically active walking with some running 5-15 miles a day. In March the numbness was starting to worry me so I started with a podiatrist who said it was either nerve pain or the raynauds and referred me to my rheumatologist and an Orthopedic. Rheumatologist said it was nothing that had to do with the Reynards and ortho said he couldn’t figure it out but scheduled an MRI of my right foot which I did postpone several months because of Covid. I finally went for mri of rt foot 6/4/2020 which was totally normal but numbness of toes and now metatarsal pads was getting worse but still no back pain. I had an mri of lumbar spine 7/3/2020 and results were not to good. I was a little shocked.

VERTEBRAL BODIES: There are five lumbar type vertebral bodies. There is mild dextroscoliosis of the Thoracolumbar spine and mild focal levoscoliosis of the lumbar spine. There is grade 1 anterior spondylolisthesis of L-3 upon L-4. No compression fracture. Minimal focal Marrow Edema identified within the right Pericles of L-5 with no fracture. This may be reflective of mild stress injury.

SACRUM: normal

DISTAL CORD AND CONUS: normal

LOWER THORACIC DISC SPACE: normal

LUMBAR DISC SPACE:

L1-L2 normal

L2-L3 normal

L3-L4: there is disk disiccation And loss of disk height. Moderate diffuse annular bulging and facet degenerative change with ligamentum flavum thickening. There is moderate tricompartmental canal stenosis resulting in slight redundancy of the Cordia equine nerve roots above this level. There is mild bilateral foraminal narrowing present.

L4-5 : diffuse annular bulging with small central disc protrusion in mild facet degenerative change. Mild canal stenosis in bilateral Foraminal narrowing.

L5-S-1: Mild annular bulging with a small focal right foraminal disc protrusion. There is an annular Fissure within the left paramedial aspect of the disc. Right greater than left facet hypertrophic degenerative change. Overall there is no canal stenosis. Mild right greater than left forminal narrowing

Impression: lumbar degenerative disc disease L3-4, L4-5 and L5-S1. Canal stenosis is most pronounced at the L3-4 level secondary to facet hypertrophic degenerative change in anterior spondylolisthesis. There is resulting in redundancy of the Cordia equine nerve roots above this level.
Small central disc herniation at L4-5 With mild canal stenosis in bilateral forminal narrowing

At L5 S1 There is a small focal right foraminal disc protrusion and right greater than left facet degenerative change mild right greater than left forminal narrowing.

So ortho office called to tell me I needed to go to pain management, what the heck I still was not in any pain, and needed an appointment with the neurologist since he could not see any abnormality of the MRI having to do with the numbness in my toes and foot.

So out of desperation I went to my girlfriends chiropractor who said he could help me, well three adjustments later and guess what I’m in pain, laying here in my bed with five ice packs on. I went to my medical Doctor Who is a DO not an MD several days ago he told me the chiropractor should’ve never touched my back and he called “ total BS” on orthopedic and said he thought numbness was definitely a result of the abnormalities in the MRI and told me the MRI was not good and had me schedule an appointment with neurosurgeon.I also went to a neurologist who scheduled nerve conduction studies and scheduled me an appointment with a neuropathy specialist but kept saying are you sure the ortho didn’t think the numbness had anything to do with your abnormal MRI? I love my medical doctor and value his opinion so when he told me the MRI was not good my heart sank. I have been doing so much research on all these terms that my head is starting to spin so if anyone has thoughts on my MRI I would truly appreciate it and if anyone can tell me their thoughts on the chiropractor making the nerve compression even worse. I am going to call the chiropractor tomorrow I only had three adjustments and I am going to ask him about it. The medical doctor also gave me a Medrol dose pack which I am finishing up tomorrow but has not relieved any of the pain and has only given me tons of side effects. I know it could be worse but I’m sitting here and I have myself in such a deep depression because I really can’t do anything. Thank you i’m sorry about the long post.