HELP: Cervical Spine & Thoracic Report

twohands

Misterialoka,

Could you post your x-ray result on here? We're not medical professionals, but there are several people here who are good at explaining medical terms in plain English so you can understand it.

Misterialoka

The Xtray result..

Cevical Spine:
"Loss of cervical lordosis w/ no avert decrease in intervertbral disc height"

Thoracic Spine:
"No bony abnormality detected save for tini marginal osteophytes @ the anterioi aspects of the vertebral bodies"

jennybyc

Okay, so let's talk about what cervical lordosis is. We all have curves in our spine. When it curves in, it is said to be "Lordosis" and when it curves out, it is said to be "Kyphosis". So the neck is normally in a state of "lordosis"....curved inward.

As we age, that curve normally starts to straighten. But it can also happen from dried out or herniated disks, arthritis, injuries to the bones or ligaments from whiplash.....all sorts of things can cause that to happen. And when it does, it causes pain as the bones aren't lined up the way they should be. The neck wants to be curved in and not straight so when it does straighten, it hurts. Your x-ray shows this loss of curvature but it is not from bad disks and that is good.

Also, as we age, we get arthritis in the spine and that is also pretty normal. Osteoarthritis, the arthritis of aging, causes bone to build in places where it shouldn't. The bones are trying to fix themselves by doing this and the result is bone spurs(known clinically as osteophytes). In the thoracic spine, the spine curves outward so the area closest to the front of the spine is where the bones rub together the most and when arthritis starts, the bone spurs show up there first. The vertebrae are trying to fix themselves by making more bone, that is harder bone. But it makes the spine hurt too as you are now rubbing that new harder bone areas together. You have tiny bone spurs on the front edges of your vertebrae.

Basically, you have arthritis in your spine. No herniated disks hitting the nerves so that is good and no sign of fractures or anything really bad....yet. But it hurts.

Has anyone suggested doing an MRI to see what is going on inside the bones? If you have bone spurs outside the bones, you may have them inside and they could be pressing on nerves and that would explain your pain. Might be a good idea.

Jenny