countrygirl
26-10-07, 19:42
I have severe spinal problem in my neck with herniated disc and arthritis which has disabled me. For many many years I have been suffering with rest of my spine as well and being a neurotic heap about health matters I decided that I would like to know what was wrong with rest of my spine ( when will I learn!) so I because of long wait on NHS for MRI scans I paid and had my thoracic and lumbar spine scanned on Monday.
Went to Dr;s today for result and my lumbar spine is as expected - multi level disc degeneration with two herniated discs and wear and teat on the vertebrae but the thoracic spine was a bit surprising. spine okay but what seems to be a neurofibroma attached to my T4 vertebrae measuring about three quarters of an inch. It isn't pressing on anything so shouldn't be causing a problem but radiographer says I should have it scanned with contrast agent arghhh.
My Gp says I have probably always had this maybe even from birth and its may or may not get bigger. She said only risk is if it got big enough to start pressing on things and causing a problem but in itself it is not harmful.
I will see my neurosurgeon in two weeks with result but I see him privately as the wait originally with my neck problem was going to be two years!! he is very good and goes a reduced rate for me but I cannot afford to pay for the MRI with contrast injection so have to navigate our NHS. Hopefully the neurosurgeon can get me onto his NHS list without my GP having to refer me to him which will mean a huge long wait again.
MY gp says the trouble with these scans is they often pick up things that would never cause a problem but have to be investigated.
One one hand the scan has confirmed that all my pain and weird sensations are caused by my damaged spine and at least nothing sinister has shown up but not a happy bunny about the neurofibroma even if I have had it all my life and its just been undetected up to now:weep:
I did a little bit of googling:shrug: on neurofibroma and my GP seems to telling me the truth that in themselves they are not a problem just if they get too big in wrong bit of body:wacko:
Went to Dr;s today for result and my lumbar spine is as expected - multi level disc degeneration with two herniated discs and wear and teat on the vertebrae but the thoracic spine was a bit surprising. spine okay but what seems to be a neurofibroma attached to my T4 vertebrae measuring about three quarters of an inch. It isn't pressing on anything so shouldn't be causing a problem but radiographer says I should have it scanned with contrast agent arghhh.
My Gp says I have probably always had this maybe even from birth and its may or may not get bigger. She said only risk is if it got big enough to start pressing on things and causing a problem but in itself it is not harmful.
I will see my neurosurgeon in two weeks with result but I see him privately as the wait originally with my neck problem was going to be two years!! he is very good and goes a reduced rate for me but I cannot afford to pay for the MRI with contrast injection so have to navigate our NHS. Hopefully the neurosurgeon can get me onto his NHS list without my GP having to refer me to him which will mean a huge long wait again.
MY gp says the trouble with these scans is they often pick up things that would never cause a problem but have to be investigated.
One one hand the scan has confirmed that all my pain and weird sensations are caused by my damaged spine and at least nothing sinister has shown up but not a happy bunny about the neurofibroma even if I have had it all my life and its just been undetected up to now:weep:
I did a little bit of googling:shrug: on neurofibroma and my GP seems to telling me the truth that in themselves they are not a problem just if they get too big in wrong bit of body:wacko: