mri FINDING
I finally got a report on an MRI of the lumbar spine I had a month ago. Dessication of L5-S1 with small central annular fissure, no foraminal or spinal canal narrowing.
I can’t get an “official” consult by my doctor for almost another month.
What is this?
What treatment should I expect?
Is there any thing I can do in the meantime while awaiting my next appointment.
I am 58 year old female. No hx of auto mishaps, but I have fallen many times over the last few years, most recently in January this year, but landed on my hands at that time!
1 Comment found
doc4bax
“What is this?”Degenerative arthritis. “What treatment should I expect?”Your MD will tell you that you have arthritis and then will prescribe you the latest drug on the market or simply Ibuprofen. Both of which do nothing but treat the symptoms (not the cause). After a few weeks of taking the medication your body will begin to build up a tolerance against the medication and it will take more and even more to get the same effect (relief). After a while this won’t help much anymore and you will return to your doctor and then he will give you something different. When this doesn’t work it will be off to physical therapy where a therapist will hand you a sheet of exercises and tell you to go over in the corner and do them. After a while, you will become tired of this and will be back off to the MD. Since physical therapy failed to help, he’ll send you off to an orthopedist. The orthopedist will go over your case and then will tell you that you do not need surgery. You will then be told you need more therapy. You will go to more therapy where a therapist will again tell you that you need to do some exercises and may put a hot pack on your back (complete waste of money and time). You will get frustrated with all of this. You will return to the orthopedist who will then send you back to your MD (family doctor) and then the process will repeat itself. We chiropractors see this every single day! You will finally hopefully end up at the chiropractor’s office and after a few treatments will be amazed at the results. You will say to yourself “I should have just come here first”. We hear it everyday. There may be some things that prevent you from initially seeing the chiropractor. First off many medical doctors do not work with chiropractic doctors. They are insecure about us taking a piece of what they think is their turf. They may tell you things about chiropractic that are absolutely not true. They may not say anything and just persuade you to see some other type of provider. Remember this; a chiropractor is the only person who can tell you if you can benefit from chiropractic care. Having a medical doctor or a nurse or a physical therapist telling you whether you need a chiropractor would be like a chiropractor telling you if you need a root canal. You do not need permission or a referral to see a chiropractor. Chiropractors are doctors, they are not therapists. Save yourself the frustration and go see a chiropractor. Bring the MRI films with you so the chiropractor can go over them with you.