Question
Dear Dr. Arnone,

I would greatly appreciate it if you could possibly help me understand the results I have received from my MRI. I am not due back to the doctor for another 4 weeks although I am due to start therapy next week. I have had neck and upper back pain for quite some time and it has been gradually getting worse. By pain I mean all of the following: constant burning, sharp pains with certain movements, and my right arm tends to go numb and tingle. The pain occurs from my neck down to between the shoulder blades and under my right shoulder blade down to my right arm. Recently I went to the doctor and he sent me for an MRI, the results are as follows.

Findings:
There is straightening of the normal cervical lordosis. There is diffse disk dehydration. No focal cervical cord lesion. There are low-lying cerebellar tonsils without other associated anomalies. (what does this mean?) There is no focal cervical cord lesion.

At C2-3, C3-4, an C4-5 there are mild spondylotic changes without significant stenoses.
At C5-6 there is disk bulge, endplate spurring and facet arthritis causing minimal stenoses.
At C6-7 there is disk bulge, endplate spurring, facet arthritis and ligamentum hypertrophy causing mild stenoses.
At C7-T1 there is disk bulge, endplate spurring, facet arthritis and ligamentum hypertrophy without significant stenoses.
At T1-2 there is disk bulge with more focal left paracentral disk protrusion causing minimal stenoses greater left midline.

Impression:
1) Straightening of the normal lordosis with diffuse spondylotic changes.
2) Mild stenoses at C6-7
3) Left paracentral disk protrusion causing minimal stenoses at T1-2.

I should also tell you that I am a 36 year old mother of two. Back in 1998 I was in a car accident and suffered a severe case of whiplash (I woke up the next morning unable to lift my arms or turn my head without severe pain). I healed from the whiplash but my neck and upper back have never been the same. At first it was very mild and I had no problems living with it. I cannot say the same for now as this burning sensation is rather unsettling. I was given a Medrol pack which is finished and am now taking Celebrex, at least until my next appointment.

Can you please explain to me what all of this means? Is this Celebrex ever going to help me? Someone told me I should drink more water (kind of as a joke) but I drink water constantly - is that what they mean by disk dehydration? What about the future - how much worse can this get for me?

Thank you so much in advance for taking the time to school me in this medical terminology.

Sincerely,

Angelic


Answer
Angelic,
A few things for you to know:
First of all, the problems that you are having will not be solved by what you are presently doing and they will actually continue to get worse.  How do I know this?  Because you have suffered from spinal trauma and this spinal trauma is affecting the surrounding soft tissue as well as the spinal alignment.  When this occurs there is always some degree of nervous system disruption, and when that occurs there is always some sort of abnormal function as a result.  Example: A vertebra (spinal bone) in your neck is in the wrong position (subluxation) and pressing on a nerve or group of nerves (such as is the case of a spinal cord or brainstem compression).  Different nerves have different responsibilities, some will relay the sensation of pain back to your brain so you can feel when something is wrong, but many more have the responsibility to relay messages from the brain to direct proper function.  So what if there is a disruption at a nerve from your brain to your heart?  How well can your heart function if it is only getting say 50% of the nerve impulses?  How about 40%?  Or 30%?  And how about when this goes on for days or months, or even years?  What do you think could happen to that heart?  Even if the person does not smoke or drink, even if they eat a great diet or exercise, do you think that this person might be a candidate for heart failure or a heart attack?  Or palpitations, or possibly an over grown heart or under functioning heart?
with the injuries that you have sustained, there is no question that you are suffering from nervous system interference due to a subluxation or multiple subluxations in your spine.  How in the world could a poison such as Celebrex, or any other drug for that matter correct your condition and allow you to get well?  Is it even a possibility?  No, of course not.  Remember that you have suffered injuries that are affecting your spine, surrounding soft tissue and nervous system among others including veins and arteries.
Celebrex is a poison, these drug companies are looking to make money not help people get well, the sooner you realize that, the healthier you and your family can finally become.  Be proactive not reactive, take charge of your health and your LIFE, read up and get educated about it, or if you wont do that then at least spend your money on people who get paid to keep you well and healthy.  There is nothing healthy about drugs and surgery, unless you are in a situation that requires first aid, and that is emergency type care not health care.
Now, for your situation going to physical therapy is not a bad thing and it might help you gain some strength or flexibility, but this will not correct the cause of your problems either.
Remember that you have an alignment problem, therefore the doctor that you need to see is a specialist known as an "Upper Cervical Specific Doctor of Chiropractic".  This is basically a Chiropractor that has taken many additional hours of learning beyond the 8 years that most Chiro's have to learn a specific method of detecting nervous system interference and correcting it in a detailed and specific manner.  The Upper Cervical Spine Surrounds and protects the Brainstem and Spinal Cord when it is seated properly, but when it gets misaligned (like in your case)it disrupts vital brain messages and causes alignment issues in the lower parts of the spine as well (what you are also experiencing).
Therefore it is a no-brainer(pun-intended:) at this point, that you NEED to see an Upper Cervical Specific Doctor right away.
If you would like a referral of a specialist from me personally, just reply to me including your town and state and any other questions you may have.
Oh to answer your question about the MRI results; what that all means is that you have spinal bones that are in the wrong position, it is affecting the discs at various levels which inturn is affecting the nerves and it appears that you may even have degenerative disc disease that is affecting the discs and the spinal bones themselves are being compromised.  This is not a good thing and occurs when a problem has occurred and remained over years.  so you have let this go far enough, and it is time to actually begin to correct the cause of your problem otherwise it will continue to get worse.  Does that make sense to you?
Yours in Best Health,
Dr Arnone
Arnone Specific Chiropractic
711 Old Ballas Road Suite 104
Creve Coeur, MO 63141
314 995 5719