Thoracic and Lumbar Spine MRIs

Okay, so I went to get MRIs of my lumbar and thoracic spine today.  All I can say is that I'm glad I sought out the Chiari specialist.  He is the one that ordered the additional MRIs, and the images were quite astounding.  Now, first of all, I want to say that all you are about to read are self diagnosed.  I hope to hear from the NS later this week.  I got the MRI images on a CD so I can take them home with me this weekend so the family can see them.  I'm going to post 4 of the images in this blog, just so everyone has an idea what I'm talking about.  What I believe we found was 2 additional syrinxes.  In this first image, you can see the spine, which is the dark gray area where you would expect it.  You can see the syrinxes (3 total), or pockets of spinal fluid, built up inside my spinal cord, these are the light gray, almost white areas.  The small one at the top, was all we had to go on from the first MRI.  This was the one that the Chiari specialist said was too small to warrant surgery right away.  You can see a second, even smaller syrinx just below that one.  The most concerning, and the reason I'm confident the Chiari specialist will do the surgery, is the very bottom syrinx.  This is quite a large syrinx from what Tish and I have seen during our research.

   





The next image is a normal cross section of my spine.  You notice the nice gray area inside my vertebrae, this is what the spinal cord should look like.










This next image is the start of the largest syrinx.  I included this shot so you can see what area is the spinal cord, in case there was any confusion from the picture above.  In this image, Right below the big ball of gray, you see a smaller circle of gray, with a bright white dot in the center.  The gray is the spinal cord, and the white is actual spinal fluid that has built up inside the spinal cord.
   

In the last image, this is the center of that large syrinx I was talking about.  It's the one that's about lung level.  The bright white area is all cerebral spinal fluid.  Quite concerning, but I feel very fortunate that I haven't had more severe symptoms to this point, such as the numbness and tingling sensations, or even some loss of motor skills.  I'm sure when the doctor gives me a call, we will get the surgery scheduled and then it's on to recovery.
     I just wanted to share with you all what we found out today.  Again, this is strictly self diagnosis, however we have done quite a bit of research and are pretty confident that we are reading this right.  I'll let you know more as soon as we hear from the doctor.