Scheduled for surgery after 9 months of this BS
My (29F) sciatica symptoms started up about 9 months ago, with debilitating pain down my left leg. By January my entire calf and foot were numb, and by February I had significant weakness. Insurance kept me in the merry-go-round of PT even though it was making me worse, and epidural steroid injections following my MRI did nothing. I finally got a surgical referral, and I'm getting scheduled in a month for microdiscectomy. Would love for anyone to share their success stories, as this whole thing has taken over my life.
MRI:
FINDINGS:
BONES: Normal bone marrow signal. Noacute fracture. Vertebral body heights are preserved. No pars defect. The visualized portions of thesacroiliac joints are normal.
ALIGNMENT: Normal examination without scoliosis or subluxation.
CORD/CAUDA EQUINA: Normal caliber, contour, and signal intensity.
PARASPINOUS: No atrophy or edema of the paraspinous musculature.
LUMBAR DISC LEVELS:
L1-L2: No significant disc/facet abnormality, spinal stenosis, or foraminal stenosis.
L2-L3: No significant disc/facet abnormality, spinal stenosis, or foraminal stenosis.
L3-L4: No significant disc/facet abnormality, spinal stenosis, or foraminal stenosis.
L4-L5: Discdesiccation without significant loss of disc height. Central annular fissure and symmetric disc bulge, which mildly narrows the spinal canal and subarticular recesses, but not the neural foramina. No facet abnormality
L5-S1: Disc desiccation and slight loss of intervertebral disc height. There si a left subarticular disc extrusion measuring 7m anterior-posterior, which compresses the traversing left S1 nerve root ni the subarticular recess and moderately narrows the
spinal canal, but does not significantly narrow the neural foramina. No superior or inferior migrationof this disc. No facet abnormality.
IMPRESSION:
- Left subarticular disc extrusion at L5-S1 measuring 7mm anterior-posterior, which compresses the traversing left S1 nerve
root ni the subarticular recess and moderately narrows the spinal canal, likely accounting for the patient's presenting symptoms. Correlate for clinical symptoms of left S1 radiculopathy. No superior or inferior migration of this extrusion. No associated foraminal stenosis
Symmetric disc bulge at L4-L5, which mildly narrows the spinal canal and bilateral subarticular recesses, but not the neural foramina.
Otherwise normal examination.