Hi all, I am over a year into a back injury. Central protrusion of the L5S1 disc on new years eve 2024. November 5th we decided to do Transforaminal epidural steroid injections at that level because my progress had plateaued, about 3 days later that protrusion fully ruptured into an extrusion. From the moment it did I have had progressively worsening weakness in my legs (mainly one sided but slowly involving both) and bladder leakage. Documented 4/5 weakness in the big toe, ankle, and front of knee as well as an inability to single leg heel raise on the left foot and inability to spread the toes on either foot, as well as dulled sensation along the L5 amd S1 dermatomes. Despite multiple doctors and physical therapists documenting these, as well as recently losing the achilles reflex in the left ankle, I keep being told that "structurally the scan looks fine" and " you're too young (28, 27 at time of injury) for back problems"
Recently I had an IME appointment and just got back that the doctor is trying to say I have no injury at all (my lawyer said this is a typical report by this particular doctor for work comp cases and is often found to be inaccurate later). So I decided to look through my records to show the consistent objective decline. I had an mri almost 2 full months after the rupture happened at the very end of december, and another in April. The big differences between the two being the introduction of a broad based bulge in the same disc and modic 2 changes (fat replacing bone marrow) in the L5 vertebrae.
I only have These two images of my Mri in december, and we had been focusing on the extrusion shown in the L5S1 disc, but I happened to take another look at them and noticed the twisting/bending in the nerves just above it and how they seem to fade at the widest point of the herniation. From my understanding and research, the nerves should stay in a fairly smooth path without demonstrating any S shaped waves. Is this what is referred to as Redundant Nerve Roots (serpentine rather than loops) and if so isn't this objective proof of nerve involvement from months ago? Or am I misunderstanding something? Does anyone have a similar experience in how it looks and presents with symptoms?