Just to fill in and restate what you've already mentioned above, if you have plenty of room in your spinal canal, you can tolerate substantial impingements... even though the shape of the cord may be changed by a disc protrusion or osteophyte, if there is plenty of room behind the cord, it is not compressed as it would be in a small or highly stenotic canal.
My problem has been that my bad thoracic discs LOOKS like it should be asymptomatic. That may be great for most people, but apparently, in me, it's highly symptomatic. Just because it's doesn't look bad does not mean that I don't have chemical irritation of the nerve root or some other issue causing my radiating pain.
The successful thoracic epidurals have been great, but I don't have any illusions about the odds of long term relief. If they'll do the trick and I can remain this functional (even though I'm still taking pain meds), I'll just enjoy being a person again. If they cannot reasonably do the trick for the long term and I get anywhere near as bad as I was... an XLIF is likely in my future.
Mark
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