Cervical MRI. False Negative?
 

I was involved in a car accident 12/08. An MRI was taken 4.5 months later. I have attached several images of it. The MRI report said mild straightening of the normal cervical curvature. My question is do you see anything that the doctor missed? Also is it possible that disc bulges progressed slowly over time and that at the time of the MRI they were not at a point to be worried about?. I am having another MRI done within a week or two.

Pictures are located at : Flickr: tyty019's Photostream

Thank for any and all input

Tyler

Tyler,

Welcome to the forum. Can't personally comment on your images but I take it you're in a fair amount of pain or this wouldn't be an issue. Is there something that aggravates your pain or makes it feel better? Are you hurting 24/7 or does the day wear down on you? What hurts, is your arm, fingers, face, swallowing, legs, buttocks... affected? What kind of doctor are you seeing, ortho, neuro, pain managment?

This has been going on for 1 1/2 years. What does your doctor say?

Dale

I see a pain management specialist and he states that this is the Facet Joint Syndrome and that there is simply no cure for it. Also the pain I feel starts in my neck by the top of my skull radiates down to about t5 and goes out to my shoulders and some tops the top of my arms. I have felt it all the way down my arm. For the most part it hurts all the time. There are times when it is worse such as days i do alot of errands, or sitting for an extended period of time.

The problem is that not all problems show on MRI. You can have a relatively benign looking MRI and still have severe pain. The converse of that, makes the doctors tend to ignore the people with the relatively good looking films. (The converse being the people who have terrible looking films that have little or no pain.)

Good luck,

Mark