All help is greatly appreciated.

[Trying To Cope]

Hello, I am a 35 year old male who was in a mva about 6 years ago and have been suffering from pain and numbness since. I have pain in my left shoulder with streaks of pain that go from my spine into my shoulder blade area. also numbness in my left leg and arm. Numbness is like a dull ache which is very much unbearable at times.

I went to the Emergency room within several hours of the accident because I had a severe headache which upon a ct scan showed no abnormalities. However within the first few weeks of the accident I started having the back pain and numbness and returned to the ER but x-rays showed nothing. I went for chiropractic care and begin having treatment 2x a week that helped slightly but the pain would continue to return.then a neurologist who sent me to have an . mri on my thoracic and lumbar spine. The Lumbar spine showed no evidence of abnormalities but the thoracic conclusions where no evidence of disc herniation or spinal stenosis but there was a mild disc desiccation and mildly prominent scmorls nodes within the mid thoracic spine,  This was done on 2/28/ 03 the mva was in 8/02

I had physical therapy which was ineffective and have lost mobiltiy in my left shoulder. I was sent for trigger point injections which were also ineffective, the physician that administered the trigger points sent me to have another Mri of the t-spine.
1. 3-4 mm central and left paracentral disc protrusion t7-8. Effacement of the ventral and left lateral margin of the thoracic cord. No evidence of neural foraminal   narrowing.

2. Multilevel Schmorls node formation T7, T8, T9,and T10. Date of Mri was 9/22/05

My question is why is this mri so very different than the first? And what are effective treatments that could help me to be more functional? Also is there any surgical procedures that would benefit me?  Also is the 3-4 mm is that considered mild or moderate?

Thank you for any answers and information.

Trying To cope.

[Trying To Cope]

What causes Schmorls nodes? Thanks again.

[Trying To Cope]

Please answer my questions. Thank you.

[Katijanae]

Schmorls nodes are caused by trauma to the back.  The reason that MRI results are different is because the situation with you thorasic spine has changed with time.  This often happens in spinal injury.  When the spine is compromised in some way, and treatment via chiropractic, physical therapy and injections are not effective, surgery may be your only option.  Not all spinal injuries can be improved with surgery though.  I would arrange to be seen by a Neurosurgeon and an Orthopedic surgeon.  Both look at the spine from a different perspective.   Because of the problems scar tissue can cause, surgery isn't always the best choice.  That's why I suggest that both perspectives be involved before going forward.  
Hopefully my answer will be of some help to you.  Without viewing the films, I doubt the doctors here could be of much help as to whether or not surgery is a good choice for you.  If your shoulder is still no mobile, it would be worth it to be seen by a surgeon soon, imo.
Best of wishes from a vet of back surgery,
Katijanae

[isthiscp]

Were you driving? Were you holding on to the wheel? If so you could have a rotator cuff tear. This would explain the loss of power and pain in the arm that the mri would not.

[Trying To Cope]

I was not driving, I was in the passenger seat. It was an impact on the drivers side door area that almost flipped the van. I flew in the air and into the window, cracking the window with the back of my head. My back and shoulder  continue to cause increasing pain with time. The above MRI results are a few years old and I feel I may need a new mri. Is it common for spinal injuries to worsen over a period of years? Also, as a trained expert, reading the above mri results, what would that suggest  to you?
Thanks again.

[Trying To Cope]

Please read this and post some information. Thank You

[paindoc38]

if your pain is in fact the worst in the are medial to your scapula and lateral to your spine (ie between the 2) then I would ask
1) does the pain get worse and worse throughout the day? Ie get worse the more you use your left arm outstretched in form of you ( eg typing) If so you likely have injured one of the nerves to the muscles that control your scapula (spinal accesory nerve, dorsal scapular nerve (DSN) or long thoracic nerve (ltn). the ltn and dsn can be injured with violent head motion as they leave the cervical spine and pass through the middle scalene muscle. (also can be injred if you broke any ribs onthe same side at the time of the injury.  If so you cannot repair the nerve at this point but direct electrical muscular stimulation of the denervated muscle can be very helpful.


A very good emg/ncv study by an experiecned person can tell you if one of these nerves is injured.--most docs dont do this well as they are afraid if they put the needle too deep they will go through the muscles and get into lung