u/InterestingCup8174

Hi everyone,

A friend of mine 26 yold had a cervical spine MRI after a road traffic accident. screenshots from the MRI and the radiology report.

The report says:

Multilevel cervical degenerative disc disease.

C4-C5 left posterolateral disc protrusion contacting/displacing the spinal cord.

Moderate narrowing of the left neural foramen.

No abnormal spinal cord signal / no visible myelopathic T2 hyperintensity.

No fracture.

No congenital canal stenosis.

Specialist opinion recommended.

My main concern is the fact that the disc protrusion is touching/displacing the spinal cord, even though there is no T2 cord signal change / no visible myelopathy on this MRI.

Is cord contact without T2 hyperintensity usually considered dangerous for the spinal cord, or is it mainly something to monitor clinically?

Would you consider this mild, moderate, or concerning based on the report/images?

The friend has sometimes tingling in lower limbs.

Results:

No vertebral fracture.

Straightening of the cervical spine.

No congenital cervical canal stenosis.

No abnormal spinal cord signal.

Multilevel cervical degenerative disc disease, with a C4-C5 disc protrusion coming into contact with the spinal cord at this level and moderately narrowing the left neural foramen.

No significant abnormal spinal cord signal at this level.

No other soft tissue abnormality.

No traumatic bone lesion.

Conclusion:

Multilevel non-inflammatory cervical disc disease.

Left posterolateral C4-C5 disc protrusion displacing/indenting the spinal cord, without visible myelopathic T2 cord signal abnormality today.

Specialist opinion recommended.

I’m only 33.

A few years ago, during my very first judo session, I fell directly on my head because of an inappropriate throw. I never received any financial compensation for what happened.

After that accident, I had severe neck pain. I kept training for a while, and then I started having tingling sensations in my arms. I eventually had an MRI, which showed a large C5-C6 cervical disc herniation compressing the left nerve root and the spinal cord.

Later, I went to see a general practitioner and showed him the MRI images. He performed a Spurling test on me, which, in my opinion, was completely inappropriate given the suspicion of central nervous system compression. When I left his office, I had tingling in my feet and legs. About a month later, I started having mild urinary difficulties, as well as erection and ejaculation problems, which I have sadly kept since then.

One month later, I had a C5-C6 ACDF because the MRI showed a spinal cord hypersignal.

Since the surgery, I still occasionally get tingling in my upper and lower limbs. But it’s mostly the lower-limb symptoms that scare me, because they make me think of a new spinal cord compression. I’m constantly afraid that if I ever got assaulted or hit badly, I could end up paralyzed.

I also developed adjacent segment disease at C6-C7, with a central disc herniation touching the spinal cord. Most surgeons told me there is no real compression, or at least no major compression, and no spinal cord hypersignal. But I feel like I get much more tingling and spasms when I do certain sports, awkward movements, heavy neck strengthening, or weight training where I lift above shoulder level. Pull-ups don’t seem to cause the same problem.

This makes me afraid of positional compression. Out of around ten surgeons, only one wanted to operate on C6-C7 “to secure it.”

On top of all that, I sometimes stay with my mother in the housing estate where I grew up. Some teenagers and adults keep bothering her, making noise at night, and playing football by kicking the ball against the walls just below her apartment. It causes her a lot of distress.

The tragedy is that before all this, I was able to confront people. I could go downstairs and talk to them directly. In the worst case, I thought I might get knocked out, lose two or three teeth, or get beaten up. But I wasn’t afraid like this. I used to do it, and usually it calmed things down without a fight.

Now I’m scared just to speak to them. I feel like crying just thinking about confronting them. I know they probably won’t care. One of the fathers even implied that I’m “not a man” because I don’t physically fight for my mother.

Do you understand what it feels like to hear that when sometimes I get tingling just from the stress of speaking to someone, when I know that my C5-C6 myelopathy damaged my sexuality, and when I may still have some degree of C6-C7 spinal cord contact?

My sexual function has been affected: I can get an erection and then lose it, and sometimes I only get a rigid erection for about 10 seconds before ejaculation, which is itself difficult to achieve. I take 5 mg tadalafil daily, and sometimes an extra 10 mg on days when I have sex, but I still have problems.

Before all this, I could fight on principle. I could defend myself against four people, maybe take one down and get beaten up by the other three. I’m not saying that was smart, but at least I had that courage and that sense of physical integrity.

Now I feel trapped. I’m afraid that if I explain my medical problem to people, they could use it against me, or feel like they can do whatever they want because they know I’m vulnerable.

In all of this, it feels like the police don’t exist. The law doesn’t exist either when you’re not important, when you don’t have connections, or when you no longer have the courage you used to have.

If only I no longer had the tingling symptoms, or if I only had them when C6-C7 was truly compressing my spinal cord, it would be such a relief.

There is no longer any hypersignal at C5-C6 now. Basically, the hypersignal appeared sometime between November and late December, around the time I had surgery, and it continued for about 2–3 months after the operation.

But you have to understand that when I had the C5-C6 hypersignal, tingling was basically my only symptom. My SSEPs and MEPs were normal, and the hypersignal was not even visible right away, yet I was still operated on.

I did develop sexual dysfunction after about a month, but the doctors did not seem particularly motivated by that when deciding whether to operate.

This whole experience traumatized me so much that I even completed a university diploma in spinal pathology and read tons of PubMed papers about biomechanics, spinal cord compression, cervical myelopathy, ACDF, adjacent segment disease, etc.

Last mri report

Comparison with the latest MRI dated July 25, 2025.

C2-C3 and C3-C4: Normal.

C4-C5: Right uncovertebral arthropathy causing severe stenosis of the right neural foramen.

C5-C6: Anterior fusion with a normal appearance. Posterior disc-osteophyte bulge, with no impact on the spinal cord or the neural foramina.

C6-C7: Stable severe disc degeneration, with stable posterior disc-osteophyte bulging that effaces part of the cerebrospinal fluid around the spinal cord, without signs of myelopathy. Appearance of a small area of congestive signal in the vertebral endplates. Neural foramina are patent/free.

C7-T1: Normal.

I’m 33. I know you there are much worse than me. And i wish u only good vibes.

A few years ago, during my very first judo session, I fell directly on my head because of an inappropriate throw. I never received any financial compensation for what happened.

After that accident, I had severe neck pain. I kept training for a while, and then I started having tingling sensations in my arms. I eventually had an MRI, which showed a large C5-C6 cervical disc herniation compressing the left nerve root and the spinal cord.

Later, I went to see a general practitioner and showed him the MRI images. He performed a Spurling test on me, which, in my opinion, was completely inappropriate given the suspicion of central nervous system compression. When I left his office, I had tingling in my feet and legs. About a month later, I started having mild urinary difficulties, as well as erection and ejaculation problems, which I have sadly kept since then.

One month later, I had a C5-C6 ACDF because the MRI showed a spinal cord hypersignal.

Since the surgery, I still occasionally get tingling in my upper and lower limbs. But it’s mostly the lower-limb symptoms that scare me, because they make me think of a new spinal cord compression. I’m constantly afraid that if I ever got assaulted or hit badly, I could end up paralyzed.

I also developed adjacent segment disease at C6-C7, with a central disc herniation touching the spinal cord. Most surgeons told me there is no real compression, or at least no major compression, and no spinal cord hypersignal. But I feel like I get much more tingling and spasms when I do certain sports, awkward movements, heavy neck strengthening, or weight training where I lift above shoulder level. Pull-ups don’t seem to cause the same problem.

This makes me afraid of positional compression. Out of around ten surgeons, only one wanted to operate on C6-C7 “to secure it.”

On top of all that, I sometimes stay with my mother in the housing estate where I grew up. Some teenagers and adults keep bothering her, making noise at night, and playing football by kicking the ball against the walls just below her apartment. It causes her a lot of distress.

The tragedy is that before all this, I was able to confront people. I could go downstairs and talk to them directly. In the worst case, I thought I might get knocked out, lose two or three teeth, or get beaten up. But I wasn’t afraid like this. I used to do it, and usually it calmed things down without a fight.

Now I’m scared just to speak to them. I feel like crying just thinking about confronting them. I know they probably won’t care. One of the fathers even implied that I’m “not a man” because I don’t physically fight for my mother.

Do you understand what it feels like to hear that when sometimes I get tingling just from the stress of speaking to someone, when I know that my C5-C6 myelopathy damaged my sexuality, and when I may still have some degree of C6-C7 spinal cord contact?

My sexual function has been affected: I can get an erection and then lose it, and sometimes I only get a rigid erection for about 10 seconds before ejaculation, which is itself difficult to achieve. I take 5 mg tadalafil daily, and sometimes an extra 10 mg on days when I have sex, but I still have problems.

Before all this, I could fight on principle. I could defend myself against four people, maybe take one down and get beaten up by the other three. I’m not saying that was smart, but at least I had that courage and that sense of physical integrity.

Now I feel trapped. I’m afraid that if I explain my medical problem to people, they could use it against me, or feel like they can do whatever they want because they know I’m vulnerable.

In all of this, it feels like the police don’t exist. The law doesn’t exist either when you’re not important, when you don’t have connections, or when you no longer have the courage you used to have.

If only I no longer had the tingling symptoms, or if I only had them when C6-C7 was truly compressing my spinal cord, it would be such a relief.

There is no longer any hypersignal at C5-C6 now. Basically, the hypersignal appeared sometime between November and late December, around the time I had surgery, and it continued for about 2–3 months after the operation.

But you have to understand that when I had the C5-C6 hypersignal, tingling was basically my only symptom. My SSEPs and MEPs were normal, and the hypersignal was not even visible right away, yet I was still operated on.

I did develop sexual dysfunction after about a month, but the doctors did not seem particularly motivated by that when deciding whether to operate.

This whole experience traumatized me so much that I even completed a university diploma in spinal pathology and read tons of PubMed papers about biomechanics, spinal cord compression, cervical myelopathy, ACDF, adjacent segment disease, etc.

Last mri report

Comparison with the latest MRI dated July 25, 2025.

C2-C3 and C3-C4: Normal.

C4-C5: Right uncovertebral arthropathy causing severe stenosis of the right neural foramen.

C5-C6: Anterior fusion with a normal appearance. Posterior disc-osteophyte bulge, with no impact on the spinal cord or the neural foramina.

C6-C7: Stable severe disc degeneration, with stable posterior disc-osteophyte bulging that effaces part of the cerebrospinal fluid around the spinal cord, without signs of myelopathy. Appearance of a small area of congestive signal in the vertebral endplates. Neural foramina are patent/free.

C7-T1: Normal.

I’m only 33.

A few years ago, during my very first judo session, I fell directly on my head because of an inappropriate throw. I never received any financial compensation for what happened.

After that accident, I had severe neck pain. I kept training for a while, and then I started having tingling sensations in my arms. I eventually had an MRI, which showed a large C5-C6 cervical disc herniation compressing the left nerve root and the spinal cord.

Later, I went to see a general practitioner and showed him the MRI images. He performed a Spurling test on me, which, in my opinion, was completely inappropriate given the suspicion of central nervous system compression. When I left his office, I had tingling in my feet and legs. About a month later, I started having mild urinary difficulties, as well as erection and ejaculation problems, which I have sadly kept since then.

One month later, I had a C5-C6 ACDF because the MRI showed a spinal cord hypersignal.

Since the surgery, I still occasionally get tingling in my upper and lower limbs. But it’s mostly the lower-limb symptoms that scare me, because they make me think of a new spinal cord compression. I’m constantly afraid that if I ever got assaulted or hit badly, I could end up paralyzed.

I also developed adjacent segment disease at C6-C7, with a central disc herniation touching the spinal cord. Most surgeons told me there is no real compression, or at least no major compression, and no spinal cord hypersignal. But I feel like I get much more tingling and spasms when I do certain sports, awkward movements, heavy neck strengthening, or weight training where I lift above shoulder level. Pull-ups don’t seem to cause the same problem.

This makes me afraid of positional compression. Out of around ten surgeons, only one wanted to operate on C6-C7 “to secure it.”

On top of all that, I sometimes stay with my mother in the housing estate where I grew up. Some teenagers and adults keep bothering her, making noise at night, and playing football by kicking the ball against the walls just below her apartment. It causes her a lot of distress.

The tragedy is that before all this, I was able to confront people. I could go downstairs and talk to them directly. In the worst case, I thought I might get knocked out, lose two or three teeth, or get beaten up. But I wasn’t afraid like this. I used to do it, and usually it calmed things down without a fight.

Now I’m scared just to speak to them. I feel like crying just thinking about confronting them. I know they probably won’t care. One of the fathers even implied that I’m “not a man” because I don’t physically fight for my mother.

Do you understand what it feels like to hear that when sometimes I get tingling just from the stress of speaking to someone, when I know that my C5-C6 myelopathy damaged my sexuality, and when I may still have some degree of C6-C7 spinal cord contact?

My sexual function has been affected: I can get an erection and then lose it, and sometimes I only get a rigid erection for about 10 seconds before ejaculation, which is itself difficult to achieve. I take 5 mg tadalafil daily, and sometimes an extra 10 mg on days when I have sex, but I still have problems.

Before all this, I could fight on principle. I could defend myself against four people, maybe take one down and get beaten up by the other three. I’m not saying that was smart, but at least I had that courage and that sense of physical integrity.

Now I feel trapped. I’m afraid that if I explain my medical problem to people, they could use it against me, or feel like they can do whatever they want because they know I’m vulnerable.

In all of this, it feels like the police don’t exist. The law doesn’t exist either when you’re not important, when you don’t have connections, or when you no longer have the courage you used to have.

If only I no longer had the tingling symptoms, or if I only had them when C6-C7 was truly compressing my spinal cord, it would be such a relief.

There is no longer any hypersignal at C5-C6 now. Basically, the hypersignal appeared sometime between November and late December, around the time I had surgery, and it continued for about 2–3 months after the operation.

But you have to understand that when I had the C5-C6 hypersignal, tingling was basically my only symptom. My SSEPs and MEPs were normal, and the hypersignal was not even visible right away, yet I was still operated on.

I did develop sexual dysfunction after about a month, but the doctors did not seem particularly motivated by that when deciding whether to operate.

This whole experience traumatized me so much that I even completed a university diploma in spinal pathology and read tons of PubMed papers about biomechanics, spinal cord compression, cervical myelopathy, ACDF, adjacent segment disease, etc.

Last mri report

Comparison with the latest MRI dated July 25, 2025.

C2-C3 and C3-C4: Normal.

C4-C5: Right uncovertebral arthropathy causing severe stenosis of the right neural foramen.

C5-C6: Anterior fusion with a normal appearance. Posterior disc-osteophyte bulge, with no impact on the spinal cord or the neural foramina.

C6-C7: Stable severe disc degeneration, with stable posterior disc-osteophyte bulging that effaces part of the cerebrospinal fluid around the spinal cord, without signs of myelopathy. Appearance of a small area of congestive signal in the vertebral endplates. Neural foramina are patent/free.

C7-T1: Normal.