Letter from Hospital

ouchpotato

Hi all

Can anyone translate this letter from the hospital which I received today? It is one which I was copied into and is also sent to the GP.

"...mri has shown degenerative changes of the L5/S1 level with some osteoarthritis and changes of the facet joint as well as the disc. There is some narrowing of the right sided L5 exit foramina..."

I also have a date for my next MRI which is for the sacroiliac joints (which should have been scanned first time around) so I am pretty sure further damage will show up on there as I was referred in the first place for sacroiliitis (suspected ankylosing spondylitis)

In the meantime I thought I'd ask the real experts!

x

DebbieT

Hi ouch,

I can't help but I'd book an appointment with ure GP for them to explain it to you.

I've got a full spine inc hips mri on 17th Feb. Rheumy thinks I have AS too.

Can I ask ... When ure walking does ure lower back/top of hips kinda seize up? Mine does n I then I can only drag my leg for a bit then that's it, nothing, I can't move :? I just wondered if that's sounds familiar?

I really hope ure gp or cleverer members than me can help ya

((((Hugs))))

Xx xX

barbara12

ouch when I got my MRI results..i couldn't understand it...still cant really....I got on the net and googled the joints and made myself a map...not happy reading... :roll: ..good luck with it all

ouchpotato

Debbie, yes sometimes I can walk perfectly fine, and then other days it feels like a tightening in my hips and groin/top of thighs. Not a muscle type tightness...more like someone is squeezing them? There are days when I have to sit down on the way back from dropping my daughter off at school, and it's only a 5 minute walk! Thank God for my mobile phone...I can pretend I am talking on it, or reading texts when I sit!!!

Barbara, I have done the same! Broken the letter down and googled each phrase. From what I can gather (and I am happy to be corrected) I have osteoarthritis in the spine, facet joint arthritis, disc degeneration and spinal stenosis. Not a pretty picture really! But at the same time it has validated my pain...it's not all in my head.

x

stickywicket

I agree with Debbie. Go to your GP and ask for a translation. They go through 6-7 years of training in order to be able to understand and interpret this medical language. It's not just what it says but what it means practically that's important. Even the 'normal English' words can mean something slightly different when used in medical language. As one who studied modern languages, I think DIY translations are fraught with difficulties and errors. Try the experts, ouch.

dreamdaisy

I've been asked if I want to be copied in and the answer is no, simply because I won't know what they're on about - they speak in medic which is their lingua franca.

When I prepared full reports after an assessment for dyslexia I also enclosed a glossary sheet which explained my technical terms (grapheme, phoneme, phonological deficit etc.) because I realised that the parents would not be familiar with these terms. It's different for docs because they have so many 'clients'. DD

As5567

This is very much like reading law legislation, unless you have learnt to read it then its very hard to understand and often confusing. As has been said above some terms could mean one thing to you but another in medical language, much the same in law.

I would go and see your gp for an in depth interpretation, that is what they're there for.

MrOptimist

stickywicket wrote:

I agree with Debbie. Go to your GP and ask for a translation. They go through 6-7 years of training in order to be able to understand and interpret this medical language. It's not just what it says but what it means practically that's important. Even the 'normal English' words can mean something slightly different when used in medical language. As one who studied modern languages, I think DIY translations are fraught with difficulties and errors. Try the experts, ouch.

It actually takes around 10 years (including med school) to train as a GP

DebbieT

Any luck Ouch?

Mine feels like I've got a steel plate across my lower back/top of my hips but thinking more about it the pain also travels down my buttocks but not where the sciatic nerve is. Once the dragging of my leg fails that's it, it's kinda embarrassing isn't it? :? :oops:

I'm waiting to hear the final translation on both shoulders ... The only things I understood were impingement & osteoarthritis. There were a couple of other bits related to PsA but my brain is mush.

I'm copied in on all of my letters coz I find them facinating. I had a great consult with my neurologist, shockingly Yet she flat out lied in her letter to my GP, why I don't know. The rest of the letter was good tho & truthful. She also stated she's 'booked' my annual brain mri to check for any changes of the cyst & she wants it in May so hopefully that's plenty of time for them to arrange it
Other than that it helps keep my constant med changes to hand.

I hope you get answers asap.

Take care.xxx