@marilynnovak Thank you Marilyn. Balance can be affected by many things other than spine issues, and spine issues can certainly play a part. I just had ankle surgery which affected my balance since my foot wasn't giving my brain normal sensations and feedback. I had fixation hardware removed from my ankle that had been placed there when I broke my ankle last year. I also just had an MRI on my cervical spine because I have had some strange symptoms of feeling like bugs crawling all over my skin and pains in my feet when I changed the position of my neck and looked down at the floor. My results showed that I have a bone spur that grew out from the site of my C5/C6 cervical fusion and it is pressing into the thecal sac (sheath around the spinal cord) and there is plenty of space around my spinal cord. With movement and changing positions of the spinal cord inside the canal, it may be touching that bone spur temporarily from time to time. I also have some arthritic bone growth in the foramen (the space between vertebrae where the nerve exits). I have been feeling that with some sharp pains in my arm. My physical therapist has been able to help a lot by loosening things up, so it doesn't put as much pressure on the spine. Because these vertebrae are fused, there is no movement in the foramen. 5 years ago when I had my spine surgery, there was no bone growth within the foramen. I did have arthritis in the facet joints which is the surface (other than the discs) where the vertebrae contact each other. This joint allows you to turn your head and lets the vertebrae slide in a twisting motion. My disc had collapsed about 50% in height which put pressure on the facet joints that caused wear and tear. I imagine in my future, a surgeon may need to reopen the space in the foramen. This nerve is also affected by thoracic outlet syndrome as it passes into my shoulder and under the collar bone through some tight spaces there. You can learn a lot about how the spine is put together with a chicken or turkey neck. If you boil it so the bones can be easily separated, you can then stack and reassemble the vertebrae and see how the facet joints fit together. They won't fit perfectly without the cartilage discs intact, but you can understand how it works and see the space inside the spinal canal.

Will these MRIs be your first for your spine or are you tracking changes over time? I always find them interesting and I like to understand how things work in 3 dimensions.