Brief Answer: Hemangioma is NOT cancer! Detailed Answer: Hi! My name is Vinay. Thanks for coming to HeathCareMagic. Vertebral hemangiomas (in this case at the 5th Lumbar Vertebra) — are nonneoplastic whichmeans they don't spread to other parts of the body and are not caused by cells that are dividing out of control They are composed of thin-walled blood vessels. Typically these are an incidental finding in the spine, and only rarely produce symptoms. LOTS's of people get them and the only time they really matter is if they are causing any weakness in the bone or instability. So to try and be a bit more thorough, may I ask WHY you got the meri in the first place? Have you had back pain? Maybe you could upload the entire report and I can take you through it line by line. But as far as the hemangioma is concerned. Not Cancer! I love it when I get to give good news! Take Care. Feel free to follow-up for this or any other question you might have. Vin

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Brief Answer: Saw the report. Not serious Detailed Answer: Hi! Thanks for following up. Thanks for uploading the report! I am not worried about the hemangioma. Things like this are seen in TONS of people (how do you like that for specificity.. :-) ). In this particular case the hemangioma isn't pressing against anything. As far as the hormone therapy.. it actually MAY be linked. There is some evidence in the literature that people on estrogen therapy have a tendency to grow blood vessels and such. But it's minor and has never amounted to cancer in the spine particularly. Vin I'm a little more worried about the facet hypertrophy. That's basically saying you have arthritis in the spine. I think that might be whats causing you back pain. I would try and focus on that when you see your doctor next. From the wording of this report it looks like there might not be any scope for operating to relieve the pain. But there are plenty of other things you can do bring down the pain. Ranging from Weight loss and Physical therapy for the back. To anti-inflammatory medicines. A good pain management specialist would be able to inject a steroid into the region of the facet so that the swelling goes down. Weight loss helps a whole heck of alot. I'm not saying you are overweight. In fact I don't even know how much you weigh (that would help me out a bit here.. :-) ). But there is alot of evidence to show that in people who have backpain and are overweight... Weightloss either ENDS their symptoms or significantly reduces them around 60% of the time. So just a thought. Let me know what you think. You can use me as a sounding board to bounce ideas off of until that report gets to your doctor. In the mean time. It would be GREAT if you could tell me a bit more about yourself and when this pain started? How it behaves (doe it get worse when you bend? Or when you lie down? Does it radiate to your tummy or into your legs? Can you control it with meds at the moment etc). About yourself. What medications do you take for chronic illness? If any? Did you ever have an accident or trauma involving your back or any part of the spine? All of this would help in allowing me a more complete picture of your health. That way we can discuss your spine in greater detail and I can be more useful to you. Vin

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Brief Answer: That shock like pain may have been a muscle spasm Detailed Answer: Hi there, I'm glad you're well aware of the possible clot issues. I'm reasonable sure you're not smoking at this point, but if you are. That raises your chances of an embolism a few hundred percent. If your not smoking, your eating right and exercising properly. Then you've done all you can, don't worry yourself beyond that, will do you no good. Now to the pain when you bent your back. That sounds like you had a muscle sprain of the muscles that surround the spinal column. It CAN happen when there is significant instability and irritation of the facets in the column. OTC pain killers and a lumbar belt (provides great lumbar support) will help with that till you can get things dealt with more permanently. After you finished with the pregnancy and are capable of pursuing some physical therapy, try it out, will help with those muscles. But for the time being, I think you might need to seek a pain specialist and get a facet injection done. I hope this helps. Lemme know what you end up discussing with your doctor over that scan report. Vin

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