intraosseous hemangioma
Edit to add: I am AFAB and 37 years old.
Back in Sept 2024 I started being treated for back/neck pain, numbness/tingling in my legs, and muscle spasms in both my legs and arms. It was discovered that I had bulges at C2/C3, C3/C4, T1/T2, and various sized extrusions at T2/T3, T5/T6, T7/T8, L1/L2, L4/L5 impinging on nerve, and L5/S1, impinging on nerve. There is minimal to moderate retrolisthesis from L1/L2 to L5/S1. The last MRI I had on my Spine was October 29th 2024. I've been in PT for my spine since November. I've been improving quite nicely since. In mid December I had a steroid injection at L4/L5.
For the last couple weeks I've been having an increase in symptoms again, mostly low back pain, numbness in my legs and muscle cramps in my legs. On Sunday 1/12/25 I had a very violent fall. I was in excruciating pain. The only time I've ever been in that much pain was when I woke up post hysterectomy (with complications) and the IV had blown and no one knew until I woke up in recovery with no pain medications in my blood stream. I was sobbing I was in so much pain. This coming from someone who partially dislocated their wrist once and didnt know it, then kept using my hand for 8 hours before deciding the swelling was abnormal and going to urgent care for an xray. I have an absurdly high pain tolerance.They gave me a new MRI at the hospital and found a 8mm intraosseous hemangioma at L3, growing on the anterior side.
This hemangioma was not on my MRI on October 29th 2024. I had a CT scan with contrast of my bowels for an unrelated reason ordered by my PCP on January 3rd 2025 and the radiologists noted my spine issues as well as "no aggressive osseous lesions" in that CT scan. Now on January 12 I have a benign 8mm intraosseous hemangioma listed on my MRI. I have an appointment on February 4th with a neurosurgeon to discuss all this. The hospital called the hemangioma a noncancerous tumor but other people have said that it isn't a tumor it's a collection of abnormal red blood cells growing on my spine, but to me that feels like saying it isn't a cat it's a genus feline.
Is it normal for a benign tumor to go from non existence to 8mm in size that quickly? Could it have been missed in October/Jan 3rd?