Help understanding MRI results?

[Hannah0123]

I was wondering if anyone could help me understand what my MRI results mean in lay man's terms. I've been in a lot of pain-lower back and left hip pain in buttocks & thigh. Pain seems to be getting worse and can feel grinding/clicking while walking in left hip.
My doctor briefly explained annular bulge and tears to me, but he didn't really touch on anything else that is on the MRI results. After MRI, I had an epidural steroid injection but am still miserable.
Feeling frustrated with lack of progress-Nothing has changed in the 2+ months I've been seeing this orthopedic doctor. These are the MRI results, and then I'll add what the doctor wrote.
FINDINGS: Mild-moderate lumbar levoscoliosis. 2mm retrofits thesis at L4-5. The remainder of spinal alignment is normal. No fracture or suspicious marrow signal abnormality.
L1-2 & L2-3 both no significant findings
L3-4 Disc degeneration. Minimal annular bulge. Patent central canal. No foraminal stenosis.
L4-5 Mild posterior disc space narrowing. Annular tearing is seen associated with small annular bulge most pronounced along the midline. Mild bilateral facet arthropothy is seen. Borderline bilateral L5 si articulate recess stenosis. The central canal and neural foraminal are patent.
L5-S1 Mild posterior disc space narrowing. Annular tear associated with a 2mm left us articulate disc protrusion/herniation. No definite mass effect upon the left S1 nerve root. Mild bilateral facet arthropothy is seen without neural foraminal narrowing.
IMPRESSION:
1.. Focal small left subset ocular disc protrusion/herniation with annular tears at L5S1. No mass effect upon the left S1 nerve root is seen.
2. Mild moderate degenerative disc disease with minimal retrolisthesis at L4-5. Annular tearing associated with mild annular bulging is seen at this level contributing to borderline bilateral L5 si articulate recess stenosis.
3. Mild moderate lumbar levoscoliosis.
Doctor's summary of results:
At L5-S1 there is a left paracentral disc protrusion with annular tear/high intensity zone present. There is resultant moderate to severe left si articulate recess narrowing in close proximity to the exiting L5 nerve root. St L4-5 there is a central annular tear/high intensity zone present with mild central disc protrusion but no significant neuroforaminal or central canal narrowing. The remainder of lumbar spine looks appropriate for stated age (30)

If anyone could help explain or break any of that down for me I would greatly appreciate it. My doctor specializes in very conservative treatment, and things seem to be progressing at a very slow pace. Like I said, I am miserable most days-the pain in my left hip is almost as bad as back pain itself. I don't know if I just have an extremely low tolerance to pain, but this is seriously effecting my work (I'm a bartender/server) and there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the pace at which my doctor wants to get therapy started, injections etc. and the length of time I feel like I can continue this 'treatment' with no relief.
Thank you in advance for any help!
Hannah

[Maria]

Hi Hannah! I hope someone will soon respond that can break your MRI results down for you better than I would even attempt to so for now I just wanted to welcome you to the forum and say I'm sorry to see that you're having the problems that you are as I'm sure with your job you really can't afford to be as uncomfortable or in downright pain as you might be.

I think if Epidural steroid injections were offered I'd go with those as initial treatment if you've not already as if they work for you they can provide some pretty good relief. I'm speaking from my own personal experience with them.

I would certainly try them well before any consideration of surgery and most usually there's the trial of conservative therapy that is tried first such as PT, injections and such well before talk of surgery unless there is something emergent going on.

Good luck and again hopefully someone here will help you out a bit with your MRI report . Mark Mintzer (mmglobal) would be a good one to ask.

take care~ Maria