What your MRI report is actually saying

An MRI report is written by one doctor for another doctor. Nobody expects you to read it, which is why it reads the way it does.

Here is most of it, in plain words.

Degenerative disc disease is not really a disease. It is the disc drying out and losing height, which happens to everyone who lives long enough. On its own it explains nothing.

Stenosis means narrowing. Foraminal stenosis is narrowing where the nerve leaves the spine, which is usually what puts pain down an arm.

Radiculopathy is the nerve being irritated or compressed. That is the arm symptom, named.

Myelopathy is different and more serious. It means the spinal cord itself is involved, and it is the one finding that changes how quickly we move.