You can imagine the stress the patient must have been under getting this kind of report.  The recommendation was to get another MRI including C2-3 to see if there is spinal cord displacement and to use contrast (gadolinium).

The exam was repeated with and without contrast and below is the contrast image.

Because there is no significant enhancement with the use of contrast, the lesion is unlikely to be a meningioma or a neurofibroma, two known tumors for this area.  If enhancement with contrast had occurred, then meningiomas typically enhance to a greater extent than neurofibromas which could have helped differentiate between benign tumors.  There was signal dropout consistent with the previously seen calcification.  Thus, the conclusion was that this was likely an old disc that had calcified or an old trauma with hematoma that had calcified, a far cry from the tumor/malignancy concerns from the first set of MRI images.

This is a lesson in ordering the right imaging sequences and of the correct anatomy.  While no physical harm came to the patient due to delay in diagnosis, as doctors we must be concerned with the whole patient.  The mental anguish while awaiting the next diagnostic imaging sequence to confirm tumor or malignancy is traumatic and avoidable if only the doctor knew what to order from the beginning.