@andreamayo

It is so true that everyone with osteoporosis is in their own phase of it and some have the abilities to do more than others. Unfortunately, for my husband (who has steroid-induced osteoporosis from taking high doses of prednisone for over the past year - which likely saved his life) exercise right now would prove disastrous. Of course that's not the case for everyone.

His lowest DEXA t-score was -3.4 a few months ago. We found out he had an issue when he had an x-ray or maybe it was a CT scan for something unrelated, that showed a compression fracture on his spine in 2/2024 that wasn't there in 5/2023. That raised red flags to me and I asked for the bone scan. That's when we learned he has osteoporosis and we've been trying to figure out the best course of action since.

The doctors didn't set any limitations or say he needed to do anything differently with the fracture so I contacted a physical therapist I know. He looked at all of his CT scans and x-rays and suggested a follow-up x-ray of his spine. His new endocrinologist agreed. I was worried because months had gone by and we had no idea what he should and should not be doing. I feared another fracture (call it intuition - he wasn't in much pain, and felt his low back pain was similar to what he's had in the past.)

The x-ray showed two new fractures. The doctor believes one was from emptying the dishwasher. Between the endocrinologist and physical therapist working hand-in-hand with one another, he's been restricted to no bending at all (which is so hard), no slouching on chairs, and no lifting anything that weighs more than 5 pounds. He's been doing his best to follow those instructions but I have to say it's very hard. Very restrictive. I'm trying to keep him as active as possible while staying within those limitations. If he continues to get fractures things could get so much worse for him and he could end up bed-ridden which is the very last thing we want. So for now, we must follow the doctor's instructions and pray.

I will say that since we have been much more careful and added acupuncture to the mix he's doing a lot better. He's continuing to taper down on the prednisone with the hopes of being off it in the next six months or sooner. That's if he doesn't have a relapse in PMR or GCA. Both horrible diseases themselves. That's why he's on prednisone.

I am so glad that you can do more and my hope is that once these fractures stabilize he will be able to start doing more exercises. He has exercised (weight lifting and then went to resistance bands) his entire adult life. So this is very hard on him.

The suggestions of what NOT to do on this thread was started to give people a place to share their stories and for others to glean from their experiences. Realizing everyone is not at the same severity of OP. I've learned a lot from this thread and have found the advice of others very useful and I hope others will as well. And I hope everyone understands that I don't believe they should all be restricted or have the limitations he has. Everyone should be listening to their bodies and talking to their own doctors. I highly recommend an endocrinologist for people with osteoporosis. We finally started getting answers once we found a good one. And our physical therapist.