Thank You for your responses! Right off I saw where you wrote that some of the pain we can experience could be from bone growth; that is exactly what my doctors nurse shared prior to meeting with my doctor! I am a 67 year male that was diagnosed years ago with Ankolosing Spondylitis; a form of arthritis; I’ve had this for 50 years; effecting my back and legs. I felt that right after the infusion like I had been injected with something that highlighted any area that was of inflammation, causing it to be worse. I’ve never had issues with my shoulders but do now. The pain gets worse when I am idle, like sitting around or during the night. Some times I wake 5-6 times a given night and am unable to move my right arm without assistance. As the day goes by the pain lessen some as long as I’m staying busy. Almost as if I can only think of one thing at a time and my focus is on whatever I am doing and not on the pain intensity. I observe the pain there but try to not let it consume my activities.
Honestly, life is manageable because being retired I could tell myself that it is okay to take a short nap if needed and not beat myself up for needing it because I did not sleep well the night prior; although, I have not resorted to taking a nap during my day! I am visiting a Physical Therapist; limited visits because VA is only allowing 15 visits, so I am trying to stretch the visits out and try working more on my own and using him to monitor my progress, which might assist with additional sessions if deemed necessary.
Most of all this is new to me and a bit hard to understand. I have only experienced broken bones once in my life working on a truck I slipped and fell on the fender and fractured 4/5 ribs. I do experience a lot of on, off pain in my lower back and my leg pain is and has been constant since I was around the age of 18.
I am gathering that treatment is supposed to outweigh the side effects or why would they be offering treatment in the first place, right? I wonder! I also realize that our “Brain” is a very powerful tool and one of its task are to help protect us and when something comes along in our system such as the Reclast it reacts and this could be the pain signals alerting us that a foreign object has entered into our body? So, do we continue with treatment and perhaps seek some form of psychological therapy to help retrain our brain that this pain is okay and “ hopefully” not debilitating? I do have a little time to think about this but often find myself not wanting to think about it and then all of a sudden, appointment day is here and thinking, okay, what am I going to do? I apologize for going on and on! I did read the article about the 82 year old that was getting around fine, had a Reclast infusion and is now in a wheelchair; doesn’t really support me seeking additional treatment!
Thank You All for your replies, hopefully my reply helps someone else who is new to this treatment and options!