Connect
← Return to Reclast? Any positive things about it? I have cold feet with this
Discussion
Reclast? Any positive things about it? I have cold feet with this
Bones, Joints & Muscles | Last Active: Apr 15 7:20am | Replies (10)Comment receiving replies
hi, jjpoodlespress. Reclast for osteoporosis? Do you have dxa results?
Reclast can work quite effectively for fracture protections You may be able to take one injection that protects you for two years.
For the many it is fracture protection that comes with inflammation of the joints after a few days of flu.
For some there is no negative side effects.
And for the very few it is devastating. If you already have autoimmune disease, you are more likely to have a bad experience.
You don't get to know ahead of time which will be your future. You don't get to change your mind after the infusion, because it stays in your system for a year plus and there is no way to remove it.
You may be able to arrange a lower dose and slower infusion. Many physicians will not make that extra effort.
You should be given a choice of drugs for osteoporosis.
In your situation I chose Forteo, mainly because it actually rebuilds and remodels your bone.
Only Forteo and Tymlos remodel. The other drugs including Reclast stop the normal process of renewal by preventing older bone from being removed.
I, of course, think you should follow my lead. Some few can't tolerate Forteo, but you can just stop taking the drug and it leaves your system usually within 24 hours. I'm starting my third year on Forteo without any side effects. It was an easy decision for me because I'm so afraid of fracturing.
I hope you get opposing views here and find the best choice for yourself.
Replies to "hi, jjpoodlespress. Reclast for osteoporosis? Do you have dxa results? Reclast can work quite effectively for..."
Thank you for mentioning autoimmune disease, I was one of the unfortunate people who did and still am experiencing awful side effects(4months later) and I have Hashimoto's. Funny how the endocrinologist did not mention this. the only reason they did not recommend Reclast is because it does not work as fast as other drugs. Never a mention of the autoimmune connection and still ordered it
Thank you for the information
Connect
Really helpful post -- thank you.
After my bariatric surgery, the only thing that got worse instead of better were my bones -- not a surprise, given the amount of weight loss. My spine and femurs moved into osteoporosis territory. Due to the surgery, any oral treatments were contraindicated, so I started with IV reclast in 2019. It gave me a fever for several days and a knee arthritis flare for several weeks. After that, they switched me to prolia injections, which had no side effects in my case. My scans are now showing me to be on the borderline between osteopenia and normal.
I would encourage anyone to ask about the pros and cons of each option, as well as the issues associated with switching from one to the other in the future. Your personal medical history might, as mine did, dictate that some have greater risks of side effects than others in your particular case, or are more or less likely to be effective. Unlike the oral drugs, these stick around, so switching is a long-term play. But in fact, it is always an option -- there is even such a thing as revision surgery.
The side effects question is always something we wrestle with, right? As we should. Unfortunately, nothing that works well is going to have zero risk of side effects -- heck, even placebos produce side effects.
I've made a lot of medical choices (surgery, drugs, therapy) knowing that there were small risks of large side effects. And some of the side effects have been really unpleasant for longer than I would have liked. I'm 72, and recently had my first ever permanent side effect that qualifies as truly serious. The studies show that this one occurs in fewer than 4 patients in a thousand. I never took that particular side effect seriously when I decided to move forward with the drug originally. Once it happened and was finally diagnosed (which took several doctors and too many tests to eliminate other causes of the problem), I switched drugs and the side effect stopped getting worse. It may or may not ever go away -- I suspect it never will.
Realistically, if I had let those odds dominate my decision-making, I would probably never have used any medical treatment ever. Although I wish the nerve damage had never happened, I don't regret the choice I made -- modern medicine has let me live a full life, and if I hadn't taken those medical risks, I suspect I would have spent a good chunk of my adult years in a dark bedroom suffering. Statistics caught up with me (so to speak), but I knew that was likely to happen eventually.
Having said that, at this age with a fairly complex medical situation, I'm now researching my choices more thoroughly, comparing the side effect risks with the likelihood of successfully solving the problem, and taking into consideration how each of my treatment options might impact the other issues I'm grappling with (meaning that I'm treating all my physicians and NPs and PAs as a team, and sometimes consulting several of them). I always love it when I hear from someone who is owning their choices and making them with evidence-based insight.