Reclast? Any positive things about it? I have cold feet with this

@jjpoodlespress
Frist, my wife and I are dog lovers your picture is great. We have a cock a poo.

My wife takes Reclast injections. It was to improve her bone density. It did help her and improved her bone density based on her test. I asked her about any side effects, and she said no. Her daughter takes the pill and we asked her and said no side affects.

Can I ask why you are told you need to take it?

Last year my wife had spinal fusion surgery. Part of the recovery process to improve bone growth around surgery site on spine was to use a special back brace that sent a electrical stimulation around spine to enhance bone growth. She had to use the belt for 6 months. According to surgeon after doing pre and post surgeries CTs has seen significant improvement in her spinal bone growth density.

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.

@jjpoodlespress
Love your cute dog!

Not sure about your diagnosis, but I’ll share what I was told in case it helps. I already had osteopenia and my last DEXA showed progression closer to osteoporosis due to cancer meds. My oncologist wants to put me on zometa which is an infusion similar to reclast and has the same scary side effects. I always have adverse side effects, some serious, and find zometa scary. He told me to ask my endocrinologist his opinion.

My endocrinologist who I really trust told me absolutely NOT. He said he would never put someone with osteopenia on such a strong drug. He also wouldn’t use it as a first line drug. He would wait until I actually have osteoporosis and then he would use Prolia first as it builds up bone and starts reversing bone loss. I was happy to hear that because I was already going to decline zometa after reading the possible side effects. I like to be conservative in my treatments. I hope this is helpful as you gather info from many people.

What is your diagnosis and have you tried other meds?

I’ve found people tend to be someone who either tolerates most meds well or doesn’t. I personally am missing some liver enzymes that make it hard to properly metabolize many meds. What is your personal history with meds and adverse reactions?

Reclast did not bother my 83 year-old hubby. He had no side effects from it.

I had my first Reclast infusion June 2024. No side effects.
Will see if it helped when I have another dexa.
I had already had significant improvement from Evenity.

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.

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

I do own my decision because I thought from all I read that it is the lesser of all the evils.
Had I known about the autoimmune disease connection I would have made a different decision
thanks again

Zometa is eliminated primarily intact through the kidneys. Oncologists offer it to prevent or manage bone metastasis. While it is given in lower doses they are more frequent. Really good post. Thanks

Why did you switch? Just curious.
I’m currently on Reclast.
Just curious. Thanks!