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What follows Reclast/Zometa if they are first treatment?
Osteoporosis & Bone Health | Last Active: 15 hours ago | Replies (16)Comment receiving replies
@prarysky
I was watching an interview on YouTube with Dr. Keith McCormick and he stated something along these lines, if you doctor won’t work with you then maybe you should get another doctor that will. You are paying this doctor. I did exactly that. I am still searching for a new Endocrinologist that is respectful of my wishes I feel okay doing this because I am the patient and they essentially work for me. I asked the endocrinologist I saw who wanted to put me on Reclast how I would know if it was working for me? She said I’ll re-order a DEXA scan in two years. I then ask about the bone marker turnovers and she poo poo them ( I had already had both the CTX and the P1NP that my PCP ordered when I asked her to do so) Saying they wouldn’t make a bit of difference in what she is going to prescribe me. Then she berated me for having them done.
I believe I read on the sub Reddit (r/osteoporosis )that there is a place you can have your blood tested just by ordering it yourself called Jason Health Labs. You can Google this to find a lab near you. But again, it would be nice if your doctors would be compliant with your wishes.
Replies to "@prarysky I was watching an interview on YouTube with Dr. Keith McCormick and he stated something..."
@izziesue two years is typical but a crazy long time to be taking a powerful and for some a dangerous drug and not know if it's working. Traditional Medicare for instance will pay for DXAs every year if your doc knows how to submit it. Not sure about other insurance. I have paid for DXAs when I wanted/needed to know where I was at earlier than the 1 year limit. At my doctors the DXAs were not that expensive ($75 for each site).
Also I test CTX frequently and use Jason Health Labs for a good price. The draw and test processing is done at a local Quest Labs in my case. I think I pay $68 for blood draw and CTX test. Much thanks to Jason Health because going direct through Quest is much more expensive.
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@izziesue Sadly, there are docs who berate patients. Know what that feels like and it sure isn't good.
I can respect a doctor when they disagree with me or my requests for certain tests as long as they do not belittle me. Our doctors are, after all, the experts and their disdain for certain tests may be well-founded. I think those of us using osteoporosis drugs are trying to find ways to monitor our bone health and bone marker turnover tests seem to be part of that.
Unfortunately, there are few doctors or clinicians who specialize in bone health and are knowledgeable about bone markers. Finding them is like finding a needle in a haystack...maybe even more challenging than that!
If you can find one who will at least listen to you, you lucked out. The endocrinologist whom I saw for the first time was initially skeptical of ordering bone marker turnover tests as a baseline before I start Reclast, but when I made my case, she agreed and ordered the tests. She told me they are usually used after someone has been using certain drugs rather than before they start. That makes no sense to me.
I think we are educating the open-minded clinicians along the way. Perhaps they won't change what they consider to be evidence-based standard of care for monitoring bone health (the Dexa), but will pay closer attention to the use of bone markers. Neither my oncologist nor my primary care doc would order bone marker turnover tests, but this endocrinologist was willing to. I'm glad I found her.
Thank you for mentioning Jason Health Labs which I'll keep as a reference. Ideally, a doctor's order helps with insurance coverage but if that fails and we can afford it, getting these labs on our own is an option to know.
Thank you for your response! Hope you do find an endocrinologist you respect and can work with!
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