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Prolia treatment for osteoporosis: What is your experience?
Osteoporosis & Bone Health | Last Active: Jul 13 3:27pm | Replies (1246)Comment receiving replies
@artscaping Thanks Chris, you have been a wealth of information, being ahead of me in having to deal with this miserable condition. I checked out the link about endocrinologists, but as I mentioned, rheumatologists do also provide care for osteoporosis. I wonder if they have different approaches. As I mentioned somewhere, my endocrinologist does not have osteoporosis listed as conditions that he treats. The rheumatologist I have chosen at Mass General does, plus the PCP said I should see a rheumatologist and I checked with a friend who has osteoporosis and her doctor for it is also a rheumatologist.
I have numerous appointments coming up in the next month and a half, they all got bunched together -- my gynecologist this week, my PCP in a couple of weeks, later my endo, my transplant surgeon, my orthopedic surgeon, and finally the rheumatologist, probably not until December. Sometimes I feel like I am single-handedly supporting the whole medical community! I hope to get some more input from my gynecologist and my PCP and possibly my endocrinologist before the all-important visit with the rheumatologist. I really like and trust my gyno and my endo so look forward to their input. I thought it seemed strange that a gynecologist would be involved but I was told that they are more often on top of the density testing than the PCPs are.
@migizii I was thinking that it does probably take longer to heal if you already have osteoporosis. This whole thing is confusing. I am reading the book "Strong Women, Strong Bones" and it seems like the best bone-strengthening exercises are not recommended if you already have osteoporosis. The best ones have high impact.
@mslw I will be interested in hearing how things go with your endo appointment. Is this an MGH doctor also, and if so which facility is the doctor at? Living in NH I try to find doctors who are at the Danvers facility first, and if not there then Waltham. If necessary I go to Boston but despite the distance being similar to all three, it's just easier to not have to go into Boston and deal with traffic approaching the city.
Getting old really is not fun.
JK
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When I was diagnosed with osteoporosis 9 months ago , my primary care dr had his nurse call to tell me.
In 1 quick sentence she sd I had Osteoporosis & 'dr said take either Prolia or Reclast'.
I didnt know what those were & she didnt explain but said there was 'no rush' to decide on which one I wanted to do.
Didn't even tell me to come in & talk with the dr so he could tell me about Prolia or Reclast and really he certainly
should hv referred me on if he couldn't explain to me what type of meds they were.
I did my own Google search & scared myself reading all the side effects of both.
After 3 months of worrying I choose Prolia injection after joining MayoClinic Connect online & reading the pros & cons.
Then after I got the Prolia injection, I read that osteoporosis should be treated by an Endocrinologist so I went to my Primary Care dr & he said 'absolutely no' to referring me on to an Endo but he would refer me to a Rheumatologist which took 3 months to get an appt with. So a lot of WASTED time trying to doctor myself & find the path to who could treat me for osteoporosis.
I was very irritated by that time when I finally got to see the Rheumatologist a 2 1/2 hr drive to another city.
Rheumatologist sent me for full blood work after my appt with him to check Vit D & Calcium levels which came out OK.
His nurse called me within the week to tell me my D & Calicum levels were fine. Nurse didnt tell me my numbers so I went to medical records & got a copy of my full panel.
My Vit D = 70 (30-100 ref range) My Calcium = 9.2 (8.6-10.3 ref range)
Rheumatologist asked why I was on Prolia & said he would have put me on the Reclast IV once a year & said it was cheaper than the 1450 every 6 months for Prolia. I dont know what he was basing his decision on regarding liking Reclast rather than Prolia .
It can't be just because its much cheaper.
He talked way too fast & didnt want to go into the WHY of it but went on to tell me how osteoporosis is a death knell & if I fall & break a hip 60% die within the year.
When I came out of that appt I had a lot of anxiety wondering about his unexplained concern that I chose Prolia over Reclast
and I'm just about due for my 2nd Prolia.
I do read all the comments on this Mayo Connect site noting how others are dealing with their osteoporosis.
Very challenging time of our lives to stay as healthy as we can.