Any non fracture members?

I had two fractures a year apart when I lifted things that were too heavy and tripped outdoors, then did a huge shopping and lifted. Do not bend or twist, get nutritional help, make sure you are lifting light weights daily or every other day, keep active, walking is good, read about keeping your bones stable, take tai chi. Read about depression, get a life coach or counselor to talk to weekly, take pt to work on weight lifting and balance so you won't fall, put bars in your bathroom tub or shower area. Make sure your glasses are correct. Walk with walking sticks if hiking. Drink plenty of filtered water, do not eat processed foods, check your calcium level. Join a book club or two! Keep active socially so you will be distracted from your worries! Naomi

@naoshapiro1 Yes! I am still careful about what I do, especially when it comes to bending and twisting. I do back and hip exercises (safe ones) to strengthen the spine and hip. It's important to target those areas.

These comments are so helpful! Thank you

Each and every day is filled with anxiety thankfully provided by the med pros (to me anyway). Their "pep" talk to me was that I had serious osteoporosis, (diagnosed 2 years ago; I am 68) basically stop living your life (remove rugs! hold tightly to railings! no shoveling snow! don't twist! don't bend! careful with exercise! watch how much you lift! and on and on it goes. No plan or advice or even a website - anything! - explaining proper exercise, nutrition, PT wasn't even discussed until I asked (apparently no osteoporosis specific PT folks where I live). Meds to take and 2 vitamins; calcium and D (my D was prescription D2 for two years); a printout of calcium rich foods and that was about it. That being said I did Fosamax for about a year; followed by Reclast with (almost) no side effects. Am due for another infusion July but I have no idea if Reclast is working or not (dexa every 2 years only; so not until July 2027 for me). Unfortunately, we do need to research on our own and then we can at least have a question-and-answer session with our docs. I have not fractured with an asterisk - broken wrists from severe trauma. Not a fragility fracture but apparently there is not a difference in the osteoporosis world. I think we all have to take back some control over this chronic condition, we need to accept that changes in exercise, nutrition, etc. need to be made, do a ton of research on our own (docs just don't have time to explain the many moving parts to osteo) and hang in there!

@wondering1 Are you on any medications to actively build bone for your osteoporosis?

@jozer

Have you taken any anabolic meds? Those would be forteo. Tymlos or evenity. Are you willing to share your last dexa scores?

@gravity3 Never took anabolic. Did not know what they were. When I went for second opinions with the various folks who treat osteo only one mentioned anabolic and that is what she would have started me on (a rheumatologist). My endocrinologist started me on Fosamax, did not know enough at the time to even have a discussion about what else is out there or why Fosamax, other than it is a first line treatment (although apparently if severe enough anabolics are a better start?) He did say he did not like Prolia. Dexa in April of 2024 was spine -2.9, left hip -2.8, left femur neck -3.5; after Fosamax treatment April 2025 spine -2.6, left hip -2.6, left femur neck -3.5. Reclast infusion in July 2025; no dexa until 2027 so other than CTX (which doc said indicates Reclast is working) which was was 52 in April of 2025, 78 in April of 2026 and NTX (normal range) there is no further testing until April of 2027. It will be time for another Reclast infusion and am once again extremely anxious about that without a dexa scan, as I have discovered through this site that meds work sometimes, sometimes not so much! My doctor said that Reclast should work well; and it was possible I would only need one infusion but at my most recent appointment he indicated it would be highly unlikely that it would have worked well enough to skip a second or more infusion.

@cathyf31 I had 5 years of bisphosphenates a while back. Two years of Actonel and three years of Reclast. The last one was 5 years ago. My doctor was about to start me on Tymlos when I asked if it was strange that my CTX and P1NP (that I had to request) were so low. They noticed that my alkaline phosphatase is also low. At that point, they suspected that I have hypophosphatasia (HPP). We did a genetic test and it turns out that I do.

Because bisphosphates are risky for people with HPP, I now can’t take Tymlos because we can’t follow it with a bisphosphenate. So I’m out of luck! I also have to stop calcium and magnesium supplementation. Now my only tools are diet and exercise.

@wondering1 🙏🙏🙏

If there’s anybody who can help me with chronic pain, I’m desperate nothing is working