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My story, Kyphoplasty advice
In 2020 I broke my L1 vertebrae falling off the bed while having a leg cramp and that's when I learned I have osteoporosis. In the following two years I managed to increase my lumbar T-score from -4.6 to -4.0 by doing osteoporosis specific exercises from the Bone Clinic in Australia, and taking supplements. Three weeks ago I had a Dexa scan and my lumbar T-score dropped back to -4.4 and it showed three new, stable compression fractures in the lumbar region which were from shoveling snow early this year. Then, two weeks ago I restarted my osteoporosis exercises after not doing them for 8 months. As a result, I injured my back again with a compression fracture at T7, possibly from jumping jacks.
This morning I visited the surgeon who does kyphoplasty and he recommended the surgery to prevent the compression fracture from worsening into more of a wedge. He also said it would alleviate any pain in the area. I have barely any pain and often no pain, but I don't want another wedge shaped vertebrae. I understand the wedges compound and can damage the entire spine. Additionally, the surgeon mentioned there are 4 studies which disprove the idea that the hardness of cement in one vertebrae can cause other vertebrae to fracture around it. He gave me this article. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38811388/ I am trying to decide if I should do this. If I do the surgery, it needs to be done soon. I appreciate any advice on kyphoplasty.
In addition to having to make the decision on surgery, I now I feel my bones are too fragile to do many of the activities I love, especially bicycling, at least until I can get my bones back on track.
I'm just beginning to read more on osteoporosis and follow discussions here. I very much want to do things naturally but realize perhaps that isn't enough at this stage. I appreciate reading discussions on Osteostrong, Keith McCormick, Dr. Doug Lucas and others.
If anyone has a provider who is an osteoporosis expert they like, and especially one who uses both natural and traditional cures, I would very much appreciate it if you could share that.
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@bebagar, is your collapse unstable. What are the doctors saying. Sometimes the procedure is done just for pain.
I have T7 T9 fractures that I got from lifting too much or a fall and then lifting too much they're healed, but I definitely have rounded shoulders and pain all the time I'm in PT and I'm doing weightlifting because I lost so much bone from taking omeprazole which I had to take because I a cancer survivor within an esophagectomy and I have so much reflux even though I eat very very carefully work with the nutritionist stop eating at 4:45 and go to sleep at nine and drink 10 glasses of water a day or more sometimes 12 so that I won't have kidney stones in PT. I'm pushing 10 pounds but my back hurts my upper lower back probably from the machine not being padded and I'm thinking that maybe I shouldn't do that anymore. I'm also starting tai chi and just doing 15 minutes once a week with an instructor. I do 40 minutes of exercise a day with sitting standing and lying with bands, but I still lost 8% of my bone in 2 1/2 years due to the omeprazole, I did not do kyphoplasty because I was worried about other fractures occurring because of the nature of the glue. I've heard that one person took care of her pain by having a shot of Botox or two each year at Johns Hopkins but then you have to worry about infection and leakage and I'm afraid nobody in New Jersey knows how to do that and I don't want to take the risk if anybody wants to give me any comments about this. I would be very very happy Naomi naoshapiro@yahoo.com.