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Final meeting with surgeon before my revision

Joint Replacements | Last Active: Sep 20, 2019 | Replies (12)
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@contentandwell

@babette. It was sort of strange. I had sciatica in my R leg and made the mistake of taking a very long ride (6 hours) and then had to sit for a 2 hours. This is not good for sciatica. The next morning I had incredibly intense pain, literally worse than childbirth, I suddenly felt very light headed from the pain and was heading from the kitchen to the family room to sit and had a Pre-syncope episode - just short of fainting, I did not totally lose consciousness. I did go down on the tile floor and had a “minimally displaced fracture of the greater trochanter of L femur”.
This led me to call my PCP to see if I should have a bone density test. Turns out that my last was in January 2014 and I had osteopenia then. I should have been having density tests every two years and when it got worse been put on one of the medications. No one ever told me that and my PCP dropped the ball. I had the test this week and sure enough, I have somewhat advanced osteoporosis. Frankly I am furious that this was not addressed when it should have been. It it had been and I had been taking bone strengthening medication the fracture may not have happened. I am fortunate that it was not worse.
I think my PCP is a short timer.
JK

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Replies to "@babette. It was sort of strange. I had sciatica in my R leg and made the..."
Chris Trout, Volunteer Mentor | @artscaping | Sep 20, 2019

@contentandwell, @babette, Good afternoon ladies. I am also in the rabbit hole over bone density issues. Why, don't we as women have enough sense about us to know that post-menopause is time for bone density checks and other healthy human tests? I certainly had a huge gap in my self-advocacy for the 20 years I lived on the mountain. Now I am paying the price, literally.

I did not have a PCP because I had a PPO for insurance. Once I left the mountain and enrolled in an HMO program, I found an amazingly responsive PCP who rushed me in for a DEXA scan and learned that my numbers were sinking.

Easy...just take a monthly tablet, Boniva to maintain what you have. Ran into a serious reaction to bisphosphonates. That left me with Tymlos or Forteo and daily injections. With the help of an endocrinologist, I chose Tymlos and have tolerated it well. It is very expensive. Just how do drug companies justify failing to serve a market segment that needs their products.......by pricing their products beyond the means of so many?

I think I owe a lot to my support of Mayo Connect. Now I know so much more just by following members and mentors/moderators to learn from them. This is kind of a two-way street. So thank you @babette and @contentandwell. Please let me know how this program works for you. I will be an attentive student. May you find relief today from pain and suffering. Chris

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