@judithh580 Hi Judith, and welcome to Connect. I certainly can understand your concerns, and it makes sense to find out all the information you can about benefits and risks of any treatment. I did want to relay some information about osteoporosis and how bad that can be from experience with a family member.

You may want to consider getting an opinion from an endocrinologist because they specialize in issues with functioning of hormones. My mom developed a parathyroid problem which caused her blood calcium levels to be too high, because the disease was causing calcium to be removed from her bones causing severe osteoporosis. To catch that, your doctor needs to be evaluating blood calcium levels. She had been treated for osteoporosis for at least 10 years, and according to the endocrinologist, that may not be effective for a person with a parathyroid problem. She did have surgery, and the bad gland was removed, but the damage was done. The next week, she fell and fractured her foot, ankle and pelvis and was headed for a stay at a rehab center for 3 months. The foot fracture led to a later surgery to lengthen tendons because her foot had twisted from non-use when everything tightened up. That was 8 years ago, and recently she had a spontaneous compression fracture of her spine, and she was not a candidate for a procedure with bone cement to fix it because of having severe osteoporosis. She is at very high risk that this will happen again.

They have just started injections of Evenity and that does have a risk of complications if a person has had heart disease. She is 92 and it is hard to build bone at that age anyway when you spend your day sitting and don't walk anymore. You may want to take your questions to an endocrinologist who specializes in osteoporosis and if they can collaborate with your rheumatologist, that's even better. There are risks to everything, but it is just as important to ask how to minimize the risks from an expert in the field. Osteoporosis in later years is serious, and I worry that another bone breaking event could land my mom in a nursing home for good. You have a chance to increase your bone density through treatment. The parathyroid glands make hormones that control bone density, and a good question to ask would be if your parathyroids are functioning correctly, and how does having Rheumatoid Arthritis affect bone quality? It is always a struggle to get my mom to drink enough water, and that does affect proper functioning of everything. Dehydration can lead to heart arrhythmia (which has also happened to her) and simply drinking enough water will help reduce risks.

Do you have a trusted physician who can help you with your questions? Is there a history of osteoporosis in your family? Would you consider a visit with an endocrinologist?