Fractured spine

@candy101 Welcome to Connect. I think the name of the supplement is glucosamine sulfate, and there are lots of manufacturers. I'm curious about your fracture. Is it one of the spines on a vertebrae that is fractured and separated? That seems a bit odd that your doctor doesn't seem too concerned. If this is a compression fracture, sometimes they glue those back together with bone cement.

What advice has your doctor given you about why the fracture did not heal?

I fell down some stairs 1.5 yrs ago. At the time they said it was just muscle related. Started physical therapy by VIDEO a couple months later. They couldnt SEE me sooner because of Covid. Only because I was in tears from pain & frustration did they finally let me see a PT in person… in SEPT !! It was a pt outside of Kaisers system. PT & another doctor wanted better x-rays but the request was denied. Finally saw spine specialist in January of this year. After full x-rays the doctor said it was a fracture in one of my vertebrae‘s. She said the only possible thing to help would be some cement. She said at this time with Covid that was not something that was a possibility.
She said after this length of time it will not heal.🥲. Only other suggestion is a brace that I’m wearing a few hours a day. She said with the brace and more physical therapy it will help take the pressure off the bones.
She was more concerned about a lower hip problem that I’ve had for 20 years in about my back. Gave me a Cortizone shot which really wasn’t helpful. I’m not going to have another one.

I didn’t mean to write a book 🙃

Oh … it was a compression fracture.

@candy101 I understand being careful about Covid, but hospitals have been Covid testing patients before allowing surgical procedures. I had surgery for a broken ankle at Mayo at the beginning of the Pandemic, and again last fall, I had surgery to remove the surgical hardware. Both times, I had to pass a Covid test before surgery. Is the doctor saying this now that you can't have a procedure because of Covid? Perhaps an opinion at another place would help? Other hospitals are doing procedures with Covid protocols in place.

My elderly mom also had a compression spinal fracture because of osteoporosis. She wasn't a candidate for bone cement because of severe osteoporosis, and she had a brace while it healed, and it did heal.

This is some information from Mayo about vertebroplasty that uses bone cement to put a spine fracture back together.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/vertebroplasty/about/pac-20385207

Your post length is fine.. no worries. I do write some rather long posts myself because I have a lot of information to share. Sometimes patients have to fight to get treatment they need. I'm sorry you were denied treatment that you needed. Are you improving with the brace and physical therapy? Are you considering a second opinion elsewhere?

I think I need to get a second opinion. I don’t have money to go outside of Kaiser, but hopefully another doctor there would be open minded and take a new look. As you picked up on, that doctor was so unconcerned that I was amazed! It seems like she was only interested in my low back issues barely talked about the fracture. But yes she did say because of Covid they were not doing surgeries … or that kind of surgery I don’t know. I’ve been doing a lot of research tonight on “cement “. I saw a couple articles that said if it’s been over a year that it shouldn’t be done. I must say that made me extremely disappointed. The thought of not getting better is very b depressing.
Yes I have improved. But not much. I can stand about 20 minutes to do dishes. And then I have to lay down put ice on my back.
Did your mother have a fracture for very long before it healed? I’m happy for her that it did heal

@candy101 after 1.5 years your compression fracture HAS healed. You are outside the window for the surgical procedures that inject cement. The cement kind of props up the part of the vertebra that collapsed. A compression fracture is more of a collapse on the inward side of the vertebtra than a "break" like a fractured arm.

I was offered the surgical procedure but my doc said the outcome would not be that different and it was done only for short term pain relief. There are risks to kyphoplasty such as migration of cement into lungs.

I had a fall years ago and fractured T 12 and T 6. The ER got a negative x-ray that said no fracture, and like you, I went months in pain with my PCP telling me it was soft tissue. When I finally got to a spine specialist I was told that it takes 48 hours for a compression fracture to show up in an x-ray! Grrrrrr!! I got a brace 6 months after the injury which didn't help much and I really didn't use it.

Fast forward to last year and I fractured 3 lumbar vertebrae via osteoporosis this time. I knew enough to wait two days to have the x-ray 🙂 I got a soft brace and declined the kyphoplasty despite pain. I am resigned to pain and still walk every day. Tai chi feels good. Hope you feel better!

By saying it has healed that basically means it’s as good is it’ll get..right? And I’m so so sorry that you’ve had so many breaks. 😢 My fracture was T12 also,. I do have osteoporosis which makes me very worried about more breaks. Did you do any physical therapy? It doesn’t really seem to be helping much. The tai chi sounds like that would be something that would be a good try. I can get acupuncture on my plan, But I can see this as only very short term relief.

After my T12 break I could not lift much. For a year even a big glass of water. That improved some, but I still had neuro effects with lifting more than 5 lbs. I could not open many windows. Etc. In a weird way I think that protected me.

I have found tai chi much better than PT unless you find the rare PT who understands. Even so, tai chi works well for me.

My T12 and T6 were 2006, with bad trauma to back. I have had osteoporosis since 2007. I tried for years to get onto a medication. My doctors sympathized. I had reactions to all of them. I also went on cancer meds that made bones worse.

I am now on Tymlos. I was only able to get on it because it is possible to start at a low dose and move up.

I have 7 fractures. Over time the T12 became less of a problem except for the lifting- pain was better but it took a long while. Lumbar fractures are painful but a lot of it is muscle spasms.

Are you on any meds? Good luck!

I’m not on any medication regarding my back I found otc meds did nothing. I’m on medication for epilepsy, This doctor said I should take Dona glucosamine sulfate. That this brand was supposed to be so much better. I can’t really see how that would be helpful though.