Osteoporosis / osteomalacia

It has been so long since we’ve spoken to or seen you; but you have been in our thoughts a lot. Richard has been doing well physically, I on the other hand had to quite a turn of events.

In ‘95 (at the age of 48) I was diagnosed with osteoporosis...so the Dr. at the time put me on fosamax. Years later I began complaining about my lower back and legs hurting. They then determined I had a pinched nerve and was put on muscle relaxants and pain meds. But the pain kept getting worse. My acupuncturist told me I should have a ‘bone scan,’ not the same thing as a ‘bone density scan’ they do for osteoporosis.

The results showed glowing spots all over, but primarily in both femurs. I was told that it might be bone cancer; but thankfully it was not. They decided it was osteomalacia from having been on fosamax for 15 years. The Dr. I saw said I should not be working, because the femurs could break at any time. Well, two weeks later that’s just what happened.

I had just come home from rotator cuff surgery, and I was taking the garbage outside, and my femur went out (literally). I was on the ground unable to move. I was there for over an hour before anyone drove down our road and saw me. I was taken to ER and they drilled out all the bone marrow in my femur and inserted a metal rod inside my femur from the knee up to the hip.

Afterwards, I had to be in a nursing home for a month and in a wheelchair at home for almost two months. They then told me I could use a walker, which I wasn’t sure of, because the x-ray showed my other femur was just as bad. Well, sure enough, I was out feeding our animals and the other femur broke. Luckily Richard was home and he called an ambulance—the same EMT that had taken me to the hospital with the other leg! So, I was back in the hospital and nursing home for another month and a half!

I am walking now; but they told me ‘not to trip or fall,’ we don’t know what you’ll break next. I wish that was the end—but no. I wound up getting a bone infection in my wrist from a plate that they put in when my wrist broke.

They put in a ‘PIC’ line to get rid of the bone infection. That was in for three months. Hopefully, the infection is gone.

I am, therefore, no longer working as a bus driver, as of May 2009, and am on S.S. Disability. I am on pain meds so that I can get up and feel somewhat normal; but I don’t like what they do to my brain.. I seem to have such a bad memory! Maybe some of that is age related, tho!

On a better note—we are building a house! Our mobile home was literally falling into the ground and was very unhealthy for us. Our son-in-law is building it....Our children, Gabe, mike, Lindsay, and Kayla are doing well. We now have six grand kids, five boys and 1 girl.

Our world sure is in chaos, isn’t it!? It’s reassuring, however, to know that God will see us thru all of this, and it will all be good eventually.

After sending Robin's letter to those on our email list, our friend, Mark Eby, supplied us with these vitamins and minerals for osteoporosis:

Tell her to take the following daily with food:

From everything I've read, you need all four of these in the right amounts to truly have the calcium going into the bone. Or, to make things easier, she could buy this: http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/Item00811/Bone-Restore.html All she has to do is find it on Amazon.com and it will be cheaper.