I'm confused. I'm 72 and have been diagnosed with severe osteoporosis (hip and spine -3.6). So far I do not have pain, but I've been worried if I'll get it. I am now walking outside every day, exercising, and taking precautions. Also, I had a partial hip replacement 8 months ago. I told a physical therapist I was concerned about later having pain, and she told me osteoarthritis is the one that causes pain and not osteoporosis. Is this correct?
Hi Jacqueline: Your therapist is correct. Usually you don't experience any pain until you have a fracture.
Osteoarthritis is painful, and you're very lucky you don't have that.
Good luck and keep up the exercises.
Thanks a lot, Windblown. I feel a lot less anxious after your reply and your encouragement.
Jacqueline
Hi Jacqueline: You don't have any pain from the hip replacement? If you are able to do the exercises you mentioned without feeling *new* pain, I would say you are in good shape.
I've had spinal factures and also have osteoarthritis (all over) so I have almost constant pain in my back, hip, knees and hands. I have a lot of degenerative probs in the spine, so my movements are limited, I walk for exercise, lift some weights and also do balance exercises, but I have to limit my time at all of these because of the pain.
Do you mind if I ask if you are taking any osteoporosis med? I'm almost done with Forteo and it's helped a lot. Unfortunately there isn't anything I can do to eliminate the pain, but I have that because of the probs that occured after fractures, so osteoporosis in itself doesn't cause pain until you break something and then hopefully it will go away at some point, but I can't promise that.
I don't know how you've avoided arthritis, but you are lucky because I thought that just about everyone had that.
I just discovered I had severe osteoporosis a month or two ago. I know it's recommended that I take medication,
but I hate to put it in my body, so I'm putting it off as long as possible. I do take calcium, D3, and magnesium.
As for the hip surgery, I do get pain when I walk after
exercising.
Hi Jacqueline: There are lot's of people who just take the supplements, and I agree that it should be *your* decision whether you take an osteo med or not. Just wondered if the partial hip surgery was blamed on your bone density?
Just be careful with your body mechanics, to prevent any falls or injuries. Sara Meeks has a site that might help to explain the body mechanics part of this treatment and MotherGoose's posts are real imformative on this as well.
Have you read the Unipedal Standing post I put on the board that helps increase your balancing abilities? Also there is a second link from the NY Times that goes into some other easy balancing exercises you could try. We all loose some balancing ability as we age, so it's really good to try maintain or improve to the best balance you can. There is also a test for balancing in the NY Times article that will give you an idea where your abilities are at this point in life. If you try the test, just make sure you have a chair or something to hold onto if you need it. For my age (54) my score is around a 70 year olds is for balance, and I have pretty good balance from the yoga and balancing exercises I've done for years, but I still continue to do this every day and I'm getting better on my score. I no longer do the yoga poses that require any BLT's (bending, lifting and twisting) but I can still do the ones that don't involve BLT's to the spine.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do :) Take Care!!
Here's the link to the post *if* you haven't read it on Unipedal Standing and the NY Times link.
http://www.inspire.com/groups/national-osteoporosis-foundation/discussion/q uestion-for-phy-therapist-or-anyone-on-unipedal-standing/
Thanks for all the help. It means a lot to me.
Jacqueline
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